Transportation may be the largest single issue that we have struggled with in this region. It affects how we grow, the cost of doing business, where businesses and jobs locate and our quality of life.
With more than 1 million new people moving to the Puget Sound in the next 20 years, we have to deal with a myriad of environmental impacts related to transportation, including air quality, preserving farmland, runoff into Puget Sound and global warming.
The vote in November represents one of those rare times when roads advocates and transit advocates have come together to agree on comprehensive improvements to our transportation system.
The cornerstone of the transit investment is in light rail. This package dedicates funding to build 50 miles of light rail connecting Lynnwood, Shoreline, Northgate, Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, SeaTac Airport, Kent, Federal Way, Fife and Tacoma. One outcome that is often overlooked when debating light rail is that it will encourage development in urban centers, protecting vital farmland in the Puyallup and Orting valleys from becoming subdivisions and strip malls.
Currently, Tacoma Link light rail is far outpacing ridership projections, is encouraging development and has helped revitalize Tacoma’s downtown. The Roads & Transit plan will maximize those current investments by providing downtown Tacoma with reliable access to Sea-Tac Airport and beyond. This will stoke new economic development and make Tacoma and Pierce County a more attractive place for businesses to locate.
We all know that if we don’t build a light rail system that allows folks to leave their cars at home, our efforts to reduce global warming emissions will be doomed to failure. We know light rail can fulfill this promise because of the experience of other cities, like Cleveland, Dallas and Little Rock, Ark., that have thriving light rail systems and a lower density rate than cities in our region like Tacoma and Bellevue.
By supporting the Roads & Transit ballot measure, we’ll not only be able to build 50 miles of light rail, but we will also add new express bus service, complete HOV lanes and construct Park & Ride facilities in Puyallup and Sumner at Sounder Stations – to make it easier for current and future residents to get out of their cars.
Roads & Transit builds 30 miles of HOV lanes throughout the region. HOV lanes will improve the reliability of bus service and make vanpooling and carpooling more attractive. More buses will help our transit system keep pace with our growing population.
Heading north from Puyallup, the HOV system will be completed on Highway 167, including a seamless HOV interchange from 167 to Interstate 405, and, with improvements on I-405 there will be a complete HOV system on the east side of Lake Washington from Pierce County to Snohomish County.
Proposition 1 also distributes more than $150 million to buy more buses and create more van pools to make it easier to get around during construction.
We know that we cannot pave our way out of this transportation mess. It will take a mix of transportation choices and strategic road investments, the kind of mix represented in this measure.
That’s why environmental organizations like Tahoma Audubon, Cascade Land Conservancy, Washington Conservation Voters, the Bicycle Alliance of Washington and many others have endorsed Proposition 1, the Roads & Transit plan.
In Washington, we have the cleanest car standards in the world, incentives to grow and produce biofuels and a mandate to increase our clean energy production. We must construct a regional transit system to complement those efforts, build freight corridors to get trucks moving (like the completion of Highway 167 from Puyallup to the Port of Tacoma) and help reduce our impact on global warming.
We didn’t get into this mess overnight, and we won’t solve it overnight. But we have to start now and prepare for a sustainable future. It’s also time for us to stop debating and start building. It’s time for us to support light rail to Tacoma. We urge you to vote yes on Roads & Transit.
Jessyn Farrell is executive director of the Transportation Choices Coalition and a resident of Tacoma. Bill LaBorde is executive director of Environment Washington and former board president of Tahoma Audubon.
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