Spokane has come up with a great plan to relieve congestion without relying on transit solutions that never seem to work!

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Build road. LOTS of roads.

http://www.spokanecounty.org/engineer/cocreport.pdf

-- Craig Carson (craigcar@crosswinds.net), March 03, 2000

Answers

Now this idea might work!

-- (zowie@hotmail.com), March 03, 2000.

Doesn't look that bad to me. In fact, I'm a little surprised that Craig would find this too thrilling. One of the main goals throughout the planning of these projects is to ensure that they do not violate GMA guidelines, which includes expanding growth in urban growth areas while limiting as much as possible growth in rural areas. For the most part, these projects appear to do that, and the ones that don't: NE Connector, Southside Arterial, and Northside Arterial, were vocally opposed by residents and most likely won't receive much further consideration.

As far as not relying on transit solutions, I will point out that the Valley Couplet Connector includes a westbound HOV lane. And although not included in this study, the North Spokane Corridor also includes extensive use of HOV lanes, and the possibility of including a light rail system in the future.

And not to rain on anyone's parade, but can someone explain how this all would be paid for? The combined total for all six projects is nearly $300 million. It's great to come up with these plans, but without a source of funding, the only place these projects are going to be constructed on is paper.

Again, I am NOT against the building of new roads, but if we're going to build them, we should make sure that we build them so that they not only address existing needs but they also don't accelerate their own obsolesence. By asking questions like, if we build this road, will it create more congestion than we are trying to eliminate, then we save a whole bunch more money in the future. These Spokane projects do that. The ones that encourage growth in existing developed areas are the ones that received the most public support, while the ones that are most likely to cause sprawl into rural areas have received public opposition, and probably won't get off the drawing board. Finally, projects like the Valley Couplet Connector and North Spokane Corridor recognize that GP lanes might work right now, but future expansion is also going to need to rely on a multi- modal approach.

Sounds like a good plan to me.

-- Patrick (patrick1142@yahoo.com), March 04, 2000.


Where? How long will it take? How much will it cost?

-- Matthew M. Warren (mattinsky@msn.com), March 05, 2000.

"The combined total for all six projects is nearly $300 million."

Gee-

Nearly the cost of three miles of light-rail. Less than the cost of the bus tunnel that we are now abandoning. Imagine that

-- (zowie@hotmail.com), March 05, 2000.


"Doesn't look that bad to me. In fact, I'm a little surprised that Craig would find this too thrilling. " And why not? I would anticipate that the HOV lanes will ultimately be converted to GP lanes, if not by 711, then by a subsequent initiative. And I am real skeptical that, as the growth occurs, you could maintain the policy of no development off the connector routes. So yes, it at least starts to add meaningful capacity (ROADS) which, if you want growth, you'd better prepare for. And it isn't like Spokane has a shortage of wheat fields.

-- (craigcar@crosswinds.net), March 06, 2000.


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