Cascadia Prospectus

There's been growing concern about the state of the nation's transportation infrastructure, as evidenced by a proliferation of private sector initiatives to influence policy. This includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's "Let's Rebuild America" campaign; the Rockefeller Foundation-supported Building America's Future coalition founded by Gov. Edward Rendell (D-PA), Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg; the Bipartisan Policy Center's National Transportation Policy Project led by Emil Frankel; the "Critical Commerce Corridors" proposal to establish a distinct and separately funded national freight transportation program; and the America Moving Forward coalition, whose goal is to champion the principle of public-private transportation partnerships and oppose legislative and regulatory moves to restrict their utilization.

Running through these initiatives is a common thread: the nation needs a new transportation vision. The current transportation program lacks a compelling national purpose and has become nothing more than a vehicle for revenue sharing, with a growing portion of the Highway Trust Fund revenue devoted to earmarks for projects of purely local interest. Lacking a well-defined national mission, the program is buffeted by lawmakers' demands for a "fair share" of the revenue, rather than guided by the need to direct resources to where they are most needed. This would be toward preservation, renewal and replacement of aging transportation facilities of critical national importance.

Merely reauthorizing the existing surface transportation program, runs the argument, is not enough. That would simply perpetuate the status quo and encourage continued bickering between "donor" and "donee" states. What is needed is a fundamental rethinking, a transformation, of the national transportation program into a policy instrument that would help preserve and rebuild the nation's aging infrastructure, reduce metropolitan congestion and ensure increased mobility and economic competitiveness for the nation as a whole.

The Transportation Transformation Group

The latest entrant to espouse this philosophy is the Transportation Transformation Group, or "T2" Group, an initiative announced at a standing room only press conference which we attended on June 5 at the National Press Club. The T2 Group is an alliance of state government, finance, academic and private industry leaders "who wish to add a fresh set of ideas to the transportation policy debate," said former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, representing Goldman Sachs, one of the founding principals of the coalition. As its name implies, the coalition supports the transformation of American transportation policy not just a reauthorization of current policies, pointed out Gen. Barry McCaffrey, member of the Board of HNTB Corporation and another coalition spokesman. In this respect, the new coalition is echoing and reinforcing what appears to be a growing consensus within the political, business and transportation communities, that perpetuating a programmatic status quo is not a solution.

Rather, Congress must establish a new long-range vision for the national surface transportation program -- a vision that will enable states to employ new strategies and innovative finance techniques such as tolling, congestion pricing, and public-private ventures that would bring additional private capital to supplement the resources of the federal and state governments. A gas tax increase, as recommended by the congressionally-chartered Transportation Policy Commission, is not going to happen, said Gephardt, so "we might as well put it off the table" and think in terms of a new paradigm. The new paradigm should be shaped by customer-oriented, performance-driven objectives, and provide states with incentives to be entrepreneurial, added Dr. Joseph Giglio, another coalition spokesman.

T2 Group's State Members Highlight Expanded PPP Opportunities

The coalition's members include several states, notably Indiana, Florida, Texas and Utah. Their presence and influence is reflected in the coalition's espousal of policies that would allow states full latitude to employ entrepreneurial strategies and enter into partnerships with the private sector to finance, construct and operate transportation facilities. In the coming decade, the solution to the nation's transportation problems will not lie in an increased federal aid program but in greater reliance on state and regional-level approaches, noted Texas Transportation Commission member Ned Holmes, another Coalition spokesman.

In a Q&A session, attention turned to how the Coalition could "make a difference." Competition for attention will be intense, with Congress and the next Administration buffeted by competing and often conflicting proposals from various interests on how to address the challenges ahead.  A specific suggestion was made from the floor to urge the presidential candidates to include the subject of transportation infrastructure on the agenda of the proposed town hall meetings proposed by Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), pictured at right, above, and accepted in principle by his Democratic opponent Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), pictured above at left.

This would give both candidates an opportunity to discuss and take a position on a number of innovative ideas that are currently being debated on Capitol Hill and in the transportation community-- such as a national infrastructure bank, federal capital budget for infrastructure, tolling, congestion pricing, public-private partnership financing strategies and long-term alternatives to the gas tax.

