Transportation
Because being there is what's most important, WPC's Center for Transportation researches and analyzes the best practices for relieving traffic congestion by recapturing a vision of a system based on freedom of movement.
What's New
Roads in the Right Places: A New Plan to Ease Congestion
The Puget Sound region has backed itself into a corner. While the area’s population has doubled over the past 20 years, the road system has stayed basically static. Increasing congestion in the Puget Sound area affects vital industries throughout the state. The agriculture industry needs reliable access to Ports in Everett, Seattle and Tacoma because of its reliance on international trade. For businesses around Puget Sound, congestion hampers their competitiveness by delaying delivery of goods and increasing money spent on gas and other travel expenses. Families are also affected. As more time is dedicated to the commute to work, less time is available for activities with the children and spouse. Due to traffic congestion 55% of families with children say they are normally late, or miss entirely, at least one family-related function per week.
New Research Provides Ways to Reduce Traffic Congestion by 25%
Seattle - Washington Policy Center, an independent, non-partisan, education and research organization, released a new report that outlines a plan to reduce congestion by 25% and return congestion levels to those of the early 1980s, before Puget Sound's transportation mess began.
"Roads in the Right Places: A New Plan to Ease Congestion," proposes three main steps:
Governor's Tax Plan Ignores Proven Ways to Pay for Transportation Improvements without Raising Taxes
Seattle - Governor Locke is proposing new taxes to address the state's transportation gridlock before taking advantage of proven cost cutting opportunities. New research from the Washington Institute shows that the bloated transportation bureaucracy could save millions of dollars for Washington taxpayers by enacting three simple regulatory reforms.
Proven Ways to Pay for Transportation
Over the last 20 years, Washington state’s population has grown 36 percent, yet our road network has not kept pace. As a result the Seattle area has gained a reputation as one of the most congested metro areas in the nation. Although the congestion problem has been well known for years, state and local governments have failed to identify a solution.
Initiative 695 One Year Later: The Sky Didn't Fall
A little more than one year ago, the people of Washington overwhelmingly approved Tim Eyman’s Initiative 695, the “$30 License Tab Initiative.” At a stroke the voters repealed the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax (MVET) and replaced it with a flat $30 annual fee on private cars and trucks.
New Study Measures Impact of Traffic Gridlock on Children and Families
Seattle - A new opinion survey released by the Washington Institute Foundation and the Washington Family Council measures the impact traffic congestion is having on our region's family life.
The study, "Traffic vs. Kids: How Gridlock Hurts Families," surveyed 402 adults to find out what they think about traffic and the part it plays in their personal and family lives. The research centered on the area of worst congestions in the state, Pierce, King and Snohomish counties.
Absent Fathers and Mothers
Traffic vs. Kids: How Gridlock Hurts Families
Nearly everyone is familiar with the discouraging experience of sitting motionless in traffic on a four-lane expressway, gazing placidly at the rear bumper of the next car, while a large metal sign on the roadside informs drivers, “Speed Limit 60 mph.” For many Washington drivers this is a twice-daily event.
Traffic vs. Kids: How Puget Sound Gridlock Hurts Families
Market Trends, Inc., was hired to assist with the design of the survey, conduct all the interviews, tabulate and analyze the data, and report the findings of this research.
Introduction
Nearly everyone is familiar with the discouraging experience of sitting motionless in traffic on a four-lane expressway, gazing placidly at the rear bumper of the next car, while a large metal sign on the roadside informs drivers, “Speed Limit 60 mph.” For many Washington drivers this is a twice-daily event.
Competitive Highway Maintenance in Washington
Last Fall, the Washington Institute Foundation published the first part of a major study of how highway maintenance is performed in Washington State. In that report, we described the experiences of five jurisdictions around North America who instituted private sector competition into their highway maintenance programs. We found that, when managed properly, competition allowed these governments to lower their costs and provide more and better service. Competition changed the culture of their highway maintenance programs.
Competing for Highway Maintenance: Lessons for Washington State, Part II
I. Introduction
In Part I of Competing for Highway Maintenance: Lessons for Washington State, we examined five governments around North America who implemented competition from the private sector into their highway maintenance programs. For the most part, these governments learned that through competition from the private sector they could deliver public services at a lower cost with better quality.
In our earlier examination we laid out four concrete goals that all competitive governments should strive for:
