This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.
Ezra Basom writes:
Lets call a spade a spade, and stop pretending that WSDOT offers this state a plan for transportation. The Washington State Department of Transportation has a plan for building, maintaining and expanding highways, at a time when we need to be rethinking our auto-centric transportation system. We simply havent been asking the right questions about how to solve our transportation problems. By revising state transportation goals, we can reframe the questions and have the ability to explore more innovative solutions.
It’s certainly true that WSDOT is still very highway-centric. However, it bears noting that there are several unsexy-but-vital rail projects that the agency is working on in the state. Here’s the complete list.
Basom might still call this is a “spade” and argue that the state has shirked its rail obligations. And that would be a fair point. But if you want to encourage WSDOT to do more, I think it’s important to acknowledge what they’ve already done.