• Prosperity Tour Plays to Sold Out Crowds Throughout The Region
• Sponsors Asked to Submit Projects for Transportation Enhancements Funding
• Growth in Vehicle Miles Traveled Still Keeping Pace With Population and Job Growth
• Back Issues

     The Prosperity Partnership is challenging the region to think about the steps we must take to improve our economy. Its recently released draft regional economic strategy recognizes that involvement--across cultures, sectors, and income levels--is a key part of smart economic development. When everyone is invited to participate and becomes engaged in the solutions we pursue, we dramatically increase our chances for long-term success.

     While discussing and refining the strategy, the coalition is also beginning to implement the action initiatives. This includes developing an organizational structure to ensure a sustained effort and to make clear who does what. The Partnership will set timelines and develop metrics for measuring success. Future work will include mobilizing and developing initiatives for additional industry clusters.

     The strategy-development process began with six months of regionwide economic analysis to clearly articulate the region's strengths and weaknesses. For example, Washington is tops at new business enterprise creation, but nearly the worst at keeping them open (see Figure 1 and 2).

FIGURE 2 -- Percent Rate of Firm Terminations in 2002 Bottom Five Plus Peer States (Measures and Ranking)

     In a recent report, the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy shows that our investments in our transportation infrastructure--specifically our gas tax to pay for road construction and maintenance--have not kept pace with inflation over the course of the last 35 years. That means that each year we get less for our money and our roads continue to deteriorate (see Figure 3).

     The Prosperity Partnership started with the idea of creating 100,000 new jobs for the central Puget Sound region. Now it is a growing coalition of over 150 organizations representing government, business, labor, and non-profit community leaders from King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties. The Partnership has a set of detailed action initiatives based on regionwide outreach and in-depth analysis.

     The Partnership decided to act collaboratively because metropolitan regions have emerged as the basis for global competition. Around the world, regions are pooling their public and private talent and resources to pursue economic goals, and the central Puget Sound region is well positioned to do the same.

More information and the entire strategy are available online at properitypartnership.org or by contacting Bill McSherry at 206-587-5663 or bmcsherry@psrc.org. To schedule a presentation, fill out the form online at psrc.org.

Sponsors Asked to Submit Projects for Transportation Enhancements Funding

There is $18.6 million available through the Statewide Transportation Enhancements Program for projects in the Puget Sound region. Projects must meet one of twelve eligible categories, designed to strengthen the cultural, aesthetic and environmental aspects of the nation's intermodal transportation system. Applications are due to the Puget Sound Regional Council by August 29, 2005. The final list of prioritized projects is scheduled to be approved by the Executive Board on October 27, 2005, with final approval by the state scheduled for February 2006. For more information about the Transportation Enhancements program, including upcoming workshops, application materials and other details, please visit the PSRC website at www.psrc.org/projects/enhance/index.htm. If you have questions about the Enhancements program, please contact Kelly McGourty at 206-464-7892 or kmcgourty@psrc.org.

Five-Year Average Annual Growth Rates

     For more than a decade, automobile travel in the central Puget Sound region, measured by total vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in the Region, has grown at about the same rate as population and employment. This is much different than the explosive growth in automobile travel in the 1980s, but the growth continues to add up.

     From 1992 to 2004, population of the Puget Sound region increased 18.3 percent, the number of employed persons increased 19.9 percent, and VMT increased a comparable 23.3 percent. This is modest when compared to the twelve years from 1980 to 1992, when the population increased 28.9 percent, the number of employed persons increased 39.4 percent, and the amount of automobile travel increased 78.5 percent! In the 1980s the rate of employment growth outstripped the rate of population growth as more households became two-worker households. Commute to work distances became longer, and the number of registered vehicles also grew faster than the population. The overall number of workers rose from four out of every ten people in 1976 to five out of every ten people in 1988. This number actually grew to 5.5 workers per 10 people from 1998 to 2000, but has returned to 5 out of 10.

     Starting in 1992, the average annual rate of growth in employment has been 1.5 percent, in population 1.4 percent, and in VMT 1.8 percent. The long-term rates of growth of population, employment and VMT are forecast to remain just below 2%. The regional population is expected to exceed four and a half million before 2030, a 32 percent increase over 2004. If VMT continues to grow at the same rate as population and employment, as is now the trend, then total VMT also will increase over 30 percent by the year 2030.

     The full version of this Trend is available online at psrc.org or from the Information Center at 206-464-7532 or infoctr@psrc.org. For more information, contact Larry Blain at 206-464-5402 or lblain@psrc.org.

	POPULATION1	JOBS2	VEHICLE MILES TRAVELED (REGIONWIDE)3
1980	2,240,400	1,032,100	36,408,000
1985 5-YEAR AVERAGE ANNUAL GROWTH RATE (1980-1985)	2,436,200 1.7%	1,115,800 1.6%	46,082,000 4.8%
1990 5-YEAR AVERAGE ANNUAL GROWTH RATE (1985-1990)	2,748,800 2.4%	1,434,500 5.2%	62,145,000 6.2%
1995 5-YEAR AVERAGE ANNUAL GROWTH RATE (1990-1995)	3,020,000 1.9%	1,527,700 1.3%	71,701,000 2.9%
2000 5-YEAR AVERAGE ANNUAL GROWTH RATE (1995-2000)	3,275,800 1.6%	1,724,600 2.5%	78,411,000 1.8%
2001 5-YEAR AVERAGE ANNUAL GROWTH RATE (1996-2001)	3,323,700 1.7%	1,679,500 1.3%	78,222,000 1.8%
2002 5-YEAR AVERAGE ANNUAL GROWTH RATE (1997-2002)	3,362,000 1.6%	1,693,300 0.2%	79,925,000 1.4%
2003 5-YEAR AVERAGE ANNUAL GROWTH RATE (1998-2003)	3,387,500 1.5%	1,692,300 -0.4%	79,904,000 1.0%
2004 5-YEAR AVERAGE ANNUAL GROWTH RATE (1999-2004)	3,416,600 1.4%	1,724,900 -0.3%	80,102,000 0.7%
1Sources: (non-Census years) Estimate, Office of Financial Management, Washington State. (1980,1990, 2000) U.S. Census.
2 Source: Estimate, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. (1995-2004 adjusted/benchmarked in 2005).
3 Source: Highway Performance Monitoring System, Department of Transportation, Washington State.

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