Washington Legislature Advances Tolling For Puget Sound

March 18th, 2008
In its election year "short session" concluded last week, the Washington state legislature took several important, albeit partial steps to advance tolling, commuter rail, passenger-only ferries and innovative transportation funding partnerships with non-government entities. Let's review some key '08 transportation bills that made it through both legislative chambers, and now await the signature of Gov. Christine Gregoire. ESHB 3096 (bill as passed - bill report - legislative history) has to do with the State Route 520 floating bridge connecting Seattle across Lake Washington to fast-growing Eastside business and residential centers such as Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond. ...

Traffic's so bad, we might actually be willing to pay a toll – Crosscut

March 4th, 2008
Traffic's so bad, we might actually be willing to pay a toll Crosscut, WA - Mar 4, 2008 WSDOT was viewed favorably by 52 percent, Sound Transit by 55 percent, and the Regional Transportation Improvement District (RTID) by only 23 percent (with ...

House OKs 520 toll study

February 29th, 2008
OLYMPIA -- The Legislature moved another step closer Friday to imposing tolls for a new state Route 520 bridge, with the House approving a study group to help determine how the state would collect the tolls.

Whiff of cynicism lingers over Washington State’s call for road tolls to flight global warming

February 29th, 2008
Buried in the Seattle Times story about the road-toll initiative, however, is the most-likely explanation as to why legislators are backing it: The Washington State government needs a new source of money to compensate for falling revenues due to more fuel-efficient cars. Apparently the growth of state gas-tax revenue is slowing and, as vehicles become more fuel-efficient, officials are afraid tax collections won't keep up with their spending projections. So instead of allowing people to reap

State tolls could go on and on – TheNewsTribune.com

February 16th, 2008
State tolls could go on and on TheNewsTribune.com, WA - Feb 16, 2008
 For instance, toll money might be shifted to pay for Sound Transit buses or rail service, instead of paying for the 520 bridge, he said. ...

Narrows Bridge users might get a very modest break

February 1st, 2008
Here's a story that will be running in Saturday morning's paper: State lawmakers may exempt the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, Highway 520 bridge and other huge highway or bridge building projects from the state sales tax to hold down costs and help pay for the so-called “mega” projects. For the new Narrows Bridge, it would be mean wiping out almost $44 million in sales taxes that are still owed and otherwise would have to be paid by tolls collected from drivers who cross the bridge. For the replacement Highway 520 bridge across Lake Washington, it would cut $180 million from ...

Transportation: Can’t we all just get along?

January 22nd, 2008
An opponent of Proposition 1 opens the bidding, in hopes of finding a middle ground in the transportation wars. The peace treaty: a little more rail, no new highways, some highway fixes, unclogging arterials, tolls, and no more cute trolleys.

Is Gregoire hyping disaster to sell bridges?

January 19th, 2008
Gov. Christine Gregoire is eagerly sharing the happy news of her willingness to slap tolls on bridges and highways. She met with Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski in Clark County the other day to discuss moving ahead on a $4.2 billion new bridge over the Columbia River on I-5. The feds would pick up most of the tab, but Gregoire is set on imposing tolls. To push her agenda, she's using last summer's Minneapolis bridge collapse to make her case for urgency. Only problem is, it turns out the Minneapolis bridge disaster wasn't a case of aging infrastructure. The ...

Warning: Diversions Ahead

January 16th, 2008
The National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission has recommended a 40-cent-per-gallon increase in federal gas taxes. Supporters of the increase say it is necessary to replace aging bridges and roads. But U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and Arizona Congressman Jeff Flake dissented, saying that there is plenty of money to repair roads [...]

The Vancouver gambit for building roads and transit in Seattle

January 15th, 2008
When British Columbia announced its $14 billion plans for new transit early this week, it upped the stakes for competition among West Coast cities in the transit Olympics. It also injected itself in what will be a hot debate in Washington state, starting in this session. That's the question of using private investments to build the next generation of transit and highways. It's called P3, for private-public partnerships. You take private money (often pension funds) to cover all or part of the costs of a new project, and then pay off the private partner with tolls or fares ...
« Previous Page — Next Page »