Transportation is an essential element of our society. Our communities, jobs, economy, and relationships depend on our ability to move. The overall health of our transportation system also plays a crucial role in maintaining the viability and livability of our region.

Transportation is not one-dimensional. It is highways, transit, airplanes and ferries. It is a system of different modes, services and programs working together to provide mobility and access to support our daily lives and travel needs. Too often, transportation projects and programs are considered in isolation rather than how they work together as a complete, interconnected system. Understanding how the various pieces of the system best fit together is necessary before informed decisions can be made on how to best improve it.

Transportation is a means to many important ends, but transportation is not an end in and of itself. Rather, it is a means of achieving other important social goals, such as a stronger economy, a cleaner environment, better health, access to employment, more livable neighborhoods, expanded educational and recreational opportunities, and improved personal safety. Consequently, the value of transportation projects and programs should be measured by more than just technical transportation statistics. Given the linkage between transportation and land use, it is particularly important to judge how well transportation projects fit within the region’s adopted growth strategy.

Put another way, the average family in King County spends more on transportation than on food, recreation or education. Only housing has more of an impact on the family budget. And, transportation has been at or near the top of public concerns in various opinion surveys conducted over the past several years. Those same surveys point to mounting public frustration over the slow pace of decision-making and project implementation.

King County’s approach is to encourage a series of new transportation solutions in the coming months that build on the many adopted local and regional plans that have already been developed. These solutions will focus on prioritizing our regional needs, while attempting to create a common basis for implementation. By broadening the conversation, we hope to encourage new momentum to get critical transportation projects moving. This review is also intended to spark renewed discussion focusing on the right mix of projects that will deliver the most benefit, considering where we are today.

As King County attempts to identify new approaches that lead to more effective solutions, it begins with one of the most significant funding opportunities currently before us — a package of critical regional transportation needs now being debated by the tri-county Regional Transportation Investment District.

The following proposal serves as the basis for what the King County Department of Transportation believes is a more sound and viable package of regional projects that should be considered by the region, as it determines where new transportation investments should be made. The basis for these recommendations being proposed for King County, is reflected in the principles described in greater detail later in this proposal. These principles and accompanying criteria are largely founded upon adopted policies common to many jurisdictions’ own growth and transportation plans. The principles are used to help prioritize and identify a prospective list of regionally significant transportation improvements and programs for funding and construction. This process provides a clearer, systemic perspective of prioritized projects and programs as the region moves toward specific action.

Guiding principles
Five principles guiding system development were used to help determine infrastructure and service investments and their priorities. These principles are based on the established growth management and transportation system policies of the region. They include:

• Efficiency
• Preservation
• Expansion
• Smart Growth
• User-Based Financing

Supporting criteria
As part of its review of the current RTID package, the department also assessed the overall value of projects, programs and alternatives. Its goal was to create a package of integrated, fiscally sound and credible transportation system improvements that will complement each other and merit public support. To do so, criteria were developed consistent with the five principles and applied to a wide variety of projects proposed in existing plans or under discussion in the context of current major corridor planning and regional planning efforts.

Financing this proposal
RTID has seven possible sources that can be considered to fund projects and programs: sales taxes; Motor Vehicle Excise Taxes (MVET); license fees; employee taxes; parking taxes; tolls; and gasoline taxes. King County supports taxes that promote the efficient use of the region’s roadways while avoiding adverse impacts to businesses and households within the region.

• Tolling
  The principle that those who actually use our transportation system should contribute the most has a long tradition in most areas of the United States. Originally, many of the nation’s roads were toll roads. The gas tax became the primary source of roadway financing in 1956, with the expansion of the interstate highway system. King County supports these “user pays” principles to finance transportation improvements. These fees encourage the efficient consumption of transportation investments and collect revenues primarily from those who use and benefit from these services. In the coming weeks, King County will more closely examine these financing options as it develops a specific proposed RTID financing package, which will include user or vehicle-related fees.
  Bridge tolls also have a history in the state of Washington. Reconstruction of the 520 Bridge spanning Lake Washington will require a significant public expenditure. King County’s recommendations will likely propose that a significant portion of the revenues needed for future improvements be provided by tolls imposed on users.
• Other fees
  Among the other fees available to finance a RTID package, those that most closely approximate user fees are the license fee and the MVET. Vehicle-user fees impose charges on those using the region’s roadways. They encourage users of the system to consider the impact of their vehicles on roadway capacity, operations and maintenance costs, congestion, air pollution, and other economic and social costs.
  Finally, the department will consider a financing proposal that includes an increase in the sales tax to finance high-capacity transit. Consistent with regional practice, these funds could be dedicated to bus and light rail improvements, which provide broad regional benefits.

Based on the KCDOT’s assessment and application of guiding principles and criteria, the draft RTID package for King County was reduced to a proposed “first phase” $6.5 billion investment targeting the region’s most urgent projects that can be carried out within the next 10 years. This phase would be immediately followed by a second 10-year phase that would continue the momentum and improvements begun during the first 10 years. Examples of Phase 1 projects include:

• Replace the SR 520 Evergreen Point Bridge and portions of the SR 99. Alaskan Way Viaduct as Phase 1 actions to sustain the safety and integrity of the regional transportation system.
• Address key roadway bottlenecks on limited access roadways for additional people-carrying capacity and freight movement on I-405, I-5, SR 509 and SR 167.
• Complete HOV lane links on I-405.
• Construct two-way transit lanes on I-90 (R8-A option).
• Extend the Link Light Rail Transit initial segment north to the University District and Northgate.
• Add capacity through HOV and transit lane additions, purchase buses that replace and expand the current local transit fleet, and take advantage of HOV improvements by providing additional transit service levels across Lake Washington on SR 520 and I-90 and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) level service on SR 99 north and south.
• Implement Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) applications along high-use arterial corridors throughout King County, including signal synchronization, transit signal priority, variable message signs, and incident management and response.
• Construct various freight, transit and roads improvements on approaches to highways of statewide significance (HSS) and other non-HSS facilities to provide key operational and capacity improvements where the regional arterial and HSS systems integrate and impact one another.

*See “Recommended Approach” section for complete project list.

Updated: Sept. 16, 2003