Comments

1
Im a little confused, when it comes to the viaduct tunnel, not only are tolls bad, condemmed by EVERYONE and because of that, its going to create some epic carmegeddon gridlock downtown.

But when it comes to Tim Eyman, tolls are ok. Everyone loves them? Heres several polls thats show just how much everyone loves paying tolls.
2
People don't like tolls so Eyman and Freeman plan to use that dislike to kill light rail on I-90, which has nothing to do with tolls. Since it is a state-wide initiative, people in Vancouver and Linden and Yakima will now be voting on an initiative to kill the light rail the voters here already approved. I think Eyman forgot the fate of his first initiative, which was tossed out because it violated the single subject rule.
3
Tolls are preferable to letting our transportation infrastructure crumble and fail to catch up to growing need. You know what's better than that though? People actually paying taxes, such as the income tax that would have shifted Washington out of from its shameful position as the state with the most regressive taxation structure in the nation, or taxes on license plates/gas/etc. This shit has to get funded somehow or we're creating even bigger problems for ourselves down the road (crappy pun 100% intended). If shortsighted imbeciles like Eyeman and his followers refuse to pay their fair share of taxes, then we get stuck with crappy solutions that nobody likes, like tolls.
4
"Because encouraging people to make decisions connected to a reasonable understanding of what's going on is not what Eyman's up to here."

That's not what Eyman is up to, ever.
5
Never ever trust Tim Eyman or the Tunnel of Tolled Terror supporters.
6
@1: The problem isn't the toll, it's whether the project is worth building at all.

One of the main arguments in favor of the deep-bore tunnel is that it will reduce congestion downtown. But the state's own EIS suggests that, with tolling, surface congestion will be *just as bad* with the tunnel as without.

I think that tolls are great. I would love to see congestion pricing on 99, I-5, 520, I-90, and 405. That would raise money, but more importantly, it would (by definition) improve traffic flow, since you raise the toll price until you've lowered traffic to a level that's free-flowing.

But is it worth spending $4 billion on a project which will only be used by a very small segment of the population, and which won't achieve its goal of reducing congestion on any parallel roadways? Especially when we could achieve that goal *more* effectively, and for *much* less money, by simply putting a tollbooth on 99 tomorrow?

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