Let's Have A Presidential Debate On Transportation Challenges

The idea of a debate by the presidential candidates on the problems of traffic congestion and the aging transportation infrastructure is most relevant and timely. How the next Administration intends to face the challenge of repairing and modernizing the nation's highways, bridges and transit systems, what policies it ought to pursue to combat traffic congestion that increasingly paralyzes metropolitan areas, and how it intends to accommodate the growing demands for the transport of freight to preserve the nation's global competitiveness, are three issues that should rank high in importance on the agenda of any future president. They certainly deserve a place on one of the ten proposed town hall debates.

In 2006, Cascadia Center co-sponsored an event, "A New Vision for Developing Transit for Livable Cities," which featured Enrique Peñalosa. This weekend, the estimable The New York Times Magazine, featured Peñalosa in its "Questions For" column.

Q: As a former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, who won wide praise for making the city a model of enlightened planning, you have lately been hired by officials intent on building world-class cities, especially in Asia and the developing world. What is the first thing you tell them? In developing-world cities, the majority of people don't have cars, so I will say, when you construct a good sidewalk, you are constructing democracy. A sidewalk is a symbol of equality.

When the former Bogotá, Columbia, mayor and Bus Rapid Transit proponent spoke in Seattle, he focused on his city's implementation of the TransMilenio Bus Rapid Transit system. King County voted to implement a Bus Rapid Transit program not long after our event in 2006.

If you have the time, Deborah Solomon's brief one-page interview is interesting and certainly worth a few minutes. Whether you agree with him or not, Peñalosa is always thought-provoking. And it's good to see that The New York Times Magazine's editorial team sees value, as we did nearly two years ago, in hearing (and sharing) what Peñalosa has to say.

With U.S. gas prices blowing through the roof, transit ridership is growing along with enthusiasm for green vehicles that will run on electricity and liquid fuels, a.k.a. plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, or PHEVs. Cascadia Center has championed expanded transit for Central Puget Sound through proposals for an Eastside commuter rail line adjoining a walking and biking path, and regional passenger-only ferry service.

We will continue to do so. We also back more and better bus service across the region, employer-provided transit such as Microsoft's outstanding "Connector" service, car and van-pooling, and telecommuting. We see variable-priced highway lanes as essential to capping peak-hour solo drives, and also highlight improved roadway and vehicle technologies to ease congestion and pollution.

But all that said, vehicles are here to stay, and we'd better make them clean and green. That's where Cascadia Center's support for PHEVs comes in.

We need green vehicles in part because expanded transit is no silver bullet. Here in environmentally-aware, pro-transit metro Seattle, it's important to note that although the numbers are ticking upward, transit is used on only a small percentage of all trips within the region. This past October, the Puget Sound Regional Council reported on its 2006 Household Activity Survey. In the fourth item from the top, here, you'll see that across the four-county Seattle region, transit's share of 2006 trips is in the low single digits, about four percent based on the bar graph. Single- and multiple-occupant vehicles accounted for 84 percent of trips, with transit, walking and "other" dividing the remaining 16 percent. The four percent estimate is confirmed on p. ES-6 in the survey's executive summary.

Urban affairs and transportation writer Miro Cernetig of the Vancouver Sun earlier this year discussed Vancouver transit ridership in light of British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell's bold $14 billion plan to beef up rapid transit rail (SkyTrain station at Burnaby pictured at right) and bus service in the next twelve years.

The premier hopes that by 2020 at least 22 percent of all our travels in Metro Vancouver will be on public transit, up from our current 12 percent.

The far-reaching Campbell is one of our favourite public officials, a North American leader on curtailing man-made greenhouse gas emissions, and using innovative public-private financing models to pay for transit and highway improvements. The current 12 percent transit share for metro Vancouver is quite impressive and 22 or 25 percent would be outstanding.

Especially considering the baseline. A recent USA Today story accenting new highs in transit usage contains a sobering counterpoint left out of most similar stories.

Still, only 5% of workers commute by public transit, according to a U.S. Census survey in 2006. (American Public Transit Association President William) Millar says no more than 20% of households have easy access to buses or trains.

Thanks in part to the gas price jump, which is likely permanent, transit's share of trips within regions is growing. But many recent media reports focus on percentage growth in transit use versus the recent past, rather than the more revealing share of trips for transit, which remains exceedingly modest in most metro regions.

One response is that increased density will change that. Except that in Puget Sound, as former Washington State Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald painstakingly documented in the online newspaper Crosscut, newcomers are moving to the edges of the region more than the inner rings. There is a limit to the coercive power of the government, and also a wide gap between between transit advocacy and current transit market share in most locales.

