For an uninspiring look at how some of our “local transportation thinkers“ would spend a blank check, read this Seattle Magazine article, which asks:

“If money were no object, what single thing would you do to improve transportation in the region?”

Taking money out of the equation creates a totally bogus question of course, but it does make for a fun exercise to think about…an opportunity to dream big…with things like implementing the Puget Sound Regional Council’s (PSRC) $200 billion Transportation 2040 Plan, or completing the 1,000 most important projects in Washington’s 2012-2015 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP), or completing and expanding the HOV system to every highway in the state, or building light rail to every doorstep in Washington, or implementing the I-405 Master Plan along with all of the former RTID projects.

Nope. Instead, some of these esteemed “thinkers” recommended much grander ideas, with some of them bordering on pretentiousness that might even cause bank officials to blush and regret their generous offer of a blank check.

Aubrey Davis, for example, the forward thinking father of light rail in the Puget Sound region, says, ”I wouldn’t do any project. Our biggest need is to fix potholes and restore pavement on city, county and state roads.”

Potholes? Really? So much for bold ideas. On the other hand, this is a good indication of how officials have neglected providing basic services for the traveling public, despite dozens of transportation tax and fee increases.  But hey, at least we will have a $50 billion light rail system that will carry 1% of all daily person trip demand!

Others like PSRC Executive Bob Drewel, Seattle Port Commissioner John Creighton and WSDOT Secretary Paula Hammond get closer by offering a combination of multi-modal improvements with overtones of preserving the existing system.

Larry Ehl, founder of the Transportation Issues Daily blog gets the closest by offering a 5-year plan full of transportation projects, some of which I disagree with…but at least he’s thinking big!

And then there are those “thinkers” who are perhaps just ahead of their time. Those who recommend such cutting-edge, progressive and revolutionary ideas that cannot be adequately appreciated.

Martin Duke wants to increase population density. Carla Saulter wants to make buses better by reserving right of way, adding wood grain panels and rims and hiring hot drivers. Dan Bertolet wants to use his blank check to pay people to walk…”something like $5 or $10 per mile.” And David Markley wants us to “think small” and shrink roads and reduce street parking.

Really?

Despite $200 billion of unmet transportation needs estimated by the Washington Transportation Commission (I’ve heard others say the actual need is much higher), is this the best we can come up with?

To think about it another way, if Boeing executives solicited these “thinkers” with  the same blank check offer, they would have packed up what’s left of their operations in Washington and left before Saulter even proposed her meticulously arranged story board of wood grain paneled buses.  

Washington has serious transportation needs and if Olympia wants to pass a new funding package, especially one that will gain voter’s approval, these so called “solutions” will need to improve.