Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Does A Propsed Transportation Funding Package Even Address Our Major Issues?

I have had two different transportation planners now send me this Crosscut article on whether a transportation funding package proposed in Olympia would really meet our needs. So that must mean it's a very relevant article right?

The article, authored by former Washington State Secretary of Transportation Doug MacDonald, is the first in a four-part series. It discusses how the proposed package does little to pick up the pace of maintaining our transportation infrastructure, although that's what would need to happen to prevent further deterioration of our roadways and other facilities.
Considering that Washington Governor Jay Inslee allegedly adopted a "fix it first" attitude, many are also surprised to see the proposed package includes funding for a bunch of new projects.

The comments following the article are worth a read too, so enjoy.

And just a heads up, we've been crunching the numbers in our office as part of the Horizon 2040 planning effort to see what it would cost locally to get ahead of the deterioration of our transportation infrastructure and the numbers are truly mind numbing. You'll be hearing more about that soon.

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About SRTC

SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.