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Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Transit and Roads Sitting in a Tree…

posted by on April 3 at 11:37 AM

This Godawful bill, linking light rail expansion to roads expansion under one ballot title, passed out of the House in late Februrary and is on the move in the Senate. The bill made it out of the transportation committee and into Rules yesterday.

I’m told Gov. Gregoire is going to endorse the idea today at noon. I wonder if this is part of her environmental Strategic Framework for Acti…blah blah which she unveiled on Feb. 7.

RSS icon Comments

1

The whole point of this bill is that it will go up to the Supreme Court before the election. The Court already has provided some (unofficial) assurances it will sever the two measures. We will get to vote on transit only, and we won't need to toss any more bones to Kemper Freeman and the asphalt lobby.

Posted by relax, josh | April 3, 2007 12:27 PM
2

About time.

Posted by Will in Seattle | April 3, 2007 1:20 PM
3

The bill is going to pass. The Supremes are not going to decide anything before the election. And as a result, the ballot measure will probably pass (according to all research.)

As a result, light rail will get beyond Northgate and all the way to Tacoma and over the Lake to Bellevue and maybe Redmond within the lifetime of anybody who is 60 plus. And the Viaduct and the 520 bridge will be funded, along with the next steps toward tolling that will reduce GHGs, constrain sprawl, build better cities and provide more choices to more people.

The alternative is simply an extended 20 year fight that will soak everyone who has a side as they fund the special interest groups that supports their side and a huge tax take on all the rest of us when 20 years later we get the same thing proposed that we're going to vote on, and pass, this fall.

The world will turn.

Posted by idiot | April 3, 2007 7:30 PM
4

We should let hipsters on cap hill who defend smokey old shitty bars from being replaced with new housing and loved that concrete in the sky monorail thing a ma jigger design our regional transportation system.

These transportation planners and elected officials and voters who answer polls don't know a damn thing.

Posted by william | April 3, 2007 8:47 PM
5

In 2004 Ed Murray the "friend of transit"

Ed Murray, D-Seattle, chairman of the state House Transportation Committee, is unhappy the group is pushing funding for light rail and Interstate 405 ahead of what he sees as the two highest-priority projects of the region: the viaduct and the Evergreen Point Bridge.

Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Ed Murray criticizes transit plan
State lawmaker questions regional board's priorities

By JANE HADLEY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Regional transportation leaders who achieved something of a consensus last week after more than a year of stalemate are headed in the wrong direction and need to better fund two crucial projects -- the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the Evergreen Point Bridge, a powerful state lawmaker says.

The entire seven-member executive committee of the Regional Transportation Investment District signed a letter last week proposing a joint road-light rail ballot with Sound Transit for November.

But Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, chairman of the state House Transportation Committee, is unhappy the group is pushing funding for light rail and Interstate 405 ahead of what he sees as the two highest-priority projects of the region: the viaduct and the Evergreen Point Bridge.

The investment district leadership has carved the region into subregions and is focusing on the favored projects of the subregions instead of looking at the two highest priorities of the Puget Sound as a whole, Murray said.

"I think an (investment district) that puts $2 billion into 405 and a billion into light rail will hurt the viaduct," Murray said. "I think it will hurt the (ballot measure's) ability to pass and it will also hurt our ability to pass the state's (share of) money at the legislative level to help the viaduct."

Posted by road warrior | April 3, 2007 9:18 PM

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