Snohomish County has big choices to make. With $4 per gallon gas becoming the norm, an increasing number of our neighbors are faced with the impossible choice of filling up their gas tank or putting food on the table. At the same time, our transit system is out of money and slashing bus service as demand continues to grow. Just when people want more transportation choices to avoid the pain at the pump, we are giving them fewer.
We need to get our community back to work. It is crucial that we retain and attract living wage jobs in Snohomish County and provide housing that the average person can afford.
Transportation policy is at the intersection of our economy, environment and social equity — that is why we have signed on to Transportation for Washington’s call for reforming our state’s transportation policy.
We, along with a growing number of Snohomish County public officials, businesses, labor unions and environmental groups, are endorsing the principles of the Transportation for Washington campaign: fix what’s broken, expand transit, and build great, healthy communities.
Fix what’s broken
Our economy depends on good transportation. It connects people to jobs, farms to markets, manufacturers to supply chains and all of us to the services we rely on. If we are to retain and attract workers and businesses to support a knowledge- and manufacturing-based economy, we need to invest in our transportation system.
As Boeing and supply chain businesses expand their facilities, we will need to make sure Snohomish County’s current roads and bridges are safe and that we have sufficient freight rail capacity. Unfortunately, there are more than 390 structurally deficient bridges across the state — including the westbound trestle on U.S. 2 here in Snohomish County.
Additionally, anyone who has driven a car or bicycle on county roads knows we have far too many potholes. The bad news is our maintenance situation could get much worse: The Washington State Department of Transportation projects a $5 billion shortfall for current maintenance needs and planned roadway projects for the next two decades.
With dwindling tax revenue due to our economic crisis, we absolutely must find ways to get the most for every dollar we spend. The state needs to prioritize fixing broken infrastructure to make our roads and bridges safe rather than building brand new freeways.
Expand transit
In addition to the multi-billion-dollar shortfall that the state estimates for road projects for the next 15 years, transit agencies also face huge shortfalls.
State law locks local voters into funding their transit agencies using only sales tax revenue, and the state caps the sales tax rate for transit at 0.09 percent. With retail sales declining as a result of the recession and no alternative local funding mechanism to offset lost sales tax revenues, transit agencies across the state face 17 to 35 percent budget holes. That means transit agencies are either asking for an increase in the sales tax — increasing their dependency on a volatile revenue source — or cutting service.
Community Transit is finalizing another 20 percent cut in service on top of a 15 percent cut made last year — a total slash of 35 percent to our bus service! Commuters, the disabled, seniors and students will be negatively affected. More people will have to drive, increasing household costs and increasing congestion for everyone on the roads. This is an untenable situation.
Transit agencies across the state are facing drastic revenue shortfalls because the Legislature has forced them to over-rely on sales taxes. One of the paramount policy goals of the Transportation for Washington campaign is making our transit service whole again. We need to restore our lost service as soon as possible and be poised to increase service to keep up with growing demand.
That is why the Transportation for Washington campaign is advocating for more voter-approved, sustainable, long-term means to fund robust transit service. More direct state funding for transit and voter-approved revenue tools should be central policies to any future state transportation reforms.
Build healthy communities
Transportation represents the second-highest cost for most families, at an average of 20 percent of a household budget. People who commute to work, services and schools are really feeling the effects.
According to the American Public Transportation Association, the average Puget Sound household can save $10,000 per car per year by switching from a car-dependent lifestyle to transit. In other words, if you live in a two-car family, with two people commuting in separate cars, you spend $20,000 per year just for transportation. But if one person switches to using transit for commuting, that household will save about $10,000 a year. Building transit-oriented communities will help our urban workforce save money in transportation costs and keep cars off the roads, helping to decrease air and water pollution.
As we rebuild our economy, transit access will be a critical component to building an economy that is financially healthier for working people and families. Community Transit’s Swift Bus Rapid Transit, Sound Transit’s Link Light Rail, and the transit-oriented communities built around these station areas, will help provide new housing and transportation opportunities that work better and save all Washingtonians money.
Clean water and air
Our cars, roads, and parking lots are the No. 1 source of toxic runoff and global warming pollution. Vehicle exhaust is the single largest source of our state’s carbon pollution. Vehicles also leave a sheen of oil and heavy metals across roads and parking lots. Every time it rains, polluted water flows from our roadways into outdated storm sewers, which release this water, mostly untreated, into waterways across the state.
Stormwater coming off our roads is so polluted with oil that it’s as if 70,000 cars emptied their tanks straight into Puget Sound each year.
The choices made around transportation planning directly correlate to the amount of this pollution flowing into our air and into our rivers and streams. The impacts of these choices will reverberate for decades. If we are going to maintain and create vibrant, healthy communities for our families, we will have to recognize these challenges and take smart measures to reduce these transportation impacts.
Fortunately, there are solutions — affordable fixes that curb environmental damage while making our neighborhoods and communities more walkable, sustainable and inviting. By funding stormwater infrastructure, promoting low-impact development and reducing impervious surfaces, we can shape a transportation system that will help us get around, while keeping our air and water clean.
Planning for the future
To address these challenges and solutions, we must prioritize. Like families and businesses in tough times, transportation departments, transit agencies, and cities and counties have “insufficient funds.”
As a state, we will have to increase revenue and use our scarce resources more efficiently. That’s why the priorities of the Transportation for Washington campaign make sense.
First, let’s fix the broken infrastructure and make our roads and bridges safe. We need to move people and goods and to grow our economy.
Second, expand transit. We need the state to contribute more to local transit agency budgets and we need to give local voters more options than the sales tax to fund transit.
Third, build great, healthy communities. When cities like Everett and Lynnwood put together good plans for transit-oriented communities, complete streets and clean water infrastructure, then the state should invest in those communities and streets.
To make this happen, the Transportation for Washington campaign — with its lead organizations Transportation Choices Coalition and Futurewise — is building an increasingly diverse coalition of more than 75 public officials and business, labor, health, environment and faith interests.
Building strong statewide coalitions around the T4Washington campaign is paramount to helping our state legislators make good decisions for transportation.
We applaud Transportation for Washington for setting forth a vision for state transportation and wholeheartedly endorse the goals of this vision: Fix what’s broken, expand transit, and build great, healthy communities. Reform of our transportation policies and transportation funding is urgently needed.
Dave Somers represents District 5 on the Snohomish County Council. Mark Smith serves on the Lynnwood City Council.
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