The tax package to fund transit and roads in the greater Seattle area, known as Prop. 1, is a compromise: there are details for everyone to hate. I may be holding my nose, but I’m voting yes.
Consider what the measure does: it raises $10.8 billion to add light rail, HOV lanes, streetcars, park-and-rides and other transit infrastructure. It also generates $7 billion to fix some road choke points and complete several missing links in the region’s network, for example connecting 509 and 167 to I-5. It’s far from the sole solution, but it’s a start.
For more info, take a look at this map.
What would be better? Funding much more transit, completing the projects much faster and explicitly including congestion pricing in the financing mix. In fact, the most persuasive argument against the measure is that any investment in roads lessens incentives for transit and worsens global warming.
But politics is reality. There’s a huge backlog of infrastructure projects in the region and chipping away at it takes regional buy-in — a process that in this case took five years. The dense areas of the region can’t afford to pay for all the transit this area needs (remember the monorail?). To build support, there needs to be something for people who help pay but wouldn’t directly benefit. Even with this package, congestion will still create a growing incentive to use transit; as alternatives start becoming available policies can be shifted to encourage even more use.
Assuming the measure passes, the next step should be reorganizing the governments that oversee the region’s transportation to execute more efficiently. There will still be chances during the planning process to modifiy specific projects. These are all big challenges, not deal breakers.
Comments
9 responses to “Why I’m voting for Transit and Roads”
Should issues this complex really be going to public vote? Even though it involves the spending of public monies shouldn’t these decisions really be made by the experts. We fund our state schools to train individuals in urban design (among other applicable fields), we fund our local governments to hire consultants (experts) to analyze the situations and propose solutions. And yet when it comes to the implementation we bypass all of that and let Joe Blow decide how he would solve the problem. Like you mention “there are details for everyone to hate”, and this typically results in gridlock on the roads and in the decision making process.
Should issues this complex really be going to public vote? Even though it involves the spending of public monies shouldn’t these decisions really be made by the experts. We fund our state schools to train individuals in urban design (among other applicable fields), we fund our local governments to hire consultants (experts) to analyze the situations and propose solutions. And yet when it comes to the implementation we bypass all of that and let Joe Blow decide how he would solve the problem. Like you mention “there are details for everyone to hate”, and this typically results in gridlock on the roads and in the decision making process.
Should issues this complex really be going to public vote? Even though it involves the spending of public monies shouldn’t these decisions really be made by the experts. We fund our state schools to train individuals in urban design (among other applicable fields), we fund our local governments to hire consultants (experts) to analyze the situations and propose solutions. And yet when it comes to the implementation we bypass all of that and let Joe Blow decide how he would solve the problem. Like you mention “there are details for everyone to hate”, and this typically results in gridlock on the roads and in the decision making process.
Democracy is the worst form of government in the world, but it is the best we got.
I am an urban planner by trade and while I do agree with Andrew in that I have the expertise over joe blow, I have to disagree that I should have the authority to overturn the populous’ decision. My services are available to the public if they want them. If, however, they do not, then that is their choice; they have chossen to deal with the consequences of their decision. In the words of Paul Davidoff, I will always advocate for smart growth and the needs of the public. I do not feel comfortable, however, being an oligarchic, authoritarian, rational planner.
Big decisions should be made by the public. Tis the whims of the 21st century and the Information Age.
Democracy is the worst form of government in the world, but it is the best we got.
I am an urban planner by trade and while I do agree with Andrew in that I have the expertise over joe blow, I have to disagree that I should have the authority to overturn the populous’ decision. My services are available to the public if they want them. If, however, they do not, then that is their choice; they have chossen to deal with the consequences of their decision. In the words of Paul Davidoff, I will always advocate for smart growth and the needs of the public. I do not feel comfortable, however, being an oligarchic, authoritarian, rational planner.
Big decisions should be made by the public. Tis the whims of the 21st century and the Information Age.
Democracy is the worst form of government in the world, but it is the best we got.
I am an urban planner by trade and while I do agree with Andrew in that I have the expertise over joe blow, I have to disagree that I should have the authority to overturn the populous’ decision. My services are available to the public if they want them. If, however, they do not, then that is their choice; they have chossen to deal with the consequences of their decision. In the words of Paul Davidoff, I will always advocate for smart growth and the needs of the public. I do not feel comfortable, however, being an oligarchic, authoritarian, rational planner.
Big decisions should be made by the public. Tis the whims of the 21st century and the Information Age.
I don’t know anyone who didn’t vote for it, so i’m stumped as to why it was defeated by such a big margin.
I don’t know anyone who didn’t vote for it, so i’m stumped as to why it was defeated by such a big margin.
I don’t know anyone who didn’t vote for it, so i’m stumped as to why it was defeated by such a big margin.