Mennis

The Associated General Contractors of America recently surveyed 1,200 construction firms across the United States on the impact of traffic congestion.

Not surprisingly, traffic congestion does possess a negative financial impact on construction companies. In Washington, 72 percent of construction projects are delayed at least one day because of traffic.

Here is a sample of questions comparing results in Washington to the national average: 

In a guest column in today’s Seattle Times, Jan Drago, King County Councilmember and chair of the King County Ferry District, uses false claims, factual errors and misleading statements to defend the poor performance of King County since taking over the West Seattle Ferry from a private operator.

Here is an article by Steven Polzin called The Cost of Slow Travel. He points out that public transit is slower than other travel modes and if you value time, the additional delay becomes a cost.

Transit’s slower average travel speeds result in approximately 3
billion hours annually of additional travel time.  If valued at the TTI
time value of $15.47 per hour, this equates to approximately $44
billion annually in lost productivity due to travelers having or
choosing to use transit.  Thus, the few percent of persons who use
transit (approximately 2% of total person trips are on transit {5% of
work trips} and approximately 1% of person miles of travel) incur 70%
as much lost time relative to driving as is incurred by the total of
auto travelers due to congestion, $44 billion for transit users versus
$64 billion for driving in congestion.

Polzin admits his calculations are not precise and ignore many factors. But his overall point is valid:

One of the reasons the country and individuals have become more
productive and the country has had growing gross domestic product over
the past several decades is that we have been highly mobile and travel
has gotten faster until recent years.  Part of the reason for faster
travel has been the shifting from slow to faster modes and facilities. 
There are lots of good reasons to enable and encourage use of
alternative modes but analysis of the consequences should strive to be
objective about the travel time and productivity consequences.

Last night, KIRO 7 (CBS) news in Seattle aired a special investigative
report based on our new study “King County Ferry Service Not as
Efficient as Private Operator.” You can read the story online here, and watch the video here.

Read the Policy Note that was the source for this story here >>

Here are the Key Findings:

• This year, King County officials decided to cancel the public/private
  partnership with Argosy Cruises and operate the West Seattle Water Taxi
  themselves.
• Annualizing costs shows Argosy Cruises was able to provide the same
  service for three times less money than a strictly government operation.
• King County’s labor costs alone are higher than the entire operating
  budget of the public/private model.
• Allowing Argosy Cruises to operate
  the West Seattle Water Taxi would save King County property tax payers
  nearly $30 million over the next ten years without sacrificing service.

Behold: the $40,000,000 bus stop.

Sound Transit and the Washington State Department of Transportation are spending $40 million on a bus stop in Mountlake Terrace. The bus stop is in the middle of I-5 and connects with an existing park and ride lot.

So why spend so muc!
h on a bus stop on I-5 when bus drivers could just exit the freeway and use the park and ride lot?

Here is WSDOT's answer:

1. This circuitous route would cause service delays.
2. Increase bus operating costs.
3. Increase the potential for collisions on I-5 from buses weaving between the HOV lanes and on and off-ramps.

I guess exiting the freeway and using the existing park and ride lot would add about 5 minutes to the average bus route. Shorter travel times is a public benefit but I'm having trouble justifying $40 million to save five minutes.

The second reason is my favorite. It only costs about $1.33 per minute to operate a bus in King County. If five routes use this bus stop and let's say each route makes 8 stops per day, officials are saving about $266 per day. This means it would take 412 years before this $40 million "investment" paid off. 

The final reason is also unconvincing. Bus drivers are already expected and trained to safely negotiate merging across all lanes of traffic. 

I like the idea of freeway transit stations, especially when combined with a Bus Rapid Transit system. But this particular project is completely duplicitous and not worth spending $40 million.

In anticipation of today's announcement from Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn on pedestrian, bike, and transit funding, I'd just like to point out Seattle's bigger transportation problem: traffic congestion.

Traffic on downtown streets ranks Seattle as the most congested city in America.

Seattle has the 13th worst commute in U.S.

Highways around Seattle are !
the ninth most congested in the country.

From the Washington Post:

WASHINGTON -- Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood,
a weekend bicyclist, might consider keeping his head down and his
helmet on. A backlash is brewing over his new bicycling policy.

LaHood says the government is going to give bicycling - and walking,
too - the same importance as automobiles in transportation planning and
the selection of projects for federal money. The former Republican
congressman quietly announced the "sea change" in transportation policy
last month.

"This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized," he wrote in his government blog.

Not so fast, say some conservatives and industries dependent on
trucking. A manufacturers' blog called the policy "nonsensical." One
congressman suggested LaHood was on drugs.