It's getting near the end of the year, and I was doing so well ignoring this thread, but . . .

I'm a fan of the philosophy that the price of criticism should be the offering of a constructive alternative. I'm not going to try to fundamentally change our state government; that would be equivalent to changing human nature. We get what we get because that's the nature of pluralism. Some of you want a hatchery funded. Some bleeding heart liberal wants more money spent on welfare of prison drug counseling. I'm not judging the rightness or wrongness of either action. The fact is that enough citizens want each of those actions so that the legislature throws money in both directions.

I thought I'd join this fray to propose an alternative to the failed Reforendum 51, the one that would have begun several transportation projects but not finished any of them (sounds like it was written by a committee, doesn't it?). If transportation is important to the state, then R51 was less than a half-assed attempt at doing anything real. So here goes:

Any transportation solution that works will cost some serious money. A user fee is probably more fair than other funding mechanisms. Gas is cheap in this state. It must be, look how well SUVs and other gas-guzzlers sell. Instead of raising the gas tax $0.09 like R51, I'd propose raising it $0.50. Now that would raise some serious dough.

Like many folks, I've spent too many hours of my life stuck in the I-5 gridlock, slowly moving parking lot, inhaling a little too much CO and other brain damaging fumes. Many of us think that the transportation solution (Eyeman included) has to look like more of the same. More roads for each of us to drive our single occupant vehicle that is capable of hauling 5 to 7 in comfort and taking up lots of space.

I learned about flawed transportation solutions from no less an authority than Click and Clack from Car Talk. It was they who said "Pave America first." Pave it all, then you can drive any where any time. Of course there'd be nowhere you'd want to go, cuz whatever it was, it would have been torn down and paved over to achieve the drive anywhere anytime goal. It was then that I got it through my carbon monoxide afflicted brain that we cannot pave our way out of traffic gridlock in Washington state with a population of nearly 6 million people and about that many cars. There ain't enough space to build enough roads to the places that most people want to go. So an effective solution lies in an alternative to more roads.

So here's my pitch for the legislature. I already proposed a funding mechanism. I've noticed that the Max in Portland and the Metro in the Washington D.C. area move a lot more people per unit area than I-5 does, and they keep on moving when I-5 grinds to a halt. I think maybe taking the center lanes of I-5 out of auto traffic and converting to rail lines would be a better and more efficient use of space already allocated to transportation. Imagine Metro-style trains zipping north and south along the I-5 corridor from Olympia to Everett, with transfer stations at numerous major intersections where a commuter can catch an east or west bound bus to his or her destination.

A common criticism is that people are unwilling to give up their cars for alternative transportation. That is true - as long as driving a car remains a viable alternative. But increasing gridlock is the cure to gridlock, as it becomes an incentive to get out of the car and take an alternative. I'll probably drive as long as it is the move convenient alternative for me. But when it takes me longer to drive to Seattle than to take a Metro-style train, hell, I'll switch. And I think that is what will make the majority switch. People don't take the Metro in DC because they think it's the coolest alternative; they take it because the driving is the pits, and takes longer. Those who are still driving do so because it remains faster or more convenient than other alternatives. Same thing will happen here. Sooner or later. Well, it's already later.

There you have it folks. Salmo g. branches out from fish solutions to transportation solutions. Maybe I'll take on world peace in the new year. Speaking of, Happy New Year everyone!

Sincerely,

Salmo g.