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Clive Shearer
Management
by Design
By Clive Shearer

December 13, 2000

Broader vision needed to fix Puget Sound traffic woes

By CLIVE SHEARER
Management by Design

This month I want to address time management. Not in the office, not at home, but on the road.

One of the major issues facing commuters in western Washington is the looming crisis of traffic gridlock brought about by a surge in population in the Pacific Northwest. The good news is that the Californian economy has picked up considerably and so the flood of people moving north into Washington has slowed and will continue to slow. However, while our rate of growth is declining, absolute growth continues.

The state Office of Financial Management estimates that 890,700 people moved into the state in the 1990s. And we are still reeling from the impact of this influx of residents.

Traffic is the way we notice growth every single day. This year the Texas Transportation Institute's national ranking of congestion moved the Puget Sound area from third to the second worst in the nation, behind Los Angeles. The Washington State Department of Transportation has estimated that 30 million "average weekday vehicle miles" were driven here in 1981. In 1999, this increased to 65 million miles, but the road networks had not doubled. And it is predicted that by 2020, the number will have increased by another 30 percent. This makes it quite clear that there will be no alleviation of traffic congestion.

Building more roads can no longer be the sole solution. We are long past that option. Studies show that as we build more roads, more cars find their way onto them. As we make roads safer, people drive faster; as we make cars safer, people become more careless.

The solution is up to you

When things worsen to the point where people can no longer tolerate the commute, they will make changes, personal life choices as to where they live and work that will tend to alleviate, but not solve the transportation situation. Frustrated with the hours it takes to commute, and tired of getting up at 5 a.m. to get to work by 8 a.m., many will devise their own personal solution based on their lifestyle needs.

One good choice is to ride the bus, but HOV lanes jam up any time there is a freeway delay.

Another sensible alternative is to car pool, but this is not practical for many commuters, and car pools can also be stuck in traffic jams. Others will seek employment adjustments, asking for flex-time or the opportunity to be networked at home. Many will make finding work close to home a clear priority, even at the cost of some loss of income.

We know that the strongest residential growth is occurring on the fringes of the greater Puget Sound. This has led to the ongoing growth of all the ancillary services that people need near these outlying places of residence. The traffic crisis will lead to more and more offices being built and occupied nearer these zones of residential growth, so that people who live, say, in Marysville, will commute to Everett, and not all the way into Seattle. This is already occurring.

But it is important to recognize that none of these personal lifestyle choices will solve the overall traffic situation, but they can improve your personal time management situation. However, there is one vital option still missing: a transit system that is separate from the jammed up roadways.

Public transportation -- time for a broader vision

The London subway system, the oldest in the world, opened in 1863. The underground trains were pulled by steam locomotives between Paddington and Farringdon, with five intermediate stations. For well over a century, London's 'Tube'  has been upgraded, from electrification in 1890, to driverless trains on the new Docklands line in 1999. And London's system has many distinctions. For example, Hampstead has the deepest subway station in the world, 181 feet below street level, and the extension to Heathrow in 1977 was the first subway line in the world to connect with an international airport.

The Paris Métro, which carries 6 million people each day, opened in 1900, between Porte de Vincennes and Porte Maillot. Today's 15-line network currently has124 miles of track and 368 stations. No building in Paris is further than 500 meters from a Metro station, and, as in London, the system continues to expand.

In Chicago, transit started with the Chicago and South Side Rapid Transit Co., formed in 1892. New York was not too far behind with the opening of the Interborough Rapid Transit subway in 1904, traveling from City Hall to Grand Central and on to 145th Street and Broadway. Service to the Bronx was established in 1905. Planners were farsighted in those days, with the elevated lines in Manhattan and the Bronx leased for 999 years!

In Seattle, we are about to add transit systems independent of roads, while in the cities mentioned above, and in other world-class metropolises, roads and rail were established and expanded in conjunction with each other. In this past election, our voters made three important transportation choices. One, they voted to tax themselves, through the sales tax, to fund transit, and two, they rejected Initiative 745 which would have seriously damaged the efforts to develop transit systems independent of roads. Finally, they voted to proceed with the monorail idea, a traffic-free way to move about the city, which would make Seattle even more distinctive in the eyes of the world.

To be a world-class city, we need choices in transportation. If we examine Paris, for example, we find a subway network, a light rail system, suburban rail and extensive roadways, including a ring road, each system complementing the others. All major cities offer similar multiple choices. In Seattle, besides a world-class ferry system, all we offer are roads, roads and roads. The typical European commuter does not use a car, and may not even own a car.

My observation of the European populace is that they go about the daily commute with quiet dignity. Yes, their cities are crowded, but their public transportation is fast, relatively inexpensive and usually reliable.

Talk about free bus rides and even eliminating light rail is shortsighted. Accidents, disabled vehicles and driver distractions slow down every vehicle on the roads, including buses giving free rides. And with guaranteed continued growth, clogged roads are a certainty. We must build a separate system that can expand in the future. Let us not be shortsighted. We are building transit networks not only for ourselves, but also for future generations to inherit. Let us not debate what is politically correct today. Too much fussing and endless debates and oversight simply raise costs and stunt the legacy we will leave to those who will be using the system a hundred years from now.

Why are we so shortsighted? Allow the engineers and planners to determine the best routes, to offer future generations a lasting and prized inheritance.


Clive Shearer is a professional trainer, educator and retreat facilitator and can be reached at cgb9@yahoo.com


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