Would You Pay To Drive Fast?

Would you pay to drive fast? How about really fast? That's what folks are apparently willing to do in Texas, where a toll road with an 85 mph speed limit- yes you heard me right!- opens this month. 85 mph is the highest speed limit in the country.

And the price to use this racetrack- I mean corridor- is only about $6 for personal vehicles! The San Antonio Express News has the story.

Article Says Land Use Not Being Considered With Planning Processes

Jeez, StreetsBlog is reading my mind lately. Which is scary, to say the least. Everything we've been talking about while developing our Metropolitan Transportation Plan, Horizon 2040, has been blogged about recently there.

Today's article is about how land use ties in with transportation planning, but a lot of people still aren't recognizing that link. It uses as an example how two jurisdictions in Minnesota are working on the same street, with different end goals in mind. It's not fair to pick on Minnesota though, as this happens everywhere and it's not neccesarily the fault of either jurisdiction, it's the approach to transportation planning that being blamed.

So how should it be done? Here's the article.

Funny Public Service Announcement

This public service announcement about texting and driving is in French, but the humor, and message, carries through despite the language barrier.

Liberty Lake Trail To Close Next Week

Beginning Monday, October 22 and continuing through Friday, October 26, the popular 7-mile loop trail at Liberty Lake Regional Park will be closed to the public to facilitate trail renovation. The work will include blasting rock to widen and level the trail’s tread in an effort to improve public safety. The trail will reopen to the public on Saturday, October 27th unless otherwise posted onsite.


The work is being funded through a $36,860 grant from the Washington State Recreation & Conservation Office. In addition to blasting work, the grant is funding bridge replacement, interpretive signage, habitat restoration, and other trail improvements along the popular loop trail. The Washington Trails Association, Backcountry Horsemen, and the Lands Council are partners in this project.

No More Drinking While Pedaling For Spokane Party Trolley

Where the heck have I been? I just found this article on the Down to Earth Northwest Blog about the Liquor Control Board fighting Spokane's Party Trolley. Holy cow, we have a party trolley? Sign me up looks like fun.

Apparently you rent the trolley and the owner provides a sober driver and you just pedal around town to your destination(s). The driver does the steering and everyone helps to pedal. In the past, the novelty was that passengers could drink alcoholic beverages while on board, as long as there was a sober driver. Not anymore says the Liquor Control Board. Because all of the passengers are pedaling, they are considered operators of the vehicle which means they can be cited for open container while operating a vehicle. Well getting a ticket would certainly put a damper on things.

Here's the rest of the story, from KREM 2 News.

Gas Tax Increase Proposed With Revenue Going To Surprising Cause

Well this is interesting. Transportation Issues Daily says Mike Baumgartner, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from right here in Washington, wants to raise the gas tax. No big deal right? Every politician seems to have been saying that for a while now. What is different about his proposal though is where the money raised would go. It would make sense to go back toward transportation projects right, since money is so tight in that area and infrastructure is crumbling? Well that's not what Baumgartner is suggesting.

He says revenue raised from his proposed one cent tax increase should be dedicated to a special fund for veterans care. He told the Seattle Times this would remind every American that a war is still going on every time they fill up and that nearly 70,000 troops are in harms way.

Thoughts on that?

Mass. Transpo Secretary Says No More Superhighways In His State

Massachusett's Transportation Secretary is getting serious. I've been saying for a while now that the trend appears to be toward a mode shift away from a single driver in a car and Richard Davey says his state isn't messing around anymore, he's starting a mode shift campaign, and it’s time for people to get out of their cars and onto trains, buses, bikes, and their own two feet.

He says he plans to triple the share of trips taken by those modes, as opposed to single-occupancy vehicles,
and that there will be no more superhighways built in Massachusetts. While a lot of states have been going that direction, none have come out and said so directly.

MassLive.com has the story.

