• Understanding Why We're All Choked Up
• 2006 VISION 2020 Awards
• Prosperity Partnership Adopts Regional Economic Strategy
• Prosperity Partnership Luncheon in November
• Regional Economy Shows Robust Growth
• Back Issues

Regional leaders are getting prepared for an update to Destination 2030, the region's long-range transportation plan, marshalling the most current data to better understand transportation problems and what to do about them.

A hot-button issue is congestion. The Puget Sound Regional Council is taking a new look at why congestion happens and what tools are proving most effective in unclogging the region's roads and getting traffic moving again.

Why Do We Have Congestion?

In the last two decades, trends in population and commute patterns combined with shrinking resources for building transportation projects have added up to major congestion headaches along popular routes in the region. More people are living outside King County, but commuting to jobs in King County. More trips are suburb-to-suburb, rather than to the central cities.

Anticipated population growth of approximately 1.5 million by 2025 and a 50 percent increase in the miles people drive will place an even greater burden on already stressed roads.

Anatomy of an Efficient Highway

Data show that highways carry the most people when vehicles are traveling about 45-50 miles per hour, accommodating about 2,000 vehicles per lane per hour.

As congestion increases, this "maximum throughput" drops dramatically. For example, during the peak period on I-405, congestion reduces the throughput of the two general-purpose lanes in Renton to the capacity of one free-flowing lane.

Tools to Increase Efficiency

In the last two decades, new HOV lanes, ramp metering, signal synchronization and strategic improvements at bottlenecks and chokepoints have been effective strategies to maintain the maximum throughput of a facility.

Given the region's scarce transportation resources, this congestion data will improve how the region prioritizes investments, helping decision makers choose engineering solutions or operational fixes that can deliver the most congestion relief per dollar spent.

What's Next

PSRC is collecting information on the current status of different travel corridors around the region. The information will be the basis for development of an updated Destination 2030 plan to make traffic flow better and keep pace with growth. More information is available on the Web at psrc.org/projects/mtp/update.htm or by contacting Mike Cummings at
206-464-6172, mcummings@psrc.org.

Improvements in Speed on I-5 South of Southcenter with the Extension of the HOV Lane -- Adding an HOV lane can improve general-purpose lane performance by shifting some of the demand off the general-purpose lanes.

When the speeds and number of cars reach this sweet spot, the highway is most efficient, carrying the most people where they need to go.

This shows how efficiency breaks down on SR 520 with increasing congestion. As vehicles approach the bridge "bottleneck", speeds drop and the throughput drops dramatically.

Before and After Ramp Metering -- Ramp metering contributes to system efficiency by maintaining the freeway as close to maximum throughput as possible.

Prosperity Partnership Adopts Regional Economic Strategy The Strategy outlines an action plan for the five clusters and the six foundations of the region's economy. The clusters are Aerospace, Clean Technology, Information Technology, International Trade and Logistics, and Life Sciences. The foundation areas are Education, New and Small Business Support, Social Capital, Tax Structure, Technology Commercialization, and Transportation. Last November, over 1,100 leaders from business, labor, government and nonprofits gathered at the Regional Economic Summit to publicly launch development of the regional economic strategy. Since then, the Partnership has grown to include 150 partner organizations that have agreed to help create, promote and implement the strategy. The Strategy is available online at www.prosperitypartnership.org or from the Information Center at 206-464-7532 or infoctr&364;psrc.org.

Save the Date! Prosperity Partnership Luncheon in November On November 7, from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the downtown Seattle Westin Hotel, the Prosperity Partnership will hold a luncheon to assess the accomplishments of the past year and detail its action plan for moving forward on key initiatives fundamental to our economic competitiveness. Look for a special eNewsletter announcing more details and registration information. For more information contact Megan Marston at 206-389-2877 or mmarston&364;psrc.org.

Wage and salary employment in the central Puget Sound expanded by 3.5 percent last year, at twice the national rate of 1.7 percent. The regional economy, which began its recovery from the 2001 recession in 2004, showed robust growth during the first half of 2005. The region is now just 18,800 jobs short of its pre-recession high of 1.754 million wage and salary jobs recorded in December 2000.

Each of the region's counties experienced strong employment growth. Snohomish County added 14,000 net jobs between August 2004 and August 2005, registering a vigorous growth rate of 6.5 percent. King County increased by 33,900 net jobs at a rate of 3 percent, Kitsap County by 2,600 net jobs or 3.1 percent, and Pierce County by 8,600 net jobs or 3.4 percent.

Across the region, the construction industry expanded significantly over the last year, adding 8,800 net jobs at a rate of 8.3 percent. Other high growth sectors included professional and business services, which increased by 12,500 net jobs or 5.8 percent, leisure and hospitality, which grew by 9,400 net jobs or 5.8 percent, manufacturing, which added 8,300 net jobs at a rate of 5.0 percent, and educational and health services, which grew by 7,400 net jobs or 4.3 percent.

For questions about this article, contact Kristen Koch at 206-587-5667 or kkoch@psrc.org. To obtain current or historical wage and salary data, visit the Washington State Employment Security Department Web site at www.workforceexplorer.com/ or the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Web site at www.bls.gov/data/. The full version of this Trend is available online at psrc.org or from the Information Center at 206-464-7532, infoctr&364;psrc.org.

Monthly Nonagricultural Wage and Salary Employment (unadjusted), Central Puget Sound: January 2000 to August 2005

Source: BLS, ESD

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