I’m afraid Jerry Cornfield’s article on I-405 tolling missed the real story. Sure, “it will mean quicker commutes for drivers willing to pay the price.” But for the vast majority of those who have already paid the price by providing their tax dollars to build those roads, it will mean far slower and even more painfully frustrating commutes.
The simple fact is that, if we can’t dig even deeper into our overtaxed wallets to finance future road construction by paying these new tolls, we don’t get to use what we already paid for. Even worse, those who used to commute with two in their car will be crammed into unexpanded lanes with all the driver-only commuters, which mathematically guarantees that more cars will use the same number of slow lanes. Only the rare three-person commuters, bus riders and wealthy commuters will enjoy the benefits of the taxes they paid to expand I-405.
This project demonstrates the ultimate in bureaucratic arrogance as DOT officials pretended to listen to citizens while simultaneously telling them they just needed to suck it up and deal with their plan to keep taxpayers from using the new lanes unless they promised to pay for the DOT’s future projects. And Snohomish County’s spineless elected politicians jumped right into bed with these bureaucrats to punish us.
It’s high time that we provide a reason for those who supported these decisions to punish ordinary taxpayers to look for other work.
Kent Hendricks
Bothell
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
