Viaduct Project Boondoggle Just One More Nail in Gregoire's Political Coffin
As if Dino Rossi needed any more ammunition in his quest for the governorship, we now have one more bureaucratic comedy of reckless mismanagement to add to the list of causes for Governor Gregoire's unelection in November.During Gregoire's tenure, the Washington State Department of Transition has not made a decision about what will replace the viaduct, and will not do so until December of this year. And yet, the Alaskan Way Viaduct budget is more than 33% spent or committed... [read more]

Gas Prices: Arm, Leg, & Firstborn Child
Sorry for my recent lack of blogging. The usual excuse: I've been busy (gardening, job hunting, gathering my bearings, et al). I'm sure many of you have seen this clever picture or ones like it. Every time I go to fill up, I tend to glance around at the other people pumping their tanks full of liquid gold and I usually see a lot of faces that look like they could be poster children for depression commercials, and I'm sure... [read more]

HOT Lanes (Hampering Our Travel) - Your experiences
The SR167 HOT lanes opened yesterday between Renton & Auburn. It got no coverage at all in the Seattle Times / PI Sunday paper. Odd, since this is the most significant thing to have happened to WA traffic in many years. Some other local media outlets commented a bit, mostly showing drivers being cited for the devastating crime of crossing a double white line. I wonder how many of those folks naively thought that there would actually be a place... [read more]

Is Arizona's Transportation solution better than Dino's??
Interesting Proposal from The Goldwater Institute http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/AboutUs/ArticleView.aspx?id=2148 Goldwater Institute Policy Report April 30, 2008 Executive Summary Arizona has a transportation problem. The average Phoenix commuter spends some 38 hours a year stuck in traffic, and one in Tucson spends an average 42 hours. Overall, traffic congestion costs Arizonans at least $2 billion annually in lost time and wasted fuel. The state must take action on a number of fronts to ensure that transportation problems do not damage Arizona's economy and... [read more]

HOT (Hampering Our Travel) Lane Prediction
As the WA DOT prepares to open the new HOT lanes on SR167 between Renton & Auburn, I am not convinced that this project will do anything significant to improve traffic flow. Further, I believe that those who now use the HOV lane will see both their commute times and frustration levels rise. Besides the Politically Correct and currently Politically Expedient views of tolling, there are technical & traffic flow issues that will cause this follied adventure much grief. Consider... [read more]

Starting Out
Thank you for the ease of entry into your blog. For the record, I am thinking of running against Darcy Burner and Dave Reichert. A lifelong Democrat now living in Sammamish, I have contributed to both the McCain and Clinton campaigns this year. I am a lawyer admitted to practice law and licensed in and before Illinois and Washington State, the US Supreme Court, and many US Courts of Appeals. An American Bar Foundation Fellow, I have been ranked in... [read more]

YOUR TAX $$ AT WORK: Expensive, yet oh-so ugly...
Can anyone tell me what those orange/pinkish "things" are? Birds, planes, ...oh, they're kissing herons?? Apparently so: That's the vision of Mike Ross, the public-art sculptor for Sound Transit's future underground station at Capitol Hill. His steel birds, one facing north and one facing south, would appear to kiss each other. They would lurk among huge crossbeams, over the train platforms. "Because I started with such aggressive symbols, I arranged them in a nonaggressive way," he said Thursday. A New... [read more]

TAKE THE SOUND TRANSIT SURVEY
Sound Transit has a feedback survey that you can take from now until Mar. 9, 2008. I urge you to go take the survey, and answer politely but candidly. Help the Sound Transit folks realize that their own listed goals are unattainable. Here's the list: Frequency: Fast, convenient, timely with more daily trips and expanded bus service. Reliable Service: Environmental Benefits: A system that protects air and water quality while at the same time offering real transportation options. Affordability: People... [read more]

Washington Property Rights: Sucks to be you
More proof that what's you thought was yours really isn't yours after all: Sound Transit will pay $500,000 to acquire property for a rail station, a jury decides. That's more than the agency originally offered but less than the owners demanded. A Pierce County jury told a Tacoma couple Thursday that their property, which was seized by Sound Transit for a commuter rail station, was worth $500,000. That was far less than Ken and Barbara Miller have been seeking but... [read more]

Gregoire Authorizes 100 Million $$$'s for State Ferry Monopoly
Gregoire signed a bill today giving the state ferry monopoly 3 more vehicle ferries. That the Democratic governor would sign away so much of our money to a state monopoly is not surprising, just disappointing. What is surprising is that when one looks at the roll call for the bill in the senate and house, the bill was approved by a majority of Republicans!!! Why are Republicans afraid to say no? We are not talking about a small amount of... [read more]

No surface street Petition
ATTENTION ALL WASHINGTON STATE TRUCKERS, AND TRAVELERS. The State Of Washington has formed an advisory committee to determine the fate of the viaduct thru the City of Seattle. This advisory committee does not have near enough representation from the Trucking Industry, or citizens outside of King County. The decisions that this advisory committee will make does not affect just the people of Seattle and King County. This is an I-5 Corridor issue. If a surface street option is adopted, and... [read more]

