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Residents Take Back the Streets in Seattle

By Vicki L. Duckett
J-Lab Staff Writer
April 15, 2003

Update:
Transit board
rethinks tax hike
 May 13, 2003

After 2,000 people "built it" with less, area transit board members signaled they will lower their proposed half-penny sales tax increase. The board took up the issue one week after The Times reported that readers would pay for key transportation projects with other revenue sources. "When we start seeing results that indicate a real antipathy toward increasing the sales tax, I think the legislature needs to revisit the balance of (potential) revenues they've given us," board member Cynthia Sullivan told The Times

See the full story on The Seattle Times' web site.

Aging viaducts, sinking bridges, and traffic-jammed corridors are aggravations for any department of transportation. But The Seattle Times is doing more than just writing about the region's daunting transportation woes.

It is also challenging local residents themselves to play transit builder.

ImageOn Sunday, March 30, The Times launched "You Build It," an interactive exercise that invites people to tackle the same problems - and solutions - that are plaguing local officials. Readers can participate online or via a ballot in the newspaper.

Participants are offered a menu of 50 choices for 29 transportation initiatives. Each choice has its own price tag. Not only must participants choose what they'd like built, they also must choose how they would pay for it.

The response has been encouraging. By early May, nearly 2,000 readers responded to The Times' survey, 85 percent of them online, according to reporter Eric Pryne. An analysis by Elway Research Inc. showed that respondents favored taxes on gas and cars rather than a large state sales tax, and on average were willing to fund packages that were larger than the RTID executive board had proposed.

The interactive exercise has a strong explanatory component. Each transportation option is explained and it's located on a regional map.

"You Build It" parallels a regional planning process that is working to deliver a more traditional form of citizen interaction: a transportation funding referendum for the three county Seattle area. Last November, voters overwhelmingly nixed a statewide measure, calling for $7.8 billion in transportation spending.

The Times is trying to create venues for public input as the Regional Transportation Investment District (RTID) of King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties considers which of statewide transportation projects to recommend to the voters this fall.

"You Build It," however, focuses on 29 of these projects - those costing more than $50 million and those calling for actual construction. Not included in The Times' exercise are projects with no price tag and projects still in the planning phase, such as the King County monorail system.

Among the options participants can choose are projects to widen highways, to create "HOT" lanes accessible for a fee to solo drivers, and to build "direct freeway-to-freeway connections" that eliminate circular exit ramps.

ImageThere is no formal relationship between The Times and the RTID. The newspaper compiled its list of transportation projects not only from state and county agencies but also from local business developers and citizens' groups.

The cost estimates in "You Build It" come from state and local transportation authorities and assume the highest projected cost. Participants can choose funding options that include sales taxes, excise taxes, vehicle-license fee, tolls, parking taxes and employer taxes. RTID has the same options, but unlike readers, must navigate various restrictions in current laws.

The goal of "You Build It," says Pryne, is to allow residents to do more than go to the polls and cast a vote. It seeks to help them step into the role of decision maker and get a better understanding of the tradeoffs they must make to reduce gridlock. Then it gives them an informal "vote" on their preferences.

In return, Pryne says, county and state officials get a better idea of to what the public really wants.


J-Lab is a center of the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism. It is a spin-off of the Pew Center for Civic Journalism (www.pewcenter.org). © 2004 University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism