This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.
Judging from the bio, it’s pretty clear what audience Rep. Jay Inslee’s op-ed in Today’s P-I is targeted at:
Prop. 1 is heavily weighted to transit-related investment, with 75 percent of funds dedicated to light rail, high-occupancy vehicle lanes, park and rides, and road investments that will make transit more efficient and reliable. Fifty miles of light rail in Prop. 1 will give commuters options other than roads.
This is what I fear the most. Prop. is so heavliy tilted towards transit improvements (75 percent to light rail HOV, etc.), that if it goes down, the message will be “voters reject transit.” I just don’t see a way around that interpretation becoming conventional wisdom.
(Don’t get me wrong, I’ll try to fight that interpretation if the exit polls warrant it, but I’m just a lonely blogger here compared to the awesome megaphone of, say, The Seattle Times, and we know what their agenda is).
Also, Isnlee’s a big green-tech proponent, so this part isn’t too surprising:
Second, efforts to move to a carbon-free economy may be advanced as much by revolutionizing automobiles as eliminating all lane building. By the time we fix the U.S. 2 bypass in Monroe, we’ll be able to drive plug-in hybrids that charge in our garage at night, drive 40 miles off that charge, and then run off environmentally friendly biofuel produced in the Evergreen State.
He may be too optimistic here, but it may also be too optimistic to say that we can never build another mile of highway. The truth is liklely somewhere in between.