Suppose transit use in the four counties grew five-fold from the PSRC's 2006 survey levels, due to high gas prices and growing concerns about man-made greenhouse gas emissions? That would still leave at least four-fifths of trips occurring via non-transit travel modes.

Q: How do we approach this broad segment of intra-regional non-transit using travelers, while easing traffic congestion and carbon-bearing vehicle emissions? A: In a wide variety of ways, including more robust promotion of ride-sharing and telecommuting; plus regional expansion of variable pricing on highway lanes; and encouraging automaker success in developing affordable, reliable green vehicles such as PHEVs. (A PHEV-centric discussion of clean-source electricity versus fossil fuel-derived electricity is found toward the end of this post).

In the meantime, take this to the bank: Beware the man with the silver bullet.

The Kitsap Sun has the scoop on plans for a pilot project to build, and test with riders, a prototype passenger-only ferry for Puget Sound.

The Sun's editorial board sums things up thusly:

If all goes as planned, work will begin in September on a fast, low-wake, fuel-efficient prototype ferry. The $3.7 million, 149-passenger, foil-assisted catamaran will be unique, built after more than seven years of wake research to meet the challenges presented by Rich Passage.

At a special meeting on Tuesday, Kitsap Transit board members approved a plan for construction and operation of the craft, using $4.2 million in federal grants and $1.8 million in New Markets Tax Credits in cooperation with the non-profit Marine Transportation Association of Kitsap and Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority.

With the funds, MTAK would get a prototype low-wake ferry built by All American Marine in Bellingham, then lease it to Kitsap Transit. The craft would carry passengers between Bremerton and Seattle during a wake and fare research test period of six months or more, beginning next summer or fall and funded by the start-up funding.

Beyond that initial period, operations are uncertain. Kitsap Transit would seek additional grant or loan money; if none is available, the boat may be used on the Port Orchard-Bremerton foot-ferry run, or it could be leased to King County, which is actively pursuing passenger-only ferry service. As traffic volume, gas prices and environmental pressures increase in our land-based transportation systems, the advantages of water transit systems are becoming more evident in the Puget Sound region.

Go Kitsap! Despite the inevitable skepticism of critics, we believe that low-wake high-speed passenger-only ferries will play a growing role in Puget Sound's transit mix. There's an uncongested, free water highway out there we'd be foolish not to utilize more fully with nimble, low-wake passenger-only boats for leisure travelers and commuters alike. The trick will be finding the right public-private funding split; and mustering the political leadership to build support for regional fast foot ferries.

King County's formation of its own passenger-only ferry district to run several demonstration routes in addition to current Vashon Island-Seattle and West Seattle-Seattle service is a good initial step. Also encouraging is the Port of Kingston's winning of a $3.5 million federal grant to help launch passenger-only ferry service between Kingston, in northern Kitsap County, and downtown Seattle. Under the grant conditions, the funds will be released after the state legislature enacts its expected tolling plan for the State Route 520 bridge in King County. This must occur before September 30, 2009, and is all but guaranteed, although the exact nature of that plan remains to be determined. The port has applied for another $900,000 from the state to add to its start-up kitty. Port director Mike Bookey, a former high-tech exec from Seattle's Eastside 'burbs, has a solid business plan for the operation to become self-sufficient, and profitable after four years.

A consortium in Whatcom County last year got a $1 million state grant for a facility where next-generation passenger-only ferries will be built. There's a growing world market for these boats. Let's hope Puget Sound gets a piece of that. At both ends.

The Kitsap effort adds to the slowly gathering momentum here on passenger-only ferries.

We'll stay tuned, so that you can, too.

RELATED

"Foot Ferry Of The Future," KOMO 4 TV, 5/8/08 - coverage of Cascadia's 5/8/08 passenger-only ferry forum;

"Linking Speedier Ferries With A Healthier Sound," Kitsap Sun, 5/8/08 - coverage of Cascadia's 5/8/08 passenger-only ferry forum;

"Imagine A Network Of Foot Ferries: Our Century's 'Forward Thrust' For Puget Sound," Bruce Agnew, Cascadia Center, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sunday 2/10/08;

TV and radio coverage of 7/2/07 Cascadia passenger-only ferries forum;

Cascadia Prospectus blog posts on marine transportation.

