A ten-member Regional Transportation Commission worked throughout the second half of 2006 to examine Sound Transit, Puget Sound Regional Council, Washington State DOT, public transit agencies such as King County Metro, and municipal agencies such as Seattle and Tacoma transportation departments to improve transportation planning in Snohomish, King, Pierce, and Kitsap Counties.
The Regional Transportation Commissioners have been presented these documents as "public comments" contributing to their deliberations on what planning reforms to recommend:
Top Ten Reasons to Implement the Commission's Recommendations to Reorganize Transportation Planning
A key finding from PSRC computer modeling of future Metropolitan Transportation Plan performance is highlighted here -- transmitted to RTC via email. Congestion gets much worse under the present Plan!
Prepared comments (pdf) of John Niles summarized orally at the RTC meeting of August 30, 2006.
Final report of the Colloquy on the Coming Transformation of Travel (pdf), an examination by "big thinkers" to "confront the planning profession with the risks and opportunities that will be present over the coming generation." This report was presented in a hard copy format to the RTC at its meeting of September 15, 2006.
Following up on the Colloquy, John Niles' presentation on Global Trends (pdf) applying to transportation planning, to the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting on January 23, 2006, Washington, DC.
Comments to the Sound Transit Board, March 23, 2006, on modal bias. Also presented to the PSRC General Assembly on March 30, 2006. Excerpt:
"To put Sound Transit’s accomplishments in perspective, the 8.8 million passengers carried in all of 2005 are fewer than the number of trips taken by Puget Sound residents by all modes in a single work day. In the entire life of Sound Transit, the agency has provided fewer trips than regional citizens take in a week. Sound Transit’s own environmental documents report that the impact of Sound Transit’s light rail on freeway traffic when fully operational to Northgate would be less than one percent and not noticeable to drivers and observers beside the road. ... The forthcoming ... Regional Transportation Commission to be appointed by Governor Gregoire should conduct – as a core component of its mission – a comprehensive, critical examination of Sound Transit’s resource consumption and performance results for regional public transportation services."
Comments (pdf) on the performance of Puget Sound Regional Council from Coalition for Effective Transportation Alternatives (CETA) submitted to the U.S. DOT in association with the recertification of PSRC. Excerpt:
"Is the Puget Sound MPO preparing transportation plans that pursue this region's goals in conformity with the required seven ISTEA planning factors, or is PSRC mostly cobbling together the plans of its multiple transit jurisdictions? Does PSRC use its least-cost planning authority and responsibility under state law (RCW 47.80.030) to be the leader and guiding force in regional transit planning, or is it merely rubber-stamping the mode-specific dreams of the various agencies that swirl around?"
Book chapter by Rob Atkinson, "The Politics of Gridlock." The book is Moving People, Goods, and Information in the 21st Century (Richard Handley, editor; Routledge Press, 2004). Excerpt:
"The politics of transportation can be understood as a battle among three groups: 1) auto-suburban status quo defenders (developers, many chambers of commerce, automobile associations, and highway builders) who work to continue old patterns; 2) anti-car, anti-suburban activists who seek to get people out of their cars and single-family suburban homes; and 3) "third-way" reformers who appreciate the vast benefits of the auto-suburban system but recognize the increasing costs that must be dealt with. However, rather than ignore the costs, as the status quo defenders do, or try to force/induce Americans out of their cars and single-family homes as the anti-car coalition does, the reform coalition seeks to preserve the benefits of mobility while addressing its problems."
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From February 2007, and last examined: February 07, 2011