Evergreen Point to Take Toll

The Road Takes its Toll:
To help pay for a new Evergreen Point Floating Bridge the state is going to put up toll gates and charge everyone a quarter to cross the old one. We had toll booths removed years ago and we assume they can be returned to the same location. And we also assume the new transponder trick can work on this deal too. Especially if every error costs the motorist $49. That would pay for a really nice bridge, if they’re still satisfied with their 18% error rate.

The news people love it, too. They like to show file footage of the bridge every time they mention the toll plan. Somehow makes it more real. Then they even try to interview an actual citizen to see what people think. “Um, like what? We like have to like pay a like toll? Like don’t like tease me, bro!”

This means I need to get one of those transponders from the grey market. It looks real and provides a signal indicating a valid account. See, I got this email saying I can inherit millions if I just send a few thousand to free up my account in Nigeria. So instead of doing that I’ll just charge my fake transponder to that account. Oh, and I might want to use a fake name, too. Don’t know why, just seems appropriate somehow.

The other thing we heard is they’re going to have tunnels on the Seattle side of the new bridge. That way it won’t offend the neighbors. Those people who want a diminutive bridge should be happy. The planners who want to keep the light rail option open should be happy too. The bridge will cross the lake and then somehow dive into the surf on the west shore and disappear. Then it will resurface over by I-5. Maybe the University will get an underground parking garage for their football stadium.

But don’t count on that last part. By the time we get around to actually building the new bridge the UW football program will move to Oklahoma City. Football players don’t need to physically attend classes anyway so it’ll be fine. I heard several other universities may move their teams there to save on game day travel expenses. They could play each other twice a week. Oklahoma taxpayers should be thrilled to pay for a couple dozen football stadiums.

Anyway, the light rail on the new bridge is a serious consideration when you look at what’s at stake. We get about 50,000 new people a year in the area. In America we have nearly one car for each person. That means we need to add roadway capacity in the area at a pretty high rate.
The only alternative is high capacity transit and virtual workplace. Wait, that’s two. Virtual workplace means another requirement on the new bridge, though. It’ll have to accommodate a large pipe for fiber optic cables. With more and more people working from home we’ll need more bandwidth everywhere.

See, “bandwidth” is a semi technical term that makes it sound as if I know what I’m talking about. I think it has to do with how much music you can get on your iPod or something. If you have enough bandwidth you can have lots of bands. But without fiber optics you wouldn’t be able to see it, so it’s important. I guess.

Sound Transit sent us a postcard encouraging us to get on their web site – www.soundtransit.org – and tell them how to make our commute better. Two questions they want answers to: “How much should we invest and when?” and “What are the region’s priorities?” You can call them on 1-866-511-1398 if you want to respond in Spanish or Chinese.

I think it’s really nice of them to ask. They have no idea how many dumb responses they’ll get. Wouldn’t it be a hoot if they let us see what people actually say? They won’t. They’ll just publish a bunch of statistics. 40% want red trains; 30% want free sandwiches, 80% want a new car, and so on.

The only problem with the Evergreen Point Bridge project is that it’s not real close to Newcastle. Glen will have to wait for the new Coal Creek Parkway culvert before he can swim out to Lake Washington and watch the construction. But we have years to wait, so it might be OK. I wonder if a culvert has bandwidth?

Al