Puget Sound Residents Deserve Better

My candidacy for governor is not about winning but to use it as a platform to tell the entire state residents deserve better.  The Puget Sound area has already paid and will continue to pay a heavy price for Sound Transit and WSDOT failure to deal with area’s roadway congestion.

Voters should have never approved Sound Transit Prop 1 light rail extensions beyond UW, across I-90, or beyond SeaTac.  Light rail routed through the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT) doesn’t have the capacity to justify the cost of construction and operation of their light rail spine.

The legislature should have never enabled Sound Transit to ask voters for any ST3 funds, let alone the $64 billion in taxes they anticipate getting as a result by 2041.  Sound Transit CEO Rogoff’s 2019 Budget Plan for 2017-2041 should have been a “wake-up” call for anyone who believed Sound Transit’s ST3 funded light rail extensions will reduce I-90 or I-5 congestion.  

While Rogoff may be able to construct a “light rail spine”, his ridership claims in the 2019 budget for the $96-billion expansions were delusional.  He demonstrated even more incompetence with a 2020 "budget" that failed to include any details as to how the money will be spent operating the transit modes for the year.  The Sound Transit Board response was to renew his contract for three years with a hefty raise.

His decision to use light rail to replace bus routes with light rail exacerbates the capacity problem.  It reflects his failure to recognize I-5 and I-90 congestion is not due to too many buses.  Ending current routes will reduce transit capacity into Seattle and increase roadway congestion.  Any riders added by the extensions will also reduce access for current Central Link riders. 

East side commuters have paid and will continue to pay an especially heavy price.  Sound Transit should have never been allowed to confiscate the I-90 Bridge center roadway for East Link.  That doing so precluded two-way BRT, with 10 times light rail capacity, 10 years sooner, at I/10^th the cost.

Mercer Island residents deserve better from a city council that could have stopped East Link by disallowing permits Sound Transit needed.  They compounded that problem by failing to take legal action to prevent Sound Transit from using the island as a terminus for I-90 corridor buses.  Even worse their agreement with Sound Transit will halve I-90 corridor transit routes, increasing congestion along the entire corridor.

The Bellevue city council made a similar blunder by also approving East Link permits.  The result has been the end of Bellevue’s persona as the “city in the park”.  They allowed Sound Transit to make a mockery of environmental laws, ending the quiet solitude of the Mercer Slough Park and devastating a beautiful tree-lined boulevard into downtown Bellevue. 

The council also allowed Sound Transit to scar Bellevue skyline with their version of a viaduct with 4-car trains trundling through BelRed on elevated tracks for 18 hours a day.  They allowed Sound Transit to create a huge maintenance facility in the Spring District resulting in noisy light rail trains doing so during the early morning hours of the day.

All of this could have been prevented.  Again, Mercer Island and Bellevue could have disallowed East Link permits.  Their would have been no East Link if the WSDOT hadn't "misled" a federal judge in the Freeman litigation claiming the center roadway wasn’t needed for vehicles. The ignored a   2004 FHA ROD refuting that claim.  A.G. Ferguson allowed Sound Transit to violate the environmental laws and ignore RCW 81.104 requirements they consider lower cost bus transit options. 

Residents deserve better from a Seattle Times that  played a major role in abetting Sound Transit incompetence.  The Times never included auditing Sound Transit in their list of top 10 priorities for legislators.  Even a cursory review would have exposed the problems. Instead they advocated for tolls to reduce congestion, refusing to recognize that, without an alternative route, tolls only raise the cost.

In the end, East Link operation in 2023 will demonstrate it increases I-90 corridor congestion and reduces transit capacity into Seattle from SeaTac.  That large numbers of commuters will be “dissuaded” from using transit because of the hassle of transferring to and from light rail on Mercer Island and accessing light rail at one of the two stations in the DSTT. 

The lack of increased capacity and ridership with the longer routes will necessitate the entire area pay a huge subsidy to cover the operating cost-fare/box revenue shortfall. In short, East Link will quickly be regarded as the biggest boondoggle in transportation history.

East side commuters also deserve better than a  WSDOT that neglected to limit HOT to one lane on I-405.  The 2 HOT lanes have increased congestion on the remaining GP lanes to where more drivers are willing to pay the fees than the two HOV lanes can accommodate to meet 45 mph target. Again, 2 HOT lanes on I-40 increased GP lane congestion and failed to meet 45 mph for those willing to pay the fees.  Future growth will exacerbate both problems.

The WSDOT could have raised the fee on one HOV lane to limit traffic to the 2000 vph required to assure 45 mph for the entire commute.  (The assured velocity would make far more I-405 BRT routes attractive than Sound Transit plans for 6 routes an hour.) The added GP lane would have reduced congestion for those unwilling or unable to pay.  One can only hope the delay in adding lane between Bellevue and Renton reflects that recognition.

The bottom line is my gubernatorial candidacy provides a platform to detail why Puget Sound Residents deserve better.  They deserved a Seattle a Seattle Times that would have exposed the failure of Prop 1 and ST3 to address area's congestion.  They deserve a Sound Transit CEO who recognizes light rail limitations in our area.  That the only way to reduce congestion on I-5 and I-90 is to dramatically increase bus transit ridership with added parking and bus routes into Seattle and Bellevue.

East side residents deserve better than what they've gotten from their city councils and what they'll get from ST3.  They certainly deserve more than what they'll get from WSDOT plans for 2 HOT lanes on I-405.  Seattle residents deserve to have their ST3 funds spent on light rail extensions to Ballard and West Seattle, not a light rail spine that reduces their access.  

Again I look forward to making my case this fall on this and why the entire state deserves better. 


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