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Forecast: Puget Sound Region to Get 50 Cent Return for Every State and Federal Tax Dollar it Generates for Transportation A new forecast concludes that Initiative 695 cuts $9 billion in funding for road, transit and ferry projects in the central Puget Sound region over the next 20 years. The forecast also says the state's most populous region can be expected to export nearly 50 cents on every transportation tax dollar it generates to other parts of the state over the next 20 years under current state policies. The forecast is contained in a new report, Impact of I-695 on Regional Transportation Revenues, produced by economists at Porter and Associates, a Seattle-based consulting firm, for the Puget Sound Regional Council. The forecast is a foundation for the update of the Metropolitan Transportation Plan for King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap counties. The plan update, underway this year, will be required to match the region's growing transportation needs with the funding to pay for them. "It's reasonable to expect certain parts of the state to contribute more than other parts to support transportation systems we all depend on. But this forecast of 50 cents on the dollar is alarming" said Seattle City Councilmember Richard McIver, who chairs the Regional Council's Transportation Policy Board. "The forecast underscores the need to explore new state policies that will be fair to all parts of the state over the long haul so each region of the state has adequate transportation systems to keep up with growth" he said. Among the key findings of the forecast:
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National Site Visit Spotlights FAST Corridor Teams from around the country are coming to the Puget Sound region May 2-5 to learn about the FAST Corridor, a project designed to ease freight movement along the I-5 corridor between Everett, Seattle and Tacoma. The site visit and workshop will host visitors from Longview, Portland, Oakland, Houston, New Orleans, Baltimore, Chicago, Fargo, and the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT). The visit is sponsored by the Eno Transportation Foundation, Inc., USDOT, and several other national public and private organizations. The goal is to support emerging public/private regional teams around the country that will develop solutions to freight mobility needs as a system, and build the necessary partnerships. FAST Corridor, highly regarded nationally as a joint planning and cost-sharing partnership, is co-sponsored by the Regional Council and Washington State Department of Transportation, and includes 11 cities, King and Pierce counties, the ports of Seattle, Tacoma and Everett, and two private railroads. For more information, contact Peter Beaulieu at (206) 464-7537, or e-mail pbeaulieu@psrc.org. Back to Top
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Ferries Serve Growing Number of Riders
As shown in Figure 1, the routes with the largest increases from 1998 to 1999 were:
Growth in ridership on the Bremerton-Seattle route can be attributed to a full year of service by the high-speed passenger-only boat, Chinook. The future of passenger-only service is uncertain due to Initiative 695.
Growth of the Edmonds-Kingston route is likely due to the introduction of the third new Mark II ferry, the Puyallup, and the trickle down of other large ferries to the route.
Two routes had a decrease in ridership from 1998 to 1999. The loss of riders on the Mukilteo-Clinton route may be due to the upgrades in the Kingston-Edmonds ferry route. Shorter terminal waits at Kingston and Edmonds may have convinced some drivers traveling to and from the Olympic Peninsula via Whidbey Island (and the Port Townsend-Keystone ferry) to switch to the Hood Canal Bridge/North Kitsap alternative. The slight decrease in the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth route may likewise be related to the better service to Seattle from the Bremerton-Seattle ferry route.
For the decade as a whole, ferry ridership in the 1990s surpassed 214 million riders in the Puget Sound region, a 34 percent increase over the 1980s.
The two major cross-Sound routes, Edmonds-Kingston and Seattle-Bainbridge Island, experienced the greatest increases during the decade, growing by 33 percent and 72 percent, respectively. The Mukilteo-Clinton route gained almost 12 million riders, a 40 percent increase. The Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth route increased 21 percent. The Pt. Defiance-Tahlequah ferry grew by 56 percent.
The remarkable increase on the Edmonds-Kingston route can be partially traced to deflated ridership in the early 1980s when the Hood Canal Bridge was out of service. The Bremerton-Seattle route's relatively minor increase by decade (8 percent) is partly explained by the declining presence of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton in the 1990s.
More information on ferry ridership is available in the May issue of Puget Sound Trends (PDF - 99K). For questions, call Kris Overby, (206) 464-6661, koverby@psrc.org.
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Ferry ridership in 1999 for Puget Sound ferry routes grew by more than 600,000 to 24 million riders over the last year. The Seattle-Bainbridge Island route remained the most-used ferry route with almost 7.3 million riders.
