"The name Puget Sound Regional Council includes the term 'regional'. It's not a casual word. Region is a description of our geographic place. It is also, fundamentally, the real way our economy functions and grows. 'Regional' increasingly reflects the way families live and grow here, and it's an organizing principle for our global competitiveness, which means more opportunity for all of us, and all of our kids. I believe that this regional organization can be a force in the change that's needed and I hope you'll engage in it.

We need to recognize the very serious and life changing events that are occurring halfway across the world at this moment. Sons and daughters, friends and family members ...the risk they are taking putting life and limb in jeopardy. What we're talking about needs to be somewhat humbled in the face of the complexity of that. Our job is to make things better so that when they come home, they're going to find things better than when they left. That's the number one responsibility of elected officials."

	Puget Sound Regional Council General Assembly Members

Julia Patterson Named Vice Chair of Transportation Policy Board

King County Councilmember Julia Patterson has been appointed vice chair of the Transportation Policy Board. The Transportation Policy Board makes recommendations on key transportation issues to the Regional Council's Executive Board.

"I'm very pleased Julia has agreed to take on this regional leadership role. She brings extensive knowledge of local and state government, as well as a strong commitment to finding solutions to the region's transportation problems," said Councilmember Dave Earling, who chairs the Transportation Policy Board.

Patterson represents Council District 13, which includes parts of Auburn, Burien, Des Moines, Kent, and Tukwila and all of Normandy Park and SeaTac. Before being elected to the King County Council in 2001, she served in the state Legislature from 1993 to 2000. Patterson was also a founding member of the SeaTac city council.

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2003 VISION 2020 Awards

Central Puget Sound Projects Receive Top Honors

Eight innovative efforts from central Puget Sound received VISION 2020 Awards at the Regional Council's General Assembly meeting on March 20 in Seattle. The honorees include visionary projects, programs and plans that are helping to achieve different aspects of VISION 2020, the region's united growth management and transportation strategy.

"The VISION 2020 award winners show a high level of innovation, creativity and success. They are proof that our region is taking important steps to create a more livable future," said Sammamish Councilmember Kathleen Huckabay, who chaired the selection committee and presented the awards.

The 2003 VISION 2020 Award winners are:

Car Smart Communities Challenge Grants
Sponsored by the City of Seattle and Taylor Consulting

The Car Smart program empowers Seattle citizens to carry out their own ideas to reduce traffic. Examples include neighborhood bus maps and walking guides, a vanpool to senior softball games, and a youth bike club. An evaluation of the program found that in one year, the Car Smart projects saved over 179,000 miles of driving and more than 143,000 pounds of carbon dioxide.

Community Conversations - Kirkland 2022
Sponsored by the City of Kirkland, futurist.com, and Connor Media

Community Conversations is a model community outreach program that was used for the 10-year update of Kirkland's comprehensive plan. Citizens were encouraged to watch a video and answer three questions about the future of Kirkland. The video could be watched at meetings, on the city's Web site, and on the city's cable channel. Members of the community hosted and facilitated community conversation meetings for specific groups.

Chihuly Bridge of Glass
Sponsored by the City of Tacoma, Dale Chihuly and the Museum of Glass

This grand gateway and pedestrian bridge soars over the freeway and the train tracks, linking the Tacoma waterfront to downtown. The bridge features hundreds of pieces of glass artwork. The project was key in encouraging efficient redevelopment on the waterway, including the Museum of Glass and the mixed-use development called Thea's Landing.

Everett Station
Sponsored by the City of Everett/Everett Transit, Federal Transit Administration, Sound Transit, Transportation Improvement Board, Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, and Wilder Construction Company

Everett Station is a new transportation hub in downtown Everett that also serves as an important civic building with a higher education and career development center and a gathering place for community events. Transportation services include Amtrak, Sound Transit, Everett Transit, Community Transit, Greyhound, Trailways, shuttles, taxis, carpools and bicycles. The station includes rail platforms, drop off areas, park-and-ride lots, bicycle lockers, and a café.

