In response to a recently published letter “Eastside is getting ripped off by ST3, add Light Rail to I-405,” I feel compelled to correct the record.

Light Rail along I-405 is neither simple nor an effective use of limited resources. Washington State Department of Transportation has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to add express lanes to I-405, and adding express bus service to take advantage of these lanes is good common sense. Light Rail is best placed directly in population and employment centers and in places with good transit connections — not a major highway with few transit centers and fewer walking opportunities. This is why Eastside jurisdictions and regional planners have opted for express bus routes that can leave I-405 to reach the places that people need to go.

Sound Transit has a firm principle of using taxes collected in each of its five sub-areas (including east King County) to provide benefits and services to those same sub-areas. Less than 20 percent of the anticipated ST3 funding will be collected from the Eastside, and those dollars will be used to benefit residents and businesses of the Eastside.

Whether you feel it is worth paying for better transit, as do I, or not, I hope that you make your decision based on the facts rather than on mischaracterizations and outright falsehoods.

Josh Benaloh

Redmond

Former chair of Sound Transit Citizen Oversight Panel