April 2004  [pdf version]

"The VISION 2020 award winners are shining examples of the work that is being accomplished to realize our region's growth, economic, and transportation strategy. The winners emphasize the importance of partnerships and the efficient use of resources." -- MAYOR PETE LEWIS, CITY OF AUBURN, ACTING CHAIR - VISION 2020 AWARDS SELECTION COMMITTEE

Seven achievements that have helped to cultivate the region's vitality and ensure a promising future to 2020 and beyond were honored at the Puget Sound Regional Council's annual General Assembly on March 25 at Seattle Center's new Marion Oliver McCaw Hall.

"The projects and programs being awarded are innovations that will help ensure our region's vitality to 2020 and beyond. They are key implementation efforts that make our collective vision a reality. VISION 2020 is a comprehensive framework for our future. It's not about suburban dwellers versus big city people. It's not about fighting over roads versus transit. It's about working together with common goals, coordinated and planned growth, and wiser use of all of our resources in a strategy to better ensure success in a challenging and changing environment."

The 2004 VISION 2020 Award Winners are:

City of Renton's Urban Center - North Comprehensive Plan Amendments Sponsored by the City of Renton and The Boeing Company

The City of Renton's work to amend its comprehensive plan to broaden the land uses allowed on the Boeing Company land in the northern part of the city's urban center. The amendments address environmental, transportation and infrastructure concerns to help ease the transition from less heavy industrial and manufacturing use to more urban and residential uses.

East Main Street Design Strategy Sponsored by the City of Sumner

An incremental strategy to turn a former state highway into a pedestrian friendly extension of Sumner's historic downtown. The strategy resulted in design guidelines and improved zoning regulations that are focused on improving the pedestrian environment and traffic calming. Shortly after adoption, Fred Meyer and Mt. Rainier National Bank built facilities that helped to implement the strategy.

Economic Development Plan and Bickford Avenue Subarea Sponsored by the City of Snohomish

A detailed economic development strategy for five different land use districts in the City of Snohomish. The plan determines markets, strategies, designs and implementation particulars that would be effective and publicly supported in the 5 districts. It incorporates mixed-use development, incubator business, and cottage industry concepts and will increase land use development efficiency and employee density within the districts. The strategy will consolidate ownership and management of the Cemetery Creek corridor to improve its environment for salmon and provide public use of some adjoining historical farmland.

Greenbrier Heights Sponsored by King County and the City of Woodinville

A great new neighborhood built on King County surplus property, featuring affordable housing as well as 11 acres of dedicated wetlands and wildlife habitat. The range of housing includes rental units for low-income seniors, rental units for low-income families, as well as moderate-income owner units and cottage housing, all of which have been extremely popular. The neighborhood includes a park, trails, and a community center.

Model Permit System Sponsored by the Economic Development Council of Snohomish County

A suite of process improvements that improved the predictability, efficiency and collaboration of land use actions in four Snohomish County cities. The new process clarified permit application requirements and improved communication between applicants and the jurisdictions through the use of checklists, templates, and workflow management. Permitting was accelerated by an average of 33% and in one case permitting time was cut in half.

Redmond Trip Reduction Incentive Program Sponsored by the Greater Redmond Transportation Management Association, City of Redmond, and King County Metro

The Redmond Trip Reduction Incentive Program is a public-private partnership to increase mobility options. Recent program expansions include a new website and the addition of the R-Rewards Commuter Club, which provides a $50 Visa gift card to commuters who bike, walk or carpool. R-TRIP is the nation's first publicly sponsored program to combine a commuter club, rewards program, and a dynamic commute mode tracking tool, all accessible on the Web.

University Way Multimodal Project Sponsored by the Seattle Department of Transportation, the King County Department of Transportation, The Ave Group, and the Greater University Chamber of Commerce.

The University Way Multimodal Project is a key part of the efforts to revitalize the University District neighborhood of Seattle. These street improvements feature the region's first in-lane bus stops which have improved access on one of the city's busiest pedestrian and transit corridors. The improvements have also created a safer and friendlier environment for pedestrians, cyclists, transit riders, business proprietors and their customers. This project has brought the community, businesses, the city, and the county together providing a platform for further accomplishments in the area.

The committee also wanted to recognize a handy new device that will encourage the efficient use of the region's road system:

VISION 2020 e-vent Another Successful E-Vent

In conjunction with this year's General Assembly, the PSRC held an interactive electronic polling forum attended by over 75 community members and elected leaders. Participants were given hand held devices to answer questions about transportation, growth management and economic development. The answers went through live tabulation and were displayed for the audience to discuss. Participants also had the opportunity to compare their answers to the results of a survey conducted with 915 of the region's residents during the fall of 2003.

Growth Management related questions included: Do you generally favor or oppose mixing residential with other land uses such as office or retail? Do you generally favor or oppose mixing housing of different price levels within a neighborhood?

Transportation related questions included: Which of the following is more favorable to you…using technology and incentive programs to make existing roads more efficient or building new and/or expanding roads to accommodate increased use?

Economic development related questions included: When it comes to the regional economy, which of the following strategies is more favorable to you...promote increasing diversity or strengthening a few key industries?

The discussion session enabled participants to modify questions to personalize responses, for example changing "a neighborhood" to "my neighborhood" and see how people felt when the questions were more personal.

For the most part, the responses of the e-vent participants lined up with the citizens who participated in the fall 2003 survey. However, e-vent participants did slightly tend to favor mixing uses and the use of transportation and economic development incentives over their citizen survey counterparts. For more information, contact Ben Bakkenta at 206-464-5372 or bbakkenta@psrc.

-- Bob Drewel and Grace Foster accept a Diamond Ring Award on behalf of the Puget Sound Regional Council for its long-term leadership and outstanding voluntary commute options program. This is the fourth time the PSRC has been honored by Commuter Challenge. Although the PSRC is not required to participate in the Commute Trip Reduction Law because it has fewer than 100 employees, the agency voluntarily offers a $65 transportation incentive to employees who bike, walk, bus or carpool to work instead of driving alone. Over 98 percent of employees regularly use alternative modes to get to work. For more information about the Commuter Challenge Awards, visit commuterchallenge.org.

The central Puget Sound is already internationally recognized for its tech-savvy citizens, but now a new survey shows the region is becoming more high-tech and putting that technology to use in seeking out traffic information.

Residents have increased computer ownership, improved their internet connection speed, and are more likely to be carrying around a cellular or digital phone, wireless palm computer, or PDA. They are also more likely to make use of traffic, transit, and ferry information services than they were two years previously.

The Puget Sound Transportation Panel (PSTP) is a longitudinal survey in which similar measurements are made on the same sample at different points in time. Between 1989 and 2002, a sample of approximately 1700 households in the 4-county region were surveyed 10 times. The 1997, 2000, and 2002 "waves" included questions about the participants' familiarity with, and use of, electronic equipment and information services.

From 1997 to 2002, the level of home computer usage rose by 44.8 percent, and use of the Internet from home more than doubled, from 31.2 percent of respondents to 67.9 percent (TABLE 1). In 1997, 21.7 percent of the respondents indicated they did not use a computer at least once a week either at home or at work. In 2000, that percentage dropped by a quarter, to 16.1 percent.

While most people still connect to the Internet using a phone line, whether dedicated or shared, high-speed connections such as cable or DSL are gaining rapidly in popularity. (TABLE 2). In just two years, the percent with high-speed internet connection at home went from 13.5 percent to 36.4%, while the share of persons using some type of phone connect fell from 84.5 percent to 70 percent.

Respondents are more likely to be carrying around a cellular or digital phone in 2002 compared to 1997, and less likely to have a personal pager. (TABLE 3). The phones are also twice as likely to be web-enabled. While Personal Digital Assistants, or PDAs, were almost non-existent in the 1997 survey, in 2002 five percent said they carried one with them at least 10 times a month.

Starting in 2000, the PSTP asked about people's awareness and use of travel information services. In both 2000 and 2002, the most common source of such information was TV and radio traffic reports. But people are increasingly making use of online resources to learn about traffic conditions and delays. The most popular include Puget Sound Traffic Conditions, King County Metro, and Washington State Ferry web sites. These are also more likely to be used on a regular basis rather than tried once or twice, as was often the case in 2000.

For more information on the PSTP, contact Neil Kilgren at 206-464-7964 or nkilgren@psrc.org. The full version of this Puget Sound Trend is available online at psrc.org or from the Information Center at 206-464-7532 or infoctr@psrc.org.

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

Servicios de Traduccion Disponible: 206-587-5062.

Back Issues
March 2004 | February 2004 | January 2004 | December 2003 | November 2003 | October 2003 | September 2003 | August 2003 | July 2003 | June 2003 | May 2003 |