I-985 author Tim Eyman warns DOT: "You better prepare" to open up car-pool lanes

Even before a single vote has been cast on his Initiative 985 to open car-pool lanes during nonpeak hours and make other changes in state transportation policy, Tim Eyman is telling officials they should be getting ready to enforce it.

"There's simply no excuse for you and the Washington state Department of Transportation to fail to prepare for I-985's new policies and priorities," Eyman said in an e-mail this month to state transportation Secretary Paula Hammond.

The e-mail, also sent to Gov. Christine Gregoire, predicts the initiative will pass and that 30 days later, car-pool lanes would be open to all motorists, except on weekdays from 6 to 9 a.m. and 3 to 6 p.m.

"You better prepare for that — signs need to be changed and shoulders prepared for this immediate, cost-effective reform," Eyman wrote.

This week, Eyman said he is sending a follow-up "notice" to Hammond and is already making plans for what he calls a "Freedom Drive" on Dec. 4, in which solo drivers would travel in lanes that have been restricted to car pools and buses on Interstates 5, 90 and 405.

He plans to lead the convoy in his pickup truck, which would carry a sign saying. "Drive in this lane. You paid for it. It's the law."

Hammond said when she received the message from Eyman and other I-985 sponsors, "I kind of laughed because it was classic Tim Eyman. I think we got 15 or 16 copies."

"I am not ordering signs now," she said. "I have a budget now and it is the law ... I'm not going to spend money on something that hasn't become law."

But Hammond said she has asked her staff to "develop an implementation plan" to be ready if the initiative passes Nov. 4. They'll look at the agreements under which the high-occupancy-vehicle lanes were created, to see how and whether those can be altered.

"It's part of my stewardship and responsibility to understand what might happen ... it would dramatically affect the way we operate our HOV system." Hammond said.

Eyman, leader of a group called Voters Want More Choices, has been promoting what he calls "taxpayer-protection initiatives" for a decade.

Hammond opted not to reply to Eyman's e-mail. "I am a very busy person and I didn't think I needed to start having a new pen pal." But she stressed that the transportation department is "trying to be fair and balanced" and is forbidden by law from taking a position on a ballot measure.

Unbridled by such constraint is former transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald, becoming a central figure in the campaign against I-985.

"This is a weird stew of things he [Eyman] thinks will appeal to someone in traffic, and ways to pay for his ideas which shouldn't appeal to anybody," MacDonald said. "I don't think it's going to do much to help traffic and it may help make traffic worse."

Heavy traffic on Seattle-area highways is no longer confined to the three-hour commuting periods in Eyman's initiative, MacDonald said, adding that the HOV lanes are crucial to the smooth flow of transit all day. Some limited-access ramps were specifically designed to bring buses directly into the busy left lane of a freeway, MacDonald said, and would create a hazard if opened to all traffic.

In other areas, HOV lanes were created on shoulders or on inside lanes near concrete barriers, and MacDonald said putting more vehicles on them — particularly late at night — would make the freeways more dangerous.

"You don't get a second chance if you're traveling at 60 mph and the guy in front of you spins out," he said.

Another provision of the initiative would make it more difficult to spend toll money collected on one highway from paying for improvements on another, requiring that any toll revenue not needed where it is collected go into a "Reduce Traffic Congestion Account."

That account would also receive 15 percent of the sales tax collected on motor vehicles, revenue from "red-light traffic camera" violations and money now spent on highway-related art projects.

The initiative says funds from the account could pay for opening car-pool lanes to the general public and for a variety of highway projects, but not for bike lanes, buses, light rail, ferries, trolleys, part-and-ride lots, landscaping or wildlife crossings.

In his e-mail to state officials, Eyman said his confidence stems partly from an Elway Poll in which 58 percent of the voters contacted support the initiative. In a more recent Elway Poll, taken this month, that had dropped to 51 percent in favor of the measure, 29 percent against and 20 percent undecided.

Eyman said he still considers that a solid indication of support, adding that Elway polls have often underestimated the support for his initiatives.

Jack Broom: 206-464-2222 or jbroom@seattletimes.com