The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is updating the state’s Highway System Plan and has assigned management of this project to its multimodal department. The term “multimodal” is often associated with a preference for public transit, walking and biking.

The Highway System Plan is “the agency’s blueprint for preserving, maintaining, improving, and operating state highways in Washington.” It was created in 1993, with the most recent update occurring in 2007. In the update, WSDOT is required to address preservation, maintenance, capacity/operations, scenic and recreational highways, and non-motorized transportation on state-owned facilities.

The stated purpose of the update is to “preserve and maintain the existing highway system, improve safety, maximize operational efficiency, [and] provide people with travel choices.”

The plan is intended to direct WSDOT’s “investment strategy” – what programs should be prioritized and funded. This includes using performance-based evaluations to determine if a project is worthwhile, an effort WSDOT supports, along with changing our state transportation policy goals that would serve as the criteria for such evaluations.

WSDOT officials presented an update on the plan at yesterday’s Washington State Transportation Commission (WSTC) meeting. Officials repeatedly mentioned equity, sustainability and environmental priorities.

They also noted that there are “misalignments” between the money currently available to the state for transportation uses and its protected or earmarked use (18^th Amendment restricted funds for roads vs. flexible funds) – and what officials think needs to be funded instead.

There was very little discussion, however, of congestion relief - which seems relevant to any review of our state’s highway system.

Mike Ennis, the Association of Washington Business (AWB) Government Affairs Director on transportation, is a member of the advisory committee for the Highway System Plan update. During an August meeting, he observed that,

“The choices seem narrow and not relevant to a highway systems plan. Where is maintenance, preservation, congestion? Aren’t we looking at the highway systems plan? Where is traffic relief? Funding for preservation and maintenance?”

Instead, WSDOT’s multimodal officials appear focused on updating the Highway System Plan to align with many of the agency’s ideological goals, rather than analyzing the cost and benefit of specific highway needs and improvements that would increase mobility. Though there is value in a multimodal perspective, highways also have a very basic utility to the state and to commerce that should be evaluated independent of ideological principles.

We will continue to track the development of this plan and how WSDOT executives choose to change it in the coming months. The adopted plan will likely be used by WSDOT to advance legislative policies that support the agency’s smart-growth and transit-oriented objectives.