Minor League Boats for a Major League Route
We desperately need new ferry boats for the PT-Keystone route. However, we need the right boat. I fear that in the rush to do *something*, the wrong boat for the job will be ordered. We appear to be ready to put a minor-league boat on a major-league route. Pierce County will soon be loaning WSF a boat. The Steilacoom-II class ferry is well suited for the Steilacoom-Anderson Island route. This boat may be immediately available as a substitute and provide... [read more]

Have you looked at your car tab bill lately
I am floored at what the state is doing with our car tabs. Here is the rundown for our 2000 Honda Civic $300 Filing fee 18.00 RTA Tax $30.00 Tab fee $10.00 weight based fee (right on a Honda Civic) $0.75 License service fee (supports the computer system) $20.00 replacement plate fee (If you want to keep your same plate number) $4.00 Plate Reflectorization fee: Funds road, street and highway maintenance and improvements Boy they sure figured ways around the... [read more]

Election reflections with some surprises and a small rant
I offer up front that because of the mail in vote delays, many of these races are not actually certified, so there is a possibility that some results may shift. I am not betting on it, but it is possible. I posted my thoughts on Elections in general yesterday, and I still remain somewhat disgruntled.  I was reminded that moving to an adjacent county would offer me my ballot again, and I admit it is tempting, but I do like... [read more]

Debunking [Light Rail] Portland: The City That Doesn't Work - A CATO Report
An excellent retort to the Light Rail argument--by none other than the CATO Institute. Immense thanks and gratitude to the CATO Institute for producing this fact-based report. I will be thanking you with my hard-earned dollars as a contribution to your fine organization. - cryptometaphor Randal O'Toole is a senior fellow with the Cato Institute and the author of the forthcoming book, The Best-Laid Plans: How Government Planning Harms Your Quality of Life, Your Pocketbook, and Your Future. Now a... [read more]

Ron Sims' New Tax Vision
Want to know what Ron "Tax-to-the-Max" Sims has in store for you? Read in amazement how he plans to put new tolls on all Seattle area highways and freeways. (I wish this were merely a bad joke..) http://www.thereaganwing.com/ -Jefferson Paine... [read more]

What are they thinking???
According to the latest numbers, the silly, non-binding "advisory" ballot on replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct has the tunnel measure with a 70% no vote and the rebuild measure with a more modest 55% no vote. Gov. Christine Gregoire, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and King County Executive Ron Sims held a joint new conference today at which the Governor announced the state will begin $915 million of work this summer to shore up the existing Alaskan Way Viaduct -... [read more]

Tunnel Options anybody?
Several weeks ago I attended the Women of Washington meeting in downtown Seattle where Bellevue Square owner Kemper Freeman spoke about regional transportation. Mr. Freeman spent a million of his own dollars to commission a transportation study. The audience was largely from Seattle so the Alaskan Way Viaduct project quickly became a subject of discussion. I don't remember the exact number but Mr. Freeman's study estimated that about half of the people who use the viaduct would use Interstate 5... [read more]

Orwell's Dark Vision Looms
Orwell's Dark Vision Looms There's only one thing more disturbing than the roughly one-half of the American population afflicted by Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS) - the other half which seems robotically blinded by the propaganda of Neo-conservatism (which isn't Conservatism at all). Can anyone explain how our Public Square and our nation's airports having been transformed into gleaming new monuments to coercion, kindly administered by the government's new Ministry of Safety (TSA), is not completely Orwellian? Let's get this straight... [read more]

The War Against Cars
Mayor Nickels is at it again, this time proposing to eliminate the minimum parking space requirements for development around Seattle. So let's run down the potential impacts of this new rule: 1. Developers build condos with few or no parking spaces, and jack up the prices for those units that have a parking space. Developers save $20,000 - $30,000 for each parking spot they do not build, but charge only slightly less for the unit, pocketing the difference in profit.... [read more]

Visions in Munchkinland
Some newfangled food for thought on the eve of the newest NW $Billion Boondoggle - My first choice would be the bay bridge option hands down (Greg "Wooden" Nickels Memorial Bay Bridge), but how about this innovative idea for an Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement: Construct an exquisite third deck atop the new viaduct which would serve as an elevated sky-park. Imagine an unobstructed, futuristic promenade for pedestrians and bicyclists alike which sweeps across and above the entire waterfront, undergirding the... [read more]

City Council Set to Approve Plan for 520 with no funding source
The Seattle City cabal is set to approve the euphemistic "Pacific Interchange" option for the 520 replacement mega-project, one that even Nickels says has no secure funding source. Nevermind that he's taking about $2 billion of that funding source for his gold plated tunnel. Perusing the plan for this option, it calls for two general purpose lanes in each direction and one HOV lane in each direction. So don't look for any congestion relief with this project either. But we're... [read more]

State will not cover extra cost of tunnel
According to the Seattle Times article, Gregoire has decided the state will not cover the extra cost of the tunnel. She has ruled out raising the gas tax for the extra cost, but has not ruled out the tunnel option. So it will be up to the Seattle City Council and Nickels to raise the $2 billion++ for the extra cost of the tunnel. As I posted previously on this thread, it was because she really had no choice, not... [read more]

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Trash
While taking a stroll through the Arboretum this morning I came across some folks digging in the dirt. Curious, I approached them and asked if they were conducting an archeological dig? They were and I followed up asking if they'd found anything of interest. Nope, but the area they were digging at used to be a landfill during the early part of the last century. I figured they must be from the UW just honing their archeological skills by searching... [read more]