Bellevue Transportation Listening Session Notes

What I heard at the Bellevue Listening Session:

--A group of people representing several different disability organizations has come together to ask for a big increase in appropriations for the Special Needs Transportation Fund. No one got to speak about that topic in Bellevue. #keepusmoving

--At the Bellevue session I heard a LOT about maintenance of what we have, road segments that need to be finished, freight, how transportation issues make this area non-competitive, all the time people waste in traffic. There were many local elected officials from different cities in King County at the Bellevue hearing. Many of them talked a lot about different road segments; a few also seem to get importance of Metro.
#WATranspo #WALeg #saveMetroNow

--If you are like many transit dependent people I know, you might have all kinds of transportation-related barriers in the way of being able to come. Especially if you cannot get to the listening session, absolutely make a comment online at the site suggested on the agenda handout
http://www.senatetranspofeedbackforum.org/


--For people who do Twitter, hash tags being used after in tweet stream #MoveKCNow #SaveMetro #waleg Use #keepusmoving with one of the other tags mentioned here because it looks like it gets used for other things too.

General hash tags used by people from several different listening sessions #WATranspo #waleg

#fixitthenfundit is a hashtag being used by people who have certain ideas about “reform”

Some fast impressions of the September 17 Listening session in Bellevue
--Powerpoint presentation from Sec. of Transportation and WSDOT N region director about LOTS of needs. For eccentric family reasons, I used to have a pretty high tolerance for engineering type pictures. I have the vague impression, possibly from the verbal content that the blobs on the slides are various piece of state transportation infrastructure in need of more money. Other slides were tables full of numbers. I like being an informed citizen and frequently wind up being interested in tables full of numbers and will make a reasonable accommodations request that the Powerpoints be made available online and / or that there be a couple copies of the presentation printed one slide / page for review by people whose vision allows them to interact with that size document.



--LOTS of elected officials, city managers, chamber of commerce folks testifying about:

--current situation is dire and untenable

--just maintaining what we have will require a lot of money.

--various thoughts re the "reforms" suggested by the Senate Majority Coalition

--LOTS of please include our project

-- We need a balanced package including both roads and transit

--Several employers talking about time lost in traffic, how traffic affects recruiting, people want livable, walkable... Some high income voices in room saying people want services and are willing to pay taxes for them.



--Unions and various engineering firm reps both with comments about how reform suggestions are not quite right fit. Unions already doing apprenticeships and issue noted below with prevailing wage. Engineering firms and consultants say efficiencies possible but lots of sentiment in room that do not want to compromise environmental or other standards even if eg speed up permitting processes.



--A working class mom from Auburn who does not like tolls and brought Sens. King and Eide a plate of toll house cookies to say so



--An eastside elected official. Sorry I do not remember name who quoted Tim Eyman: Let the people vote. If they want tax, they will vote for it, followed by LOUD applause from bus supporters in the room.



--Transit riders union big showing with a complaints bus for Sen. Eide for not getting work done during session.



--Two speakers who mentioned NFB and talked about how dire situation looks to them. Great quote “The bus is my car.”



--Representative from Hopelink with plea specifically about poor and low income and bus.



Wishful thinking:

--Income tax anyone? One person at the bus stop afterward said he signed up to testify so he could suggest we fund transportation with an income tax.

--Someone should suggest that people who grumble about traffic on 405 have a talk with certain prominent Eastside figures about insistent opposition to transit. I am sorry it took someone 45 minutes at rush hour to get from Kirkland to the listening session. Why did they drive. At least on the bus someone else would be doing the driving.

--The "Senate Majority Coalition" wants to use federal minimum wage rather than prevailing wage or even WA minimum wage as basis for labor parts of contracts. There was testimony that this will not save very much.

I WISH someone would tell the story of the public input process about tolling 520. At one point WSDOT did a series of public input meetings starting with one at what is now MOHAI on Lake Union. The presentation talked about different tolling scenarios and likely changes in traffic patterns. At the first presentation, the tolling scenarios were all focused on when to start tolls for 520. Literally everyone what was not getting paid to be there asked "what happens if you toll both bridges at the same time?"

So at the next couple events the faithful public servants from WSDOT brought back scenarios that included tolls on both bridges starting earlier than the i-90 replacement. Voila. No distortion in traffic patterns except what one would expect from congestion pricing. PLUS savings of up to $3 billion or like 30% in project costs because of reduced debt service. In other words way bigger impact than the prevailing wage stuff, but of course politically infeasible because no one would play out ways to work with concerns of Mercer island residents about impact for them of tolls.

Hard for me to survey the whole room but lots and lots of presumably able-bodied folks; fewer with disabilities.



Messages:

--We are all one WA, people who need to export their lentils, people who want to be able to get around safely on foot around the Seattle waterfront, people totally dependent on public transit and people who swear by roads. I am still crafting written testimony.



-- The point is that transportation is a mess in this state and we are all going to have to give and take and probably wind up with pieces we don't like to get where we need to be. If the Lege could not move during regular session maybe the fall of listening is a new opportunity for people to listen and talk across all kinds of barriers.



--There are the what to fund pieces: roads, transit, ped and bike, Special needs transportation. More tweaking to come out of the process.



--There are the how to pay for it pieces:

--something, probably more than one something at the state level

--gas tax

-- MVET

--tolls. Opinionated rant: I do not understand why car drivers are allergic to the use of tolls to help fund transit: every bus full of people is 40 cars drivers do not have to share the road with, not to mention BIG gains in quality of life for people who cannot or should not be driving in the first place.

--okay another moment of opinionated rant but someone needs to say it: INCOME TTTTTAX because there is an equity piece we don't get with only gas tax and electric cars or only MVET. Interestingly at the Bellevue forum I did not hear any of the employers saying people are flocking to WA because of our wonderful tax structure. Instead I heard gridlock is KILLING employee recruitment and we are losing out even to states who ask more of a broader swath of taxpayers.

--Authorization to local jurisdictions to vote on ways to supplement what the state does

Miscellaneous additional comments

--I think basic event accessibility should be educational for everyone and I encourage people to make their needs known.

--I wonder whether anyone besides me wants to offer some comments about how driving public transit, dealing with diverse members of the public, accessibility needs, etc is HARD work. Drivers deserve to be appreciated and we the riding public deserve drivers who know what they are doing and stick around long enough to get practiced at all the complicated tasks we ask them to do.

For me this is partly a treat the labor unions with respect point and partly a concern with some things now funded by the Special Needs transportation fund that rely on volunteer drivers and do not include reimbursement as the price of gas goes up or new tolls come online. I support respect and living wage jobs for all the people who drive us around, improved accessibility at transit stations, importance of traffic signals....

--After the Bellevue Forum I saw a number of people tweeting out a comment that "the bus is my car." For myself, the bus not only is my car, it's my whole family's car from my 12-year-old nephew to my 75-year-old mother and it’s our car for work, shopping, religious activity, pleasure, entertainment! We all need to get our stories like that told.