Mukilteo Village Center
Sponsored by the City of Mukilteo, Chinook Pacific Corporation, R.L. BeVan, L.L.C., Legacy Partners, and Lozier Homes

The Mukilteo Village Center is a new mixed-use development on 126 acres with housing, shopping, employment and recreation in a small town village setting near downtown Mukilteo. The heart of the village center is a public plaza with outdoor dining, benches and a grassy park area. The village emphasizes pedestrians by using narrower streets and larger walkways and paths.

Natural Drainage System
sponsored by the City of Seattle

Seattle's Natural Drainage System is an innovative approach by the City of Seattle to reduce stormwater runoff and protect water quality by redesigning streets with diverse plants and trees, narrow, curved streets, open drainage swales, and street gardens. The new design slows traffic, is pedestrian-friendly, and dramatically reduces stormwater runoff. Two demonstration projects have been completed, and a large-scale natural drainage system is planned for the High Point neighborhood in West Seattle.

Pay-Per-Use Parking Program
Sponsored by the University of Washington in partnership with King County Metro

The University's pay-per-use parking program provides an incentive for university employees to cut back on the days they drive alone. Instead of paying a flat parking fee regardless of use, employees are charged electronically each time they park, giving them an incentive to drive less. The program also gives users a complimentary bus pass and Flexcar car-sharing membership. After six months, the program resulted in an 18 percent reduction in drive-alone trips.

Talus
Sponsored by the Oly/Intracorp General Partnership and the City of Issaquah

Talus is a new development in Issaquah on the slopes of Cougar and Squak mountains near SR 900. Oly/Intracorp and the City of Issaquah meaningfully engaged the community and environmental groups in project planning from the beginning (development of this parcel had previously failed because of intense public opposition).

The result is a new urban village that creates a balance between new housing, environmental protection and public infrastructure improvements. Of the site's 630 acres, only 25 percent is used for development and utilities.

Special Recognition
The following projects received honorary recognition.

Redmond RiverWalk Sponsored by the City of Redmond and Parametrix, Inc. This noteworthy project restored habitat and enhanced a trail along a 1.3-mile segment of the Sammamish River, offering important environmental benefits and providing biking, walking and recreational opportunities in downtown Redmond. Sultan Industrial Park Master Plan Sponsored by the City of Sultan This is an ambitious plan for a 300-acre industrial park along SR 2 designed to create local, family-wage jobs in a small community. 3rd Street SW Grade Separation Project Sponsored by the City of Auburn and FAST Corridor partners This successful FAST Corridor freight mobility project built an over-crossing of a rail line and other improvements, allowing for quick, safe movement of auto and train traffic through downtown Auburn.

For more information about the VISION 2020 Award winners, contact Anne Avery at 206-587-4818, e-mail aavery@psrc.org.

Everett Station

Chihuly Bridge of Glass

Talus

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psrc.org
Interactive TIP Map Features 2003-2005 Transportation Projects

The Regional Council has launched a new and improved Web map highlighting transportation projects in the 2003-2005 Regional Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). Visitors to the TIP map can view transportation projects near their home or along their commute route and find information about phases of the projects, funding amounts, and funding sources. Visitors can also use the map to comment on the projects. View the map at psrc.org. For more information, contact Kelly McGourty at 206-464-7892 or kmcgourty@psrc.org.

Interactive TIP Map

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Workshop on New Travel Demand Model to be Held May 6 & 7

The Regional Council is hosting a one-day workshop on its new travel demand model.

Over the last year, the Council has added new features to the model, including non-motorized travel, sub-models for parking-pricing and time-of-day, new trip distribution and mode choice models for all trip purposes, incorporation of the FAST truck model, generalized-cost vehicle assignment, new volume-delay functions, and five time periods. Revisions include new trip generation rates, and a new transportation analysis zone (TAZ) system based on the 2000 Census.

The free workshop is offered on May 6 and 7, 9am - 4pm, in the Regional Council's board room. The agenda is the same for both days. Registration information is available on the Web at psrc.org/boards/advisory/modelworkshop.htm. For more information, contact Gail Boyd, 206-464-7890, e-mail gboyd@psrc.org.

Changing Commute Patterns

in the Central Puget Sound Region

The U.S. Census has just released the 2000 county-level journey-to-work flow data. These data show the relationships between where workers live and where they work at the county level. Comparing these data with the same data from 1980 and 1990 shows trends in commuting patterns in the region.

