Next Tuesday, Washington state voters will consider Initiative 985. If adopted, I-985 would force local jurisdictions to synchronize traffic signals at high-volume intersections, open High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes during non-peak hours and prohibit the imposition of tolls to raise general revenue. I-985 pays for the synchronization mandate by, among other things, diverting red light camera profits into a traffic congestion relief fund. The measure’s co-sponsor, Tim Eyman, says taking away camera profits would stop local governments from installing the devices as a cash grab. After I-985 qualified for the ballot, five cities dropped plans to adopt photo enforcement. As you’d imagine, the revenue provisions have sparked vicious and vociferous opposition from groups that stand to lose money from the new deal.
Nearly a quarter of the $152,969 raised for the “No on 985” effort came from Signal Electric and American Traffic Solutions, companies involved in traffic camera projects. Toll road firms spent a reported $20k on the anti-985 effort. The American Council of Engineering Companies Washington, HDR Engineering, Parsons Brinckerhoff and Wilbur Smith Associates all fear a loss of business if the measure passes and tolling no longer become an option for state officials to balance the budget.
In direct violation of the Hatch Act, the U.S Department of Transportation recently began efforts to influence the I-985 vote. A top official issued grave warnings about the “degradation of transit performance” if voters approve the measure. The Federal Highway Administration issued an “October surprise” letter last week designed to raise doubt in voters minds about a possible loss of federal funding as a result of the I-985 provision that would open HOV lanes in off-peak hours.
Seattle’s two main newspapers have also attempted to derail the initiative’s passage. “Vote in favor of the initiative and your kid will get smashed in the legs by fenders of a car running a red light, or your grandmother killed as she uses a crosswalk after getting off a bus,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Joel Connelly wrote.
Somehow I don’t think the camera will come down off its pole and physically stop a car from taking out grannie as she attempts to cross the street.
they are like cancer. Destroy the public interest, to increase their personal $. Make life miserable for the people, to maximise one narrow group’s revenue, instead of making driving better and more efficient.
Not that I condone speeding. I argue for governors on cars, make it so the software prevents you from speeding. Running red lights should be heavy heavy penaaty, but not with shortened yellow times toincrease incidence of “offenders.”
What timing! I just filled out my ballot last night.
well if politics hold true in this dark purple state, this should pass with a 55% majority with king county voting 60% against simply because they don’t like Tim Eyman.
The posting reads like it was faxed in from Eyman’s campaign. Do you really think that the Bush administration is going to side with the greenies on anything?
Short answer — that’s absurd. At worst, the Transportation Dept. has displayed typical bureaucratic slowness when it told Washington the obvious — the feds have rules about how it disperses money. If you don’t follow those rules, you don’t get all of the money. Cause, meet effect.
There are jackasses, and then there’s Tim Eyman. He’s an obnoxious, right-wing hack who makes a living by putting on the ballot initiatives that are so poorly worded that they are usually ruled unconstitutional if they pass.
“Not that I condone speeding. I argue for governors on cars, make it so the software prevents you from speeding. Running red lights should be heavy heavy penaaty, but not with shortened yellow times toincrease incidence of “offenders.””
I’d lobby against the former and heavily against the latter. At any case with speed governors, exactly how will that be accomplished? EZPass-style RF transmitters on every speed limit sign determining your car’s top speed? Who’s gonna foot the bill for retrofitting the countless older makes with this technology?
John Williams: I’d lobby against the former and heavily against the latter. At any case with speed governors, exactly how will that be accomplished?
It allows the control freaks and nervous nellies to say that they are “doing something” to combat a “problem” – people exceeding two numbers posted on a sign, which usually has no relation to safety, particularly on a limited access highway.
Never mind that the problem exists largely in their over-active imaginations. The speed limit in Pennsylvania is 65 on limited access highways. The idea that anything over that speed represents “death on wheels” is ludicrous.
Columnist Joel Connelly, just like EVERY other columnist for the Seattle papers, is an ABSOLUTE COMMUNIST. Isn’t it interesting how “Columnist” and “Communist” sound so similar?
Tim Eyeman is about the only voice of any reason we have in WA state… which is why the Communists of King County (Seattle) and the Communists in the state legislature HATE him, with a passion.
The rest of the PEOPLE like him, a lot.