Number Of Teens In Car Increases Chances Of Deadly Crashes

I found this infographic (click on it to view full size) on the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety website. It's from a study that shows a strong association between the number and age of passengers present in a vehicle when a teenager is driving and the risk of a teen driver dying in a crash.


The report, “Teen Driver Risk in Relation to Age and Number of Passengers,” found that the likelihood of a 16- or 17-year-old driver being killed in a crash, per mile driven, increases with each additional young passenger in the vehicle. Compared to driving with no passengers, a 16- or 17-year-old driver’s fatality risk:

 Increases 44 percent when carrying one passenger younger than 21 (and no older passengers)
 Doubles when carrying two passengers younger than 21 (and no older passengers)
 Quadruples when carrying three or more passengers younger than 21 (and no older passengers)

Conversely, carrying at least one passenger aged 35 or older cuts a teen driver’s risk of death by 62 percent.

Want to know more? Check out the link to the report above.

Bikes Outsell Cars In Italy In 2011

For the first time since the end of the Second World War the number of bicycles sold in Italy has overtaken the number of cars. 1,750,000 bikes were bought in 2011 compared to 1,748,000 motor vehicles.

Why is this happening in a country that loves their autombiles (especially luxury ones that they produce there) and has one of the highest car ownership rates in the world? The Business Insider has the answer.

Council Connection Talks Red Light Cameras and Transportation Improvement District

If you missed last week's live episode of Council Connection, you can still catch it online at the preceding link.

The show highligthts a variety of City topics every month and is hosted by a different City Council member each month. October's show was hosted by Council Member Jon Snyder and the second half of the hour is devoted to “Your Tax Dollars at Work: Photo Red Traffic Calming Program and the Transportation Benefit District” with guest Kitty Klitzke, Eastern Washington Program Director for Futurewise.

For followers of this blog, you may recognize Kitty as a member of SRTC's Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC). She's been a great influence on the TAC and we appreciate the time she puts in to educate herself and the public when it comes to education.

How Do We Project How Much Will Be Spent On Transportation In The Next 20 Years?

I've been talking a lot lately about the work we've been doing on Horizon 2040, the Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) that we're required to update every four years. This year is different though. We're not just updating the MTP, we're giving it a full overhaul and facelift. The old version was ridiculously long, not user friendly to members of the public (in other words, wasn't written in plain speak) and included a ton of transportation projects intended to be constructed or completed over the next 20 years (the timeline of the MTP).

While it's great we had big ambitions four years ago by including all those projects, the reality is that there isn't money to fund every transportation project we'd like to do. One requirement of the MTP by the federal government is that it must be financially constrained. In other words, we have to be able to prove that we can reasonably pay for all the projects included in it, based on current sources of income and proposed future sources.

With this in mind, we sat down last week with a group of representatives from our partner agencies and had a couple workshops to make sure we are all on the same page (as the projects in the list are all submitted by the agencies we work with that actually do construction (versus SRTC, which covers the planning end of things). So the workshops covered Project Cost Estimating and Revenue Forecasting.

Being a non-technical employee, I was dreading sitting through these workshops. But to my surprise, they were actually interesting and went by quickly! So, if you're interested in finding out how local jurisdictions set the price tags on the projects they do, you can read the summary from that workshop here.

And if you're interested in how much money is expected to come into the region, and be spent on transportation projects, over the next 20 years, and how we figure out these numbers, that workshop summary is here.

While you're on the page, you might as well take the survey of your transportation priorities as well. Click the "Horizon 2040 Survey" box at the top left to take it.

Where The Presidential Candidates Stand On Transportation Issues

As expected, there wasn't mention of transportation issues in last week's Presidential debate, so what are the candidate's thoughts on the subject? We know, to a certain degree, where Obama stands as we've seen him in action the past four years. But what about team Romney/Ryan? Transportation Issues Daily has some insight into where the candidates stand.

SRTC Board Agenda

The October meeting of SRTC's Policy Board is next Thursday, Oct. 11. The meeting agenda can be found here. As always, everyone is welcome to attend and there is a public comment period at every meeting, so feel free to attend.

International Trade Big Part of WA Economy- Transportation Plays A Role

International trade now accounts for 40 percent of all jobs in Washington and is the largest single driver of the state’s economy, according to a report to be released earlier this week. So what's that have to do with transportation? I just wanted to use it as a chance to point out why projects like the Inland Pacific Hub (IPH) study and the North Spokane Corridor (NSC) are important to our region.

As an Asian gateway to the United States, Washington state has been cashing in on its ties to China, which now ranks as the state’s top trading partner, followed by Canada, Japan and South Korea. Exports to China have increased 230 percent since 2004, while imports coming through the state’s ports on their way to other U.S. destinations have created thousands of new jobs.

The IPH is a project to transform the Inland Northwest into a hub for commerce, vital to the global economy.  We've already got the international trade coming through the state, so why not capitalize on it in our area? The study is looking at ways to do this. And the NSC, when complete, will allow freight to be moved more quickly to Canada, and vice versa and over to the coast to China.

Here's more on Washington's trade statistics from the Tri-City Herald. It's an interesting read.

Free Car Care Fair Tomorrow

It's time to go through the basics on your car and make sure it's ready for winter. Save yourself some time though, and money, and do it tomorrow at the FREE Car Care Fair at Spokane Community College.

Automotive specialists will provide a free vehicle inspection this Saturday, October 6 from 9 a.m. to 3p.m. You can click the picture below to view the flyer full size. 

Construction Projects Starting Or Wrapping Up Next Week

Washington State Department of Transportation
Snoqualmie Pass Closures- Some closures are scheduled for Snoqualmie Pass on Interstate 90 next week. The pass will be closed  from 6 to 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 8, through Thursday, Oct. 11, from Hyak to the Price Creek Sno-Park.

Then, starting Oct. 14, the pass will be limited to one lane in each direction while crews prepare to open a new section of the highway.

From 9 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 14, to 7 a.m. Friday, Oct. 19 the lane reductions will be in place. When WSDOT reopens the lanes Oct. 19, the 27,000 drivers who travel over the pass every day will have a new six-lane highway for two-and-a-half miles between mileposts 54 and 57.

Spokane City

Centennial Trail Open House- A public open house is set to discuss improvement options for addressing a gap in the Centennial Trail. The open house is Thursday, Oct.11, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at West Central Community Center, 1603 N. Belt St.

Litchfield Place Sewer Improvement- The project to realign sewer mains to improve flow is complete and the streets are open. The $324,000 project was funded by the Wastewater Department.

Euclid Ave. from Crestline to Market- The project to rehabilitate East Euclid Ave. from Crestline to Market streets is nearly complete and the street will reopen for the Monday, Oct. 8, morning commute. Until then, the street remains closed to traffic. Drivers are detoured to Garland Avenue. The project included a curb-to-curb rehabilitation of Euclid Ave. and replacement of a 30-inch water transmission main. The $1.4 million construction project was funded by the 10-Year Street Bond and the City Water Department.


29th Ave. from High Dr. to Grand Blvd., Phase 1- The first phase of the project to rehabilitate 29th Ave. from Bernard St. to Grand Blvd. is expected to be complete and open to traffic on Wednesday, Oct. 10. Drivers are detoured to Grand Blvd. or High Dr. until then. The overall project includes a full depth rehabilitation of 29th Ave. from High Dr. to Grand Blvd., replacing a water main, restriping existing bike lanes, repairing the sidewalks on 29th Ave. from Madison to Howard streets, and installing new sidewalks on the north side of 29th Ave. from High Dr. to Lincoln St. The second phase of the project from Bernard St. to High Dr. will begin in 2013. The $2.7 million project was funded by the 10-Year Street Bond, Water Department, and Transportation Benefit District.

