How to end the Marysville traffic nightmare (or give up trying)
Published 2:07 pm Thursday, February 19, 2015
If you live in Marysville, you’ve probably done the math: “If I spend 30 minutes a day getting in and out of town, I’m spending … oh my god, I’m wasting too much of my life behind this minivan.”
It turns out that it’s a bad idea to keep adding people who need to get through the same tiny chokepoints at the same time, while trains regularly block the roads.
In a non-scientific poll, we asked for the best way to fix it. We gave you four options, and each appeals to a certain personality type.
Almost half — 49 percent — said a new interchange at I-5 and Highway 529 will fix it. We’ll call these people the optimists. The interchange is part of the massive transportation package under debate in the Legislature, so they might get their wish. It would help, but the law of traffic is that cars always multiply to fill new roads.
The second group — 20 percent — chose to surrender because it can’t be fixed. These are the pessimists, or maybe they’re realists. It depends on your point of view. There’s a kind of zen that comes with giving in to gridlock.
Next are the 17 percent who said to prevent new homes from being built. These are the conservatives. Not in the political sense, but in the “please let’s not make things any worse” sense.
And lastly, checking in at 13 percent are those who would force the trains to take a different route. These are the dreamers. Does BNSF ever get out of anyone’s way? Nobody messes with the trains.
Maybe light rail is the answer. What’s a word for people even more hopeless than dreamers?
— Doug Parry, Herald Web editor: dparry@heraldnet.com
Now that that’s settled, let’s fix the state’s broken presidential primary:
