Cutting congestion: Show me the money

Published 9:00 pm Monday, July 9, 2001

The Puget Sound light rail proposal is much like the Vietnam War. It started out with the best of intentions but things have now gone terribly awry. No one yet has the political courage and ability to put this proposal out of its misery.

Using as data input the number of years of delay to completion and the estimated cost overruns, regression analysis (where you fit a line to the historical data points) shows that if the project were completed by 2014, the cost will be at least $5.8 billion.

How large is $5.8 billion? If roundtrip bus fares in 2014 were $12, that would be about 250,000 workday commutes. And this is just for the capital cost – it does not include the daily operation costs. A paltry billion dollars ago in cost overruns, the cost per vehicle taken off I-5 was almost $300,000. By $5.8 billion in capital cost, that figure will have increased to well over $700,000.

So I have a deal for the government: I am a frequent I-5 traveler. If Sound Transit will pay me $300,000 right now, I and my family will never – ever – take any of our vehicles on I-5. In fact, I will not even intentionally look at the road.

To ensure compliance they even can fit me with an ankle bracelet often used for house detention.

Before Puget Sound Transit rejects this proposal out of hand consider the following if this proposal were implemented for all target commuters: It would fix the cost of removing a commuter vehicles from I-5 – no further cost overruns. It would save numerous neighborhoods from destruction by reason of at grade crossings and presence of smelly, oily track. It would eliminate all the congestion that would occur because of construction of the rail system. It would keep the funds in state (no spending bezillions of dollars on out of state manufacturing, engineering, etc.) and thereby boost the local economy. And the results would be immediate upon payment – no waiting until 2014.

Attorney at Law

Edmonds