I would count on it passing, based on my personal non-scientific poll of my neighbors and coworkers.
They installed one of these red light cameras about 6 blocks from my condo here in Seattle, and I am 99% certain that the duration of the yellow signal has been decreased. This raises my suspicion that these cameras are more about money than safety. Too bad this initiative doesn’t include some sort of regulation of yellow signal times.
Could somebody please explain to me how–as seems to be implied by a few posters–985 is a threat to liberal values?
To the contrary, synchronizing traffic lights should reduce accidents, reduce global heating emissions and other automotive pollutants, and reduce stress for drivers, making them happier. I don’t know anything about sponsor Tim Eyman. Maybe he is some sort of a right wing nutjob, but unless I’m missing something, 985 sounds like a great idea, and I’m tempted to call my friends in Seattle and make sure they are voting for it.
David Holzman:
Seriously, the politics of bill’s co-sponsor are pretty irrelevant if it is a good bill.
If wannabe Halliburton/Blackwater companies like Signal Electric and American Traffic Solutions oppose the bill then I’m pretty sure its a good bill.
Journalists should really know what they are talking about before the make outlandish claims. “Vote in favor of the initiative and your kid will get smashed in the legs by fenders of a car running a red light, or your grandmother killed as she uses a crosswalk after getting off a bus,”
How about “Vote against the initiative and your kid will get smashed in the legs by fenders of a car running a red light because the yellow light was shortened, or your grandmother will rear end someone that had to panic break for a shortened yellow light and get sued and have a nervous breakdown,”
slushy,
Could you please spell out to us the connection between the red light bandit companies and halliburton and blackwater? There seems to be a pretense that Halliburton and Blackwater are somehow bad, and I hear them derided greatly by liberals, but I have yet to hear what they did that was so bad. I do believe there was some overcharging by halliburton, but I would bet you would be hard pressed to find a large government vendor that DIDN’T ever do this.
BTW, does anyone beleive that connections to Halliburton or Blackwater are relevant AND that connections to Ayers is relevant? Certainly each side makes the case that one is while the other isn’t, but does either side really give much relevance to the whole concept of judging people by their so called friends?
Red light and speeding cameras are just the kinds of nanny-state measures favored by Obama and the Dems. They restrict freedom while generating revenues for government agencies.
Remember, it’s for the children, and the old grannies.
Pay no attention to the taxman behind the curtain.
Landcrusher:
Everybody hates graft. But there are those who believe Haliburton and Blackwater lobbied to start an illegitimate war to facilitate that graft.
“Vote in favor of the initiative and your kid will get smashed in the legs by fenders of a car running a red light, or your grandmother killed as she uses a crosswalk after getting off a bus,”
Well, that clinches it for me.
By god, we MUST Save The Children. And Save The Elderly. And who know, if a random whale tries to cross, we Must Save The Whales, too.
Landcrusher: The obvious connection between the four companies is that they are government contractors.
The likely connection is that all four lobby the government to create imaginary problems to get more business, and that they all provide services that are less effective than if the government simply did it on their own. Numerous Pentagon studies have shown that it would have been cheaper to do logistics and food preparation in house than through Halliburton/KBR.
My comment just implied that all four companies are bad on their own; it did not connect any of the companies to politicians.
However, since you brought that up. If Obama is elected and gives billions of taxpayer dollars to Ayers for no-bid contracts to provide poorly executed overpriced services then I’ll admit that the Obama-Ayers relationship is just as relevant as the Halliburton-Bush/Cheney relationship.
Until then it is just a Red Herring. Like the misconception that he is an A-rab.
If Obama wins he will have beaten the dirtiest, most pathetic campaign that I have seen in my life. And just in case you want to throw out the other Red Herring, Acorn, here is McCain giving the Keynote Speech at an Acorn Rally before his desperate last chance at President (after Bush stole it from him in the 2000 primaries) forced him to abandon all principals and sense of reality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6Z2t7DTVKA&feature=related
Most of you lot don’t live in the paradise we call
Seattle, where people slow down for tunnels, and
slow down again exiting tunnels, or do the “Mercer
Crawl”, and “Convention Center Crawl”. Mercer St
leads to I5, there are 6 light controlled intersections,
none are synchronized, so the back-up lasts all day.
As for the use of HOV lanes for everyone during off
peak hours, it works in Portland…
SteveL