If you missed Monday night’s Citizen Transportation Advisory Committee workshop in West Seattle, the last of three planned around the city is tonight, at Washington Middle School (2101 South Jackson; map). The question posed here on Monday was two-fold: What are your transportation priorities, and how would you pay for them – would you support new taxes and fees, and if so, how much?
During the forum attended by about 20 people at the Southwest Library, the message delivered through boards and PowerPoint presentations – which are all linked here – was clear: Seattle’s transportation system is currently hanging by its financial fingertips, so if you want anything more than bare-bones progress, the city says, you will need to be further taxed, or tolled.
West Seattle-residing City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, who lives in West Seattle and chairs the council’s Transportation Committee, spoke briefly as the gathering began. More ahead:
But it wasn’t a council meeting – it was officially hosted by CTAC, which had three members on hand, including co-chair Kate Joncas (making it clear she’s involved as a “citizen volunteer,” though she is best known for her work with the Downtown Seattle Association): “Our committee’s been struggling – there are many more needs than we have money for.” They’re a 14-member committee, working since January, with one of their tasks to help the city determine which of those needs are a priority for the $20 license-plate fee that recently kicked in, as a result of the council voting to form a Transportation Benefit District. The Bridging the Gap levy from a few years back isn’t enough to close the gap. And they’re trying to determine whether West Seattleites might support another levy or other type of fee – for example, the Transportation Benefit District can ask citizens for up to $80 more per year, if that passes a vote of the people.
So what are all those needs?
Lots of numbers were tossed around, particularly the fact that the city has two major transportation master plans – Pedestrian and Bicycle – but has been able to spend only a tiny fraction of what the plans suggest needs to be spent.
Maintaining what the city has already makes up the bulk of CTAC’s recommendations so far – from potholes to pedestrian safety. (Their recommendations so far are on page 7 here.) SDOT director Peter Hahn noted that the city’s transportation system has $13 billion worth of assets already, much of it falling apart. (The slides accompanying his remarks are the “State of Transportation” presentation you can see here.) Yet voices from the crowd suggested additions and changes, such as more transit-only lanes.
That made Hahn smile. “I like it.”
So why doesn’t it happen? asked the attendee.
Hahn took that occasion to mention the controversies that have arisen in Luna Park (WSB coverage here) and the Triangle (WSB coverage here) over transit lanes reducing parking in business districts once West Seattle’s RapidRide bus line starts up. “We’ve had pressure, and it’s been tough to maintain the vision … hard to (work toward) ‘Bus Rapid Transit’ and not have it be ‘Bus Slow Transit’.”
At that point, someone asked about a transit lane on Columbia, approaching the Alaskan Way Viaduct downtown. Hahn said that had been considered, but there were “some operational issues.” A subsequent question about park-and-rides was answered with an acknowledgment from Councilmember Rasmussen that they are “very important to suburban communities,” but no interest in building more in the city.
From there, the participants were split into two groups for further discussion – with the request that Alaskan Way Viaduct-related (inference: tunnel) discussion be avoided “because there’s nothing we can do about it,” as the CTAC committee members put it. Joncas and Barbara Wright were with one group, Paulo Nuñes-Ueno with the other.
In the Joncas/Wright group, public safety emerged as a major issue. One person mentioned riding the bus late at night when a fight broke out, and worrying about the lack of security.
Another brought up a long-running issue – the shortage of east-west connection transit routes.
And what about bicyclist/driver conflicts? asked another, suggesting a public-information campaign to defuse the tensions. That led to the question of whether bicycle ridership is on the rise. SDOT’s Tracy Burrows said the department is now doing “regular bicycle counts on a quarterly basis.”
Ultimately, the transportation priorities that emerged in the group we monitored were led by “sustainability” – both environmentally and financially – and reliability. Also winning support, safety, productivity, and “moving people and goods quickly.”
So how to pay for transportation improvements, if it was determined there was no way to get them but to raise more money from “users”? The idea of a sales-tax increase got thumbs down. License-plate fees drew some support. One person suggested putting pressure on the federal government to stop the current wars, and “bring the money home.” Joncas replied, “That’s outside the purview of our committee.”
Her final point: That committee has a “huge decision” to make, so if you can help, make sure and share your opinion. If you can’t make it to tonight’s third and final workshop (Washington Middle School, as mentioned above with map, open house at 5:30 pm, presentation at 6 pm, small-group discussions at 6:30 pm), there’s an online survey – take it here.
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