Help Recognize Great Work: Regional Council Calling for VISION 2020 Award Nominations

The Regional Council is seeking nominations for the annual VISION 2020 Awards, which recognize efforts that are making the Puget Sound region a better place to live.

The Puget Sound region has a lot going for it -- a strong economy, a stunning natural setting, and a special way of life known around the world. The VISION 2020 Awards recognize efforts that are helping to preserve and enhance our quality of life in the midst of fast-paced growth.

Each year, the VISION 2020 Awards spotlight innovative public and private activities in King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties that manage growth, improve transportation, protect the natural environment, and help create great neighborhoods. The more than 30 past award winners have included the Daffodil Neighborhood in Sumner, the FAST Corridor freight mobility partnership, the PugetPass -- a regional transit pass, the Upper Snoqualmie Open Space Initiative, and the Interurban Trail in Snohomish County, to name just a few.

Any person or organization can nominate a project, program or plan for an award. Nominations will be accepted through December 31, 2000. Award winners will be selected by a committee composed of elected leaders serving on the Regional Council's Executive and Policy boards and two outside experts. The committee members are:

• Councilmember Linda Bird, University Place, Chair;
• Councilmember Barbara Cothern, Snohomish County;
• Councilmember Mike Creighton, City of Bellevue;
• Councilmember Maggi Fimia, King County;
• Councilmember Ron Hansen, City of Shoreline;
• Commissioner Cheryl Kincer, Port of Bremerton;
• Councilmember Doug Miller, City of Tacoma;
• Councilmember Mike Shepherd, City of Bremerton;
• Councilmember Dave Somers, Snohomish County;
• Harris Hoffman, Partner, Lorig Associates; and
• Anne Vernez Moudon, Professor, Urban Design and Planning, University of Washington.

All around the region, cities, counties and transportation agencies are using technology to collect information about how the transportation system is being used every day. Electronic sensors and video cameras on highways tell traffic planners which routes are most congested and when. Commuters can see this information in "real-time" on Web sites, and plan their trips accordingly.

Technology is also being used to help manage traffic through synchronizing traffic lights, ramp metering and electronic reader boards that give drivers advance warning about road closures and bottlenecks. Emergency response vehicles have access to information on accidents, and can respond quickly, which helps keep traffic flowing.

All of these efforts, collectively known as "intelligent transportation systems," are used every day to help ease our commute and use the existing transportation system more efficiently. The information is also used in long-range planning to help prioritize future investments such as improving or expanding roadways.

The Regional Council is playing a central role in coordinating these efforts by working with local governments and agencies to develop a common regional architecture to better manage the transportation system for traffic, transit, freight and emergency response Ð recognizing that a more coordinated system works better than separate projects. In addition, the regional architecture allows data to be collected and analyzed to help improve the transportation system in the future. This regional architecture is being integrated with the national Intelligent Transportation Systems Architecture.

Streamlining Distribution of Traffic Information

An approach now under discussion by local governments and transportation agencies would centralize distribution of real-time traffic information to public agencies and other information providers in the region.

Regional traffic agencies, transit and others would "publish" their data to a single information provider. Any agency or information provider could "subscribe" to this data and publish it in a format that would be useful for the public. The advantage to using this approach is that it provides a single source of data to the entire region. This structure will reduce direct information requests between agencies.

More Efficient Traffic Management

Another concept being considered is to promote agreements between local governments, transit agencies and others to share access to traffic control devices. For example, if a major highway is temporarily closed and traffic needs to be re-routed onto city streets, the state must coordinate with the appropriate city to establish recommended routes and change signal timing to accommodate the additional traffic.

Another example is transit signal priority. Recently, a number of intersections in the City of Lynnwood were equipped to give buses priority at traffic signals. An agreement was formed between the city and Community Transit to link the transit agency's computer to the Lynnwood signal system.

To get the most out of the growing transportation technology infrastructure in the region, more regionally coordinated sharing of traffic control will be a necessity.

These approaches for coordinating intelligent transportation systems in the region are described in more detail in a concept paper, Puget Sound Regional ITS Architecture, Institutional Concept Discussion Document, available on Web at psrc.org/projects/its, or by calling (206) 464-7532. Comments are encouraged. For more information, call Joel Pfundt, (206) 464-7599, e-mail jpfundt@psrc.org.

How Long Does it Take to Get There?

Regional Council Tests New Global Positioning Satellite Technology to Collect Travel Time Information

The Regional Council recently tested a new method of collecting data on travel time using global positioning technology, which offers promise for a more accurate and cost-effective way to find out how long it takes to travel on major routes around the region.

The most common approach for collecting travel time data is to drive the route and record times at check-points, and record the reason for delays encountered along the route. This method is fairly resource-intensive because it requires two people Ñ one to drive and one to record, either with paper and pencil or a laptop computer.

The global positioning system (GPS) technique uses a portable GPS receiver to automatically record the vehicle location and time as often as every second. GPS uses satellites to pinpoint the exact location of the receiver anywhere on the earth, within a couple of meters. Only one person -- the driver -- is needed. The GPS technology does the rest.

Vehicle location, speed and time information are digitally geo-coded into a format that allows the data to be manipulated and displayed using standard geographic information systems (GIS). A GIS is a powerful computer tool for mapping and analyzing geographic information, and is used extensively by the Regional Council.

The field test of the GPS technique suggests that it is most cost-effective for smaller study areas, because of the need to pay the drivers. Other options for larger-scale data collection would eliminate the need to compensate a driver. One option is to provide small, inexpensive GPS devices, such as palmtop computers, to a group of drivers. The devices would automatically transmit GPS data back to a central location using a wireless modem technology, such as a cellular phone.

In addition to testing the GPS technique, the Regional Council also used this opportunity to collect a large amount of travel time data, which is being used in the update of the region's Metropolitan Transportation Plan. The travel time data is also being used in the Congestion Management System to provide a more accurate measure of congestion for all travel modes. More information and a detailed report on this field test is available on the Web at psrc.org/projects/cms/index.htm.

The Regional Council, in cooperation with the Washington Transportation Center (TRAC), has developed a map-based database now available on the agency's Web site. Users can click on road segments from maps of different parts of the region to find out information about vehicle volume, volume-to-capacity ratio, lane occupancy, travel speed, transit frequency and ridership, and average vehicle occupancy.

The information in the database comes from the 1997 and 1995 Congestion Management System performance reports. Future congestion data will be added to the database as it is available. For more information about the project, contact Joel Pfundt, (206) 464-7599, e-mail jpfundt@psrc.org.

The first Sounder passengers disembarked at King Street Station in downtown Seattle early on a Monday morning last month. Sounder commuter trains started moving on September 18 between Seattle and Tacoma with stops at Sumner and Auburn. The start-up service provides two trains from Tacoma in the morning and two returning from Seattle in the evening Monday through Friday. The Puget Sound Regional Council provided $60 million last winter to get the trains moving on time and replace funds lost to Initiative 695.

The Kent station will open in November, and the Puyallup in February. In early 2002, Sounder service will be in full operation, with 18 trains serving the Seattle- Tacoma-Lakewood segment, and 12 between Everett and Seattle. For the latest updates, visit Sounder on the Web, www.sounder.org, or call 1-888-889-6368.

Population Growth Slows Down

Population growth slowed markedly last year across all four counties in the region. Population grew only 0.8 percent during the last year, compared to 1.3 percent during 1999, and 1.6 percent during 1998. This is the slowest annual growth rate recorded since 1983.

According to the state's Office of Financial Management, the slowdown in growth is attributed to a decrease in migration to the central Puget Sound and Washington State, due to the economic recovery in California as well as the general strength of the nation's economy as a whole. Decline in regional aerospace employment is another factor.

Although growth slowed down during the last year, the region's population has grown by some 466,400 people or 17 percent since 1990.

The number of people in the region's cities and towns is growing. Of the 3,215,300 people in central Puget Sound, 65 percent live in the region's 82 cities and towns, while 35 percent live in unincorporated areas. In contrast, the population of incorporated areas constituted just 55 percent of the region's total population in 1990 and 53 percent in 1980.

The region's incorporated population grew substantially during the 1990s. This increase was partly attributable to real growth -- that is, positive net natural change (births minus deaths) and net migration -- but was mostly due to a number of incorporations and large annexations that occurred during this decade.

Figure 1.	Population Change in Incorporated vs. Unincorporated Areas of the Central Puget Sound Region
Source: Washington State Office of Financial Management (OFM)

Table 1 lists the 10 largest cities in the central Puget Sound region as of April 1, 2000. The cities of Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Everett, and Federal Way have consistently had the five largest populations in the region since 1990. Two new cities that incorporated during the 1990s -- Lakewood and Shoreline -- have joined the current ranking of the 10 largest cities in the region. Kent, which nearly doubled in population from 1990 to 2000, rose from ninth place in 1990 to sixth place in 2000.

Table 1. Ten Largest Cities in the Central Puget Sound Region: 2000
City	County	Population 1990	Rank 1990	Population 2000	Rank 2000
Seattle	King	516,259	1	540,900	1
Tacoma	Pierce	176,664	2	187,200	2
Bellevue	King	86,872	3	106,400	3
Everett	Snohomish	69,974	4	87,520	4
Federal Way	King	67,449	5	77,010	5
Kent	King	37,960	9	73,140	6
Lakewood*	Pierce	--	N/A	63,790	7
Shoreline*	King	--	N/A	53,140	8
Renton	King	41,688	6	48,270	9
Kirkland	King	40,059	7	45,090	10
Source: Washington State Office of Financial Management (OFM)
* Lakewood incorporated in February 1996. Shoreline incorporated in August 1995.

More information about the population of cities and towns in the region is contained in the September issue of Puget Sound Trends, available on the Web at www.psrc.org/datapubs/pubs/trends/d3trend.pdf, or by contacting the Information Center at (206) 464-7532, infoctr@psrc.org. For questions regarding data presented in this article, contact Carol Naito at (206) 464-7535 or cnaito@psrc.org.

Information on population estimates and trends for all cities, towns, and counties in Washington State will be published this fall by the Office of Financial Management (OFM) in their annual Population Trends report, available on OFM's Web site at www.ofm.wa.gov or by calling (360) 902-0599.

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