City has ‘never really’ tackled infrastructure problem efficiently, former Seattle mayor says

The Puget Sound region has been recycling its transportation infrastructure for decades.

Remove a chunk of asphalt from the surface of some streets and you will find cobblestone underneath. The problem is the region continues to grow exponentially.

If cities such as Seattle keep growing, leaders will need to figure out a way to use existing right of way more efficiently because it is unlikely very much more will become available, former Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn says. The former mayor says about 28 percent of the city’s landmass is right of way.

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“It’s not like we’re going to get a lot more…,” he said.

Seattle had a similar problem with energy, according to McGinn. The region was out of places to build dams, but it was able to adjust to a growing population and better conserve and use its current energy more efficiently.

“We’ve never really applied the same thing to the transportation infrastructure,” he explained. “We never think about how do we use our land more efficiently to move people around?”

McGinn says the way to use current infrastructure properly is to expand and encourage the use of public transportation. Alternatively, he believes living closer to the places you frequent, such as work, is another answer to the region’s traffic problems.

Seattle’s commute is so bad that data released by TomTom shows rush-hour evening commutes are the second worst in the country. City traffic caused a 31 percent increase in extra travel time in 2015. Seattle tied for fourth when it comes to overall congestion.

Another example about the region’s dire traffic situation is the mess a single pothole caused along I-5 over the weekend. The Washington State Department of Transportation reports a pothole 12 feet by 3 feet created at least four miles of backup on northbound I-5.

Part of the region’s congestion might be due to drivers refusing to give up their vehicle, just to be crammed into a space with dozens of other people, KIRO Radio’s Feliks Banel points out. He told McGinn that what it might take to fix infrastructure, without building more, sounds a little like social engineering.

McGinn says there’s a way to “grow organically,” but that will take trust.

“This is a huge challenge for Seattle…” he said.

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