Editorials

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   HAVE YOUR SAY Feel strongly about something? Share it with the community by writing a letter to the editor. You’ll need to include your name, address and daytime phone number. (We’ll only publish your name and hometown.) We reserve the right to edit letters, but if you keep yours to 300 words or less, we won’t ask you to shorten it. If your letter is published, please wait 30 days before submitting another. Send it to: E-mail: letters@heraldnet.com Mail: Letters section The Herald P.O. Box 930 Everett, WA 98206 Fax: 425-339-3458 Have a question about letters? Contact Carol MacPherson (cmacpherson@heraldnet.com or 425-339-3472).   Published: Sunday, July 6, 2008 Sound Transit must meet immediate needs Just as gas prices are sparking what appears to be a transformational change in our region's use of transit, Sound Transit may soon decide to ask voters for billions of tax dollars this fall for a plan that's long on future rail and woefully short on the immediate solutions the region needs. The Sound Transit board is expected to decide this month whether to bring another project proposal to the ballot in November or to wait, perhaps until 2010. Given the plans currently being considered -- essentially scaled-down versions of the plan voters rejected as part of a regional roads and transit measure last year -- the board should slam on the brakes, take recent ridership growth into account and come up with a plan that addresses today's urgent needs while still planning for the future. Plans being discussed would add 4 or 5 cents to the sales tax on a $10 purchase, the bulk of which would go to extending light rail north, south and east of Seattle over a timeline of 12-22 years. About a billion dollars would go toward expanding regional bus service, but even that wouldn't make much of a difference in Snohomish County for at least eight years. Commuters and employers need much more, much sooner. As gas prices have skyrocketed over the past year, the region's various transit agencies have gained about 37,000 daily boardings, an increase of more than 7 percent. As prices continue to climb, or even just stay where they are, more budget-strapped commuters are sure to see transit as a necessary alternative. Telling them that solutions are a decade or more away is like a doctor telling a patient who's having a heart attack to go home, start eating better and exercising more. In an excellent series of articles for crosscut.com, former state Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald notes that projected ridership growth from light rail is a drop in the bucket compared with what could be gained from a much smaller and smarter investment in bus rapid transit. He also writes that Sound Transit's cost estimates for light rail to the east side of Lake Washington are highly questionable, and that an environmental impact statement on the route hasn't even been completed. This plan isn't ready. Everett City Councilman Paul Roberts, a Sound Transit board member, argues for a plan that can make a serious difference "in 24 months, not 24 years," and a system that connects the region's major job centers, including Paine Field. Bus rapid transit, which provides frequent express service (at least every 10 minutes during peak times), will begin next year along Highway 99 between Everett and Shoreline, thanks to Community Transit and Everett Transit. Sound Transit should adopt BRT as an efficient solution, and work to secure the dedicated lanes it requires. The backbone of Sound Transit's long-range plan was developed nearly 20 years ago. Gas prices and other factors have shifted the landscape. The Sound Transit board should take a step back, take these changes into account and develop a plan that focuses first on providing solutions that aren't a decade or more away.

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