Those of us who’ve been around a bit can recall what the Snohomish County communities along the I-5 corridor looked like 15 to 35 years ago and how they’ve changed and grown since then. Our county population has grown from 337,000 in 1980 to 606,000 by 2000, and is around 750,000 today.

Beyond population, consider the changes and growth in business and industry in our county. Snohomish County hosts the state’s largest manufacturing base with 65,000 jobs at 745 companies. Boeing and other aerospace firms account for 47,000 of those jobs, but we’re still second in the state in the number of technology jobs outside of aerospace. Then think about the explosion in retail businesses in the county during that time, new construction of schools, colleges and health care facilities.

Now look ahead 20 years; imagine that same I-5 corridor and ask yourself how we will get from home to work, to school, to shopping and the rest of our daily lives. If you’re sitting in traffic now, what is it going to look like in 20 years when Snohomish County’s population is estimated to reach above 950,000?

Peak travel times on I-5 between Everett and Seattle have increased from 62 minutes in 2011 to 80 minutes today. And we’ve reached a point where adding many more lanes to our highways and interstates is either financially infeasible or physically impossible.

“It is one of the things we need to remind folks that it’s important to think about, not only what it looks like today but what it will look like 20, 40, 50 years out,” said Paul Roberts, a member of the Everett City Council and the Sound Transit board.

Which is why it’s time to consider extending Sound Transit’s Link light rail to Everett.

Roberts and others are hoping for a good turnout at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Everett Station for a public forum on ST3, the proposal to extend Sound Transit’s Link light rail system north to Everett. Sound Transit needs to hear the comments of the system’s potential users, specifically where it will generally be routed. Connecting from the Lynnwood line now being planned and set for completion in 2023, the line to Everett could take one of three general routes to Everett Station:

• Along I-5 and Highway 99/Evergreen Way;
• A similar route with a jog past Paine Field; or
• Primarily along I-5.

Another option would extend the line past Everett Station north to the campus shared by Everett Community College and Washington State University’s North Puget Sound center.

There will be much to discuss as Sound Transit moves toward a possible vote in November 2016 that would authorize the project and approve the tax increases that would pay for it. Sound Transit’s full $15 billion ST3 project is expected to also extend the line south to Tacoma and to east King County.

Extending light rail to Everett will require a major public investment and patience, as it will take about 20 years to complete, but it represents a transportation solution that can move up to 12,000 people an hour, compared to 700 cars an hour per highway lane and can dramatically reduce pollution. More than moving commuters, light rail also can help improve the flow of traffic so businesses and industry can move the freight our economy depends upon.

Puget Sound region residents twice failed to approve a rail transportation system in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. If we knew then what we know now many of us might not be sitting in traffic for hours each day. Hindsight is 20/20, but what we need to use now is a little foresight.