Last Thursday June 26, our Cascadia Center hosted the West Coast Tolling and Traffic Management Workshop at the Bell Harbor Conference Center on Seattle's waterfront. Speakers came from up and down the West Coast, Washington, D.C. and London to share with a capacity crowd the latest developments in regional tolling policy, tolling and traffic management technology, and transportation public-private partnerships.

First, our own quick-take on the event. Then some handy links to media coverage, and speaker PowerPoints.

Discussion Highlights

Democratic State Senator Ed Murray, a member of the legislative majority in Olympia and the ranking majority member of the Senate Transportation Committee, voiced strong support for public-private partnerships as one important tool to help fund the approximately $50 billion backlog of projects in Central Puget Sound. Sarah Clark of Partnerships BC accented the province's leading role in transportation PPPs.

Murray also reiterated his call for regional transportation governance to unify policy, implementation and decision-making. Seattle City Council Member Jan Drago, like Murray, emphasized that a "systems," or regional approach to looming electronic tolling is essential, to avoid diversions from a tolled highway to an untolled one in the same corridor. Murray stressed that tolling revenue can and should be used to help fund transit.

Gary Gallegos of the San Diego Association of Governments discussed the success of time-variable electronic tolling on I-15 and stressed that far from being "Lexus Lanes" for the rich as some critics contend, the High Occupancy and Toll (HOT) lanes are used by all, because time is money. Art James of the Oregon Department of Transportation provided a valuable and at time humorous, historical look at the cultural resistance of Oregonians to tolling but concluded that the Columbia River Crossing project may prove an exception.

Another take-away - underscored in compelling detail by panelists from CalDOT, WSDOT, Microsoft, Inrix and Booz Allen Hamilton - was that the technology for tolling and traffic management is advancing at a fast pace, increasing the likelihood that tolling will become convenient and widespread in highway corridors; and will make more sophisticated decision-making tools available to drivers for trip timing, routing, and payment.

Full TVW Coverage

Here are video segments of the full proceedings from TVW, Washington's public affairs channel. Moderator was longtime Cascadia Center associate Glenn Pascall, an economist and columnist with the Puget Sound Business Journal.

Luncheon speakers - Mark Aggar, Microsoft; David Horner, USDOT; State Senator Ed Murray; State Rep. Doug Ericksen; Seattle City Council Member Jan Drago.

"Technology Transforming Transportation." Former U.S. Senator Slade Gorton; Jack Opiola, Booz Allen Hamilton, London, U.K.; Bryan Mistele, President and CEO, Inrix, Kirkland, Wash.

State and provincial perspectives - Dick Ford, Washington Transportation Commission; David Dye, WSDOT; Art James, ODOT; Randy Iwasaki and Greg Larson, CalDOT; Sarah Clark, Partnerships BC.

Regional perspectives - Aubrey Davis and Matthew Kitchen, Puget Sound Regional Council; Gary Gallegos, San Diego Association of Governments; Andrew Fremier, Bay Area Toll Authority; Rex Burkholder, Tri-Met (the regional transportation governing body for Portland).

User perspectives - AAA and trucking industry representatives.

(TVW technical and programming notes. The video segments can also be accessed here. They may take a few minutes to download. They should play on PCs and Macs, but if there are issues, you may need an updated version of your video player software - there will be a notice and link to a download page at the bottom of the TVW segment page. You will then need to download and install the recommended video player. To watch the segments on cable TV instead of your computer, check TVW's schedule at their main page. In the upper-left hand corner, under "Schedule" are the current day's and week's schedules and the channel locator.)

Speaker PowerPoints

Speaker PowerPoints are here.

Media Coverage Links

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's veteran political columnist Joel Connelly gave this report. Several major radio stations covered the workshop. KPLU-FM public radio's Liam Moriarty filed a story titled, "Are Privately Operated Highways In Your Future?" KIRO AM 710's Erin Covey also attended and her reports aired throughout the afternoon, evening and following morning, including KIRO-AM's "The Big Story At Six." The day before the event, Cascadia Center Director Bruce Agnew and Microsoft's Environmental Technologist Mark Aggar were interviewed on KIRO-AM 710's Dave Ross Show about traffic management technology (Aggar); and tolling, transit and public-private partnerships (Agnew).

All conference topics and the latest on plug-in electric hybrid vehicles and alternative energy will be featured at our Sept. 4-Sept. 5 "Beyond Oil: Transforming Transportation" conference at Microsoft's Redmond campus.