Women of Washington
Communicating America’s Founding Principles
Women of Washington is an educational organization with a focus on understanding local, national, and global issues that are critical to our world today.
Transportation
Are Transportation Planners Elitist?
January, 2017
This writer thinks so and shoots barbs at transit oriented development as an elitist plan to move the poor far from them, condemn land or at least buy it up at low prices. The poor thus must have cars to get to work to shopping and so on.
Read More
Volume 1, Issue 13
October 20, 2016
The Eastside Transportation Association (ETA) recently published (Oct. 17, 2016) a new paper outlining a key broken promise of Sound Transit included in the proposed $54 billion ST 3 tax and spend project to be voted on in November.
When reduced to a city level, such as Bellevue, the annual taxes raised for Sound Transit 3 dominates the total capital dollars Bellevue spends on transportation in a year by four times!
Read More
City Letters to Sound Transit
April 28, 2016
The cities of Bellevue, Renton, Bothell, Newcastle, and Clyde Hill and the Town of Beaux Arts Village appreciate the opportunity to provide feedback on the Draft Sound Transit 3 (ST3) System Plan. In the past nine months, through individual city comment letters, as well as through joint city communications, we have stated to the Board our urgent need for high quality transit projects in the I-405 corridor. The following shared comments are in addition to those from our individual jurisdictions.
Read More
Volume 1, Issue 11
May 5, 2016
Six eastside mayors and eleven legislators from five legislative districts have written letters to Sound Transit in support of providing effective Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on I-405 in comments on the proposed ST 3 plan.
Read More
Volume 1, Issue 10
March 17, 2016
Big Win on I-405 tolls
Watch for More Sound Transit Fabrications about U-Link
Read More
Volume 1, Issue 9
March 11, 2016
One of Sound Transit's Fabrications
Sound Transit overstates the effectiveness of light rail on a consistent basis in an effort to convince voters to support their outrageous tax grab. ST also denigrates the potential of alternatives such as Bus Rapid Transit. A rigorous evaluation of these claims has been completed by the Eastside Transportation Association (ETA) with reports at www.eastsideta.com. The bottom line is that buses can and do carry more people in a single lane than does light rail in Seattle.
Read More
Volume 1, Issue 8
February 17, 2016
I-405 HOT Lanes – The Revolt is on!
Eastside voters are now in the position to seriously impact transportation policy regarding the I-405 HOT (Managed Express Toll) Lanes. The Senate has heard the voice of the 30,000 signatures on the Stop405Tolls.org petition. The House of Representatives has not yet got the message.We MUST get rid of the second HOT lane this Legislative session and convert it to a general purpose (GP) lane. If it does not happen between now and the end of the session on March 10, it will never happen. We will be stuck with this bad idea for ever and ever.
Read More
Volume 1, Issue 7
February 1, 2016
Congestion is the Problem
Traffic congestion has increased dramatically in the Puget Sound Region in the last several years. This is an obvious truth to anyone who drives a car – and that’s most of us. This is not inevitable. It is the direct result of the choices our leaders have made.
The rail transit lobby loves to claim that “We cannot build our way out of congestion”. You hear that at almost any public discussion on transportation. Nonsense! It is a choice the region has made. Here is some data on the results of those choices.
Read More
Volume 1, Issue 6
January 20, 2016
I-405 Managed Express Toll (HOT) Lanes - A Revolt!
The HOT (High Occupancy Toll) lanes on I-405 have increased congestion, reduced safety and failed to gain acceptance by most drivers. What a Mess! There is a revolt at hand.
Let's be clear. HOT lanes can't work if there is no congestion in the General Purpose (GP) lanes. If the GP lanes were allowed to work well, there would be no capacity in the HOT lanes, so no one would buy their way in.
Read More
Volume 1, Issue 5
January 5, 2016
So who is this White Elephant soaking up all of our money?
Sound Transit is the non-elected government agency in the Puget Sound region that is focused on providing light rail at enormous cost to carry a tiny fraction of our daily and peak period person trips at some date in the distant future using regressive taxes to support the elite employees that work in downtown Seattle. Light Rail does too little, costs too much, takes too long.
Read More
Volume 1, Issue 4
Nov 5, 2015
Transportation Discussions
The Puget Sound Region is expected to grow by about one million people by 2040. About 200,000 of that growth will likely be in the City of Seattle, leaving about 800,000 new residents for Bellevue, Tacoma, Everett and the other 30 +/- cities within the Urban Growth Boundaries (UGB) of King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap Counties.
Read More
Volume 1, Issue 3
October 28, 2015
Transportation is Front and Center
Transportation issues are reaching a fever pitch here in the Puget Sound.Now comes the Seattle Time’s event at Kane Hall at the University of Washington, Gridlocked: Driving solutions to our regions traffic jams, on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015 . This event is sold out, but will be videoed with showing schedule to be determined.
Read More
Volume 1, Issue 2
October 20, 2015
Transportation 2040, the regional transportation plan prepared by the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) in 2014 calls for spending $174 Billion on all transportation with half of that sum spent on transit alternatives and the other half spent on roads. After that extraordinary expenditure on transit in the four county region (King, Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap Counties), transit will carry only 4.3% of the region’s nearly 19,000,000 million daily trips.
Read More
Volume 1, Issue 1
October 9, 2015
Hi. I’m Vic (as in Victor H. Bishop, P.E.). I’m a Professional Traffic Engineer who has worked in the transportation arena in the Puget Sound region since 1964, when I came to the Northwest to attend graduate school at the University of Washington. After receiving my MSCE in 1966 I worked as a traffic engineer for Boeing developing the 747 site in Everett. In 1968 I joined a small consulting firm as its second employee, which I eventually owned and operated for 37 years. I retired from active consulting in 2007. In those 41 years I worked on many street projects all over the region. I claim over 250 intersections that have had a traffic signal with my name on it (most have since been replaced over time, as is the nature of transportation in a growth area in a growth era). I strived to make the arterial street system work better.
I have been exposed to transportation policy issues all of my professional life. I now feel free to openly express my opinions on them. Transportation is an immensely complicated subject. There are multiple jurisdictions, interests and outcomes that can be discussed. We will try to simplify some issues.
Read More
Women of Washington
1100 Bellevue Way NE, Ste. 8A-427
Bellevue, WA 98004
Send Email
