Work with Gary for More Community, Less Olympia

I attended the Point Wells open house this week at the Shoreline Center. I was surprised to see my opponent there. She hasn't shown up at any of these events until now.

In talking to various people, such as Tom Andersen, head of the Richmond Beach Community Association, about this project, a frightening picture of the future of traffic in our area emerges.

Put the following pieces together:

1. Until 2007, relieving traffic congestion was the top priority of our Dept. of Transportation. In 2007, our legislature, including my opponent, voted to remove congestion relief from DOT priorities entirely. 
2. In our north end communities, some of our intersections are already rated "D," which means that it takes more than one light cycle for a car to get through.  As intersections get to "D," cars start leaving the main roads and  start flooding into neighborhoods.
3. Any more traffic and some intersections will degrade to "F."  "F" means that the intersection fails. Traffic backs up from turning cars to fill the space between intersections so that when the light changes, traffic cannot move. Traffic must turn off into neighborhoods.  
4. Starting next year, with the tolling of the 520 bridge (a brilliant voted for by my opponent), traffic will flood around the north end of Lake Washington to avoid the toll.  This traffic will flow through our The DOT won't say what the toll will be, but whatever its starts at, it will gradually rise. Tolls as high as ten dollars have been discussed.
5. Starting a few years later, construction begins on Point Wells, bringing a flood of construction trucks, a steady stream of gravel, concrete, and similar trucks onto our main roads and down Richmond Beach way.
6. As the project gets built, we add 8,000 new car trips to the system. The system is now flooded from the west, as people try to get from their thousands of new condominiums in Point Wells to the freeways.