US-195 I-90 mailer

I received a full color glossy to "resident" today from the Washington State Department of Transportation regarding the planned upgrades to the US 195 corridor. Washington State Senator Chris Marr very ably sets out the situation. Go ahead and look at that video, and I'll wait here.

In effect, sprawl outstripped government's ability or willingness to pay for the transportation improvements along that corridor. Of course, in Spokane County, no developer has any responsibilities with regards to their impacts on transportation, and even if they did, the State exempted itself from transportation concurrency requirements to which all other governments in the state must adhere. But, the time for worrying about whether we're paying for our infrastructure correctly has passed. Now it's a safety issue.

Now we have a highway with access roads coming right up to it. Drivers must accelerate and decelerate on the highway itself, and left turns require passing across highway-speed traffic. According to Marr's August video, a couple of people have died so far this year.

Getting people involved in transportation planning (and, I suspect, transportation funding advocacy) is a difficult task. I commend WSDOT at its attempt. For those of you who did not receive it, there is a project web site.