State looks at traffic issues

Gov. Chris Gregoire reviewed the state's effort to cut down on traffic jams and delays Tuesday, and while the state Department of Transportation had a lot of figures, they weren't very encouraging.

Some examples:

• Since 1980, the number of licensed drivers has risen by 76 percent, and miles traveled on state highways have increased 110 percent.

• In the same period, the lane miles of state highways grew 10 percent.

• The state is in the midst of its biggest road-construction boom, but it is struggling to contain costs as the price of materials increases by as much as 20 percent over projections.

• In 2006, there were more than 108,000 hours of delayed traffic on state highways, with an economic cost of $624 million.

Traffic issues were a political flash point in this year's legislative session, and initiative king Tim Eyman has proposed a measure that would force some changes the state already has begun, such as synchronizing traffic lights.

By better coordinating the lights, travel time through the busiest intersections can be cut by more than two minutes, according to the DOT.

But building more roads is not a viable solution to congestion, in part because of their increasing cost, said Gregoire and DOT Secretary Paula Hammond.

"We cannot pave our way out of this problem, even if we want," Gregoire said.

Too many cars

According to Hammond's report, too many cars using too small a road cause 40 percent of the state's congestion. Bad weather accounts for an additional 15 percent, and construction work accounts for 10 percent.

Gregoire targeted the 25 percent of delays caused by traffic incidents such as wrecks and breakdowns, saying the state could do more to encourage safety, and "some responsibility has to be borne by the drivers."

She also told Hammond that her agency should be more aggressive in expanding its Commute Trip Reduction program, which uses mass transit to deliver people to work sites.

But those kinds of approaches can't make up for the fact that the state simply needs more blacktop, said Jason Mercier, an analyst for the Washington Policy Center, a conservative-leaning private think tank.

"We can't manage our way out of congestion without significantly increasing capacity," he said. "It will require significant paving to mitigate the impact of the failed policies of the past to not keep up with the growing demand."