Spokane ValleyCarnahan between 14th & 16th avenues- Closed to through traffic from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 9 through Thursday, Oct. 11 for utility work. Signs will reroute traffic via 8th or 16th and Bettman.


Fancher Rd. between Sprague and Broadway- Construction is expected to finish this week, weather permitting.

Short Blogging Hiatus

I'll be out of the office for a couple days so no blogging until further notice. Check back late this week or early next week to see what's new in the world of transportation though.

Take A Survey To Let Us Know How To Spend Local Transportation Money

We've been crazy busy around here, developing our Metropolitan Transportation Plan, Horizon 2040. We work on a lot of plans and documents each year, but Horizon 2040 is probably our most important. That’s because it’s based on projections for growth in population, housing and jobs and considers every mode of transportation, such as vehicles, public transit, bicycling, walking, freight movement, rail and air travel.

When complete, Horizon 2040 will include a list of transportation projects and programs from each jurisdiction within Spokane County to be constructed or completed over the next 20+ years. We're required to demonstrate that funding exists, or will exist during that timeframe, to pay for each of those projects. As a result, we can’t include every project we’d like to see built or finished. As you keep hearing, funding for transportation is extremely limited right now. This means choices will have to be made and community priorities decided upon as to what projects make the cut and what will have to wait.

That's where we're looking for your input. We recently hosted a series of "Roundtable" discussions on six topics: Public Transit; Bicycling, Pedestrians and Health Issues; Transportation for Seniors and Veterans; Transportation for People with Disabilities or Transportation Barriers; Roads and Freight Movement; and Transportation for Young People.

We got a lot of input from the folks who attended those sessions. Some topics that came up at almost every roundtable include:

• Improved snow removal and snow storage options are needed.


• Cuts to public transit have presented challenges to transit users across the board, but particularly to the disabled, elderly, low income and those too young to have drivers’ licenses.

• Sidewalks need improvements such as fixing damaged sidewalks and filling in sidewalks where they don’t exist.

Summaries of the conversation and themes from each of those Roundtables are available on the Horizon 2040 webpage.

We asked the people at those listening sessions to fill out a survey on their transportation priorities for the region, but we want to make sure the results reflects the priorities of the larger public, so now we're asking you to take the survey too. You can take it here.

Please spread the word about the survey. We can’t accurately portray the community’s needs and priorities without their feedback.

National Walk To School Day Is This Wednesday

This Wednesday, Oct. 3 is National Walk to School Day (and ride your bike too), so what are you going to do to get your child to school that day without driving him or her?

The Walk To School Day Website has some ideas. And if you're a teacher, PTA (or whatever the Parent Teacher committees are called these days) member, or volunteer, it's also got some great ideas for events you can hold to mark the day. Let me know if you're doing anything at your school please.

North Spokane Corridor Hits Halfway Point

As you may already know, the Parksmith Road interchange on the North Spokane Corridor (NSC) opens to traffic tomorrow, Tuesday, Oct. 2 with a brief ceremony at 11 a.m. to mark the milestone. The event will be held on the Parksmith southbound freeway on-ramp (accesible from Market Street) and will feature a parade of classic cars. will be the first vehicles to use the new interchange.
What a lot of people don't know though is that the opening of the interchange marks the completion of  the first half NSC. Last month, the Francis to Farwell/Southbound Lanes project also wrapped up, resulting in 5.7 miles of the planned 10 ½ mile corridor open to traffic.

That means we’re only five miles away from linking the NSC with Interstate 90 and construction starts today at Francis, working toward the river. The Francis Avenue Bridge Replacement and Intersection Improvements is the first of six construction phases needed to complete the NSC between the Spokane River and Francis Avenue. The existing 160 foot-long Francis Avenue bridge will be removed and replaced by a new structure with a 450 foot span to provide room for the BNSF Railway and NSC facilities to pass underneath. During construction, a temporary route, with an at-grade railroad crossing, will be in place for Francis Avenue traffic. The new bridge is scheduled to open to traffic in 2014.