The $10 billion question

Anecdotally, however, alternatives to road building do seem to be paying off. In the Puget Sound region, a trip-reduction program that subsidized bus fares, paid people to give up their parking stalls at work, and helped fund employees' use of Flexcars cost the state $3 million. That relatively paltry investment leveraged another $35 million in employer funding, according to WSDOT figures, and reduced delay an average of 6 percent during the peak morning commute. Other alternatives include so-called "HOT"—or high- occupancy toll—lanes, which allow solo car commuters to pay to avoid jammed general-purpose lanes. (High-occupancy vehicles could drive in the lanes for free.)

Environmentalists aren't delusional; they know that even with incremental improvements, I-405 may have to be widened to accommodate the thousands of people who commute along that corridor. But, they argue, it doesn't make sense to commit to radical surgery before at least trying holistic options. "Studies keep showing that you can't build your way out of congestion," says the Wildlife Federation's Jan Hasselman. "So we're saying, 'Let's move aggressively with [managing demand] and transit and a couple of highway fixes, and circle back and see where we are. And if it hasn't worked, then we can consider other options.'"

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• Jan Hasselman
• Bellevue
• Peter Hurley
• Nature and the Environment
• Environmental Issues and Protection

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