Those swine! All of our money pissed away to add an HOV lane in either direction. It just blows me away that they are reducing the existing bridge from four lanes to three(one HOV)and building a three laner the other way. What it boils down to is that now everyone will get to park on SR16 just like now, but pay a toll for the privilege. The HOV lanes will do nothing to alleviate traffic congestion. DOT also wanted to build a 16' bicycle path along SR16 between the Narrows and I-5 as well as put "community based art" on all of the retaining walls. Those ideas were tubed when they failed their referendum to raise the gas tax a few years ago.
16 is going to be exactly like 405, between 167 & 90.
2 lanes at a dead stop, with someone whistling by at 60 per every so often in the other.
I spent 3 years commuting from the Key Peninsula to Redmond, so have 1st hand knowledge of what a dismal failure that was, and now they're doing the exact same thing here.
We now have no options to get to the "mainland" w/o paying for it, unless we drive south to Olympia the back way.
What's more, they intend to gerrymander us out of the vote on the 13.2 billion (so far) RTID bill by slightly and I believe temporarily lowering the toll, and not hitting us as hard with some of the other tax raises, like the .5 sales, $100 licensing, etc..
These "benefits" will only affect people who live in Gig Harbor. I don't know if all of NW Pierce will get a break, but folks in Kitsap & Mason will still have to pay full price. Regardless, they are paying pennies on the dollar, so to say, by eliminating our right to vote.
We're already at about $5K per tax payer per annum in state taxes alone, and they are just getting started.
Considering that real estate and the tax revenue it generates is at an all time high, (and absolutely certain to drop as the GMA and CAOs take effect), unemployement is very low (PTL 4 GWB!!), the state has begun its the attack on small business, and the DOT alone has many, many, many more $billions they want to spend on frivolous BS......
One little blip and this state's economy is history...actually, it is certain now, IMO, unless something earth shattering happens very soon.
I watched Los Angeles go bankrupt, and left there at a time (1/92) that wefare recipients constituted 48% of LA county's citizens, not including unemployement or retirement. I watched real estate, from my Dad's apt building in Brentwood to my home in Palmdale, drop 40% across the board in one year.
This state is moving toward the same circumstances in largely the same way, but at a much more accelerated pace.
It's going to be interesting to watch - possibly from a distance by then, or maybe I'll just wait around for some bargains. If WA was traded on NASDAQ, I'd be shorting the hell out of it right now, down through the OTC and onto the pink sheets where it belongs