As the number of workers living in the central Puget Sound region has increased, the number of workers going to work outside the region has dropped from 97,748 (9.4%) in 1980 to 30,418 (1.8%) in 2000. At the same time, there has been an increase in the number of workers who commute to a different county within the region, from 107,895 in 1980 to 263,699 in 2000.

Table 1. Where the Residents Work

		1980	1990	2000
Workers living in the region		1,038,945	1,396,618	1,642,700
Location of work
	In county of residence	80.2%	80.3%	82.1%
	In another of the region's counties	10.4%	14.4%	16.1%
	Outside the region	9.4%	5.3%	1.8%

When the data are examined from the perspective of the work location, the only difference is the greater number of workers who now commute into the region, from 16,986 (1.9%) in 1980 to 78,431 (5.6%) in 1990, and 56,392 (3.4%) in 2000. Some of the data for individual counties within the region also reflect the temporary greater separation of residence and work locations, which occurred because of relocations in the late 1980s.

Table 2. Where the Workers Live

		1980	1990	2000
Workers working in the region		958,183	1,400,953	1,668,674
Location of residence
	In county of work	87.0%	80.0%	80.8%
	In another of the region's counties	11.3%	14.4%	15.8%
	Outside the region	1.9%	5.6%	3.4%

Although individual counties within the region show different commuting patterns over the last 20 years, there is a general pattern. King County's share of the region's population of workers has fallen faster than its share of the region's work locations (see Table 4). Therefore King County has shown an increase in the percentage of workers who commute from another county in the region. On the other hand, Snohomish County has increased its regional shares of both the population and the location of workers.

Table 3. Numbers of Workers

By residence |				By workplace
	1980	1990	2000 |	1980	1990	2000
King	623,184	805,888	911,677 |	634,235	906,580	1,070,074
Kitsap	62,060	88,144	106,877 |	50,805	83,206	92,526
Pierce	204,609	270,589	324,285 |	165,730	231,756	271,819
Snohomish	149,092	231,997	299,861 |	107,413	179,411	234,255

Table 4. County Share of the Region's Workers

Where workers live |				Where residents work
	1980	1990	2000 |	1980	1990	2000
King	60.0%	57.7%	55.5% |	66.2%	64.7%	64.1%
Kitsap	6.0%	6.3%	6.5% |	5.3%	5.9%	5.5%
Pierce	19.7%	19.4%	19.7% |	17.3%	16.5%	16.3%
Snohomish	14.4%	16.6%	18.3% |	11.2%	12.8%	14.0%

Over time, King County has seen a higher proportion of its worker population staying in the county. Kitsap County is sending a larger share of its workers to King County, and has a significant number of commuters from Mason County. Pierce County is sending a larger share of its workers to King County, and there are a significant number of commuters going both ways across the line with Thurston County. Snohomish County has significant numbers of commuters from Island and Skagit counties.

Additional commute data for worker populations in counties, places, and tracts are available in the SF-3 Journey to Work Characteristics reports available on the Regional Council's Web site at psrc.org/datapubs/census2000/sf3/index.htm. Summary data are also available in the Demographic Profiles previously released by the Census. These profiles are available on the Web at psrc.org/datapubs/census2000/profiles/index.htm. Both the reports and the profiles contain data about travel time, departure time, and the means of transportation to work. Mode of travel data for the worker locations and flow data at smaller levels of geography will be released by the Census around the middle of 2003.

To discuss this Trend, contact Larry Blain at the Regional Council, 206-464-5402, lblain@psrc.org. The full version of this Trend is available from the Regional Council Information Center, 206-464-7532 or infoctr@psrc.org, or from the Regional Council Web site, psrc.org.

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206-464-7532 - FAX 206-587-4825 - infoctr@psrc.org

Sign language and communication material in alternative formats can be arranged given sufficient notice by calling Grace Foster at 206-464-7090. TDD\TTY; 206-464-5409. Funding for this newsletter provided in part by member jurisdictions, grants from U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, Federal Highway Administration and Washington State Department of Transportation. PSRC fully complies with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and related statutes and regulations in all programs and activities. For more information, or to obtain a Title VI Complaint Form, see http://www.psrc.org/about/titlevi/index.htm, or call 206-464-6175.

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