Transportation agenda doesn’t meet our needs | Letter

You reported on the recent meeting of our elected officials on Eastside transportation concerns. A conclusion was reached at the meeting — to have another meeting! I have an idea.

Why not build a freeway from the Smokey Point area in the north to Lakewood in the south. Call it I-205. It would parallel I-5 and I-405 in part, but would bypass Everett, Seattle, Bellevue and Tacoma. It could be linked to existing arteries and I-90.

We have 1 million residents coming soon. We want to grow tourism. We have freeway gridlock and ST2 and ST3 are not planned to solve freeway road congestion soon, we suspect, if ever. People need access to more land for development leading to lower-cost housing construction and jobs. Cities such as Kirkland, Redmond and Issaquah are well situated to provide and derive benefits from an I-205. Many support systems are already in place or planned.

We need to solve day to day costly time wasting traffic snarls. We can reduce carbon emissions caused by slow moving trucks and cars. We need to get to ports and airports faster. We need more travel time predictability. That is what the ordinary driver or business owner of a car or truck wants.

Are the elected officials listening? We await with anticipation to learn when they will meet next if King County Executive Dow Constantine or King County Council member Claudia Balducci are listening to frustrated drivers or just the other officials or Sound Transit bigwigs who may have a different agenda — an agenda that does not meet our needs.

Frank Crerand

Bellevue