With the Seattle Monorail Project in disarray, The Seattle Times commissioned a poll to find out how Seattle voters are feeling about a project loved by some and scorned by others.

"The support is clearly eroding. But there's a sizable core of true believers," said Stuart Elway, whose company conducted the poll.

Today's story by Times reporter Susan Gilmore says that more than half of those surveyed say the project should be abandoned. But 45 percent said they want to find a way to continue the project. That may be one of the poll's most interesting findings, given all that has transpired in recent weeks.

The Times has traditionally used polls like this to inform the civic dialogue about important issues. Our purpose is to provide insights that are independent and neutral.

"The monorail project started with the citizens and has been repeatedly endorsed by the voters. So when financing issues inspired public officials to express grave concern about the project, we wanted to go back to the citizens to see what they thought," said Suki Dardarian, Times deputy managing editor.

Seattle voters passed a pro-monorail initiative in 1997 over strong opposition from the political establishment. In 2000, city voters approved spending $6 million on monorail planning. In 2002, voters passed a car-tab tax to fund the 14-mile monorail from Ballard to West Seattle. The margin of victory was less than 1,000 votes. In 2004, voters defeated an initiative that would have gutted the project.

In recent weeks, the project's financing plan unraveled and its top two leaders resigned. A Times analysis last week by business reporter Drew DeSilver indicated a new financing plan likely would require added taxes or reneging on promises made to win voter support.

Such major changes would require yet another vote, and The Times poll found that 61 percent of the respondents said if there is a new monorail plan, it should go back to the voters.

"This is a critical time — determining how to proceed on a publicly supported project that's now the subject of serious questions," Dardarian said. "We felt that one thing missing from the current conversation was the voice of the people, those who voted on the monorail and would be paying for it for years to come."

The public-policy issues extend to Seattle's City Council, which must approve construction permits before the monorail can be built. Poll respondents were almost equally divided over how the monorail issue might affect City Council elections. The story says:

"Of those polled, 37 percent said they would be more likely to support a council member in the November elections who tried to stop the monorail. A smaller number, 29 percent, said they would more likely support a member who tried to save it.

"Nearly one in three voters said it would make no difference."

While this poll included only Seattle residents, who are the ones affected by the car-tab tax, Times coverage of the monorail is part of our broader commitment to covering transportation, an important public-policy issue throughout this region. Transportation can't be covered with a Seattle-centric focus.

"Big-ticket projects like Sound Transit, the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the 520 bridge require watchdog and explanatory reporting, and our transportation team fills the bill," Dardarian said. "But transportation is also something that affects us on a very personal level, from backups on Highway 9 to whether there's food on a ferry run. "

The Times launched a transportation initiative in 2002, and it is just as strong today, with key reporting over the years by Mike Lindblom, Susan Gilmore and Eric Pryne. We also let readers and commuters set the agenda, giving them an opportunity to ask us questions, answered Sundays in the Local section in our Bumper to Bumper column by Charles E. Brown.

Our effort has even greater reach with the coverage by reporters in our Eastside, Snohomish County, Olympia and Washington, D.C., bureaus.

This region may revolve around Seattle but it doesn't revolve very fast if you're stuck in traffic.

Slimming down:

Monday, July 18, The Seattle Times Co. will change to the narrower page width that is common in major newspapers throughout the country. The change will affect the daily Times and Post-Intelligencer, as well as the Sunday newspaper.

Standard pages will be one inch narrower and tabloid sections such as Ticket or Northwest Weekend will be one inch shorter.

While the change is minimal, it represents significant cost savings because of the number of newspapers we print every day.

I'll walk you through that change, and why we're making it, in next week's column.

Inside The Times appears in the Sunday Seattle Times. If you have a comment on news coverage, write to Michael R. Fancher, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111, call 206-464-3310 or send e-mail to mfancher@seattletimes.com. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists