When roads and rail collide

PROPOSITION 1 — the Sound Transit extension — and Initiative 985, from Tim Eyman, deserve each other and should be thought of as one regional question mark before voters next week.

Proposition 1 is the request from the region's transit agency for nearly $18 billion over 15 years of construction. Eyman's initiative poses as a congestion breakthrough but places many barnacles on local authority to continue red-light cameras, and the idea of opening car-pool lanes to everyone except for daily commute times.

The Seattle Times is recommending a "no" on both measures for reasons described in our editorial endorsement — all available online at Seattletimes.com/opinion.

But my role here is not to speak ill of Caesar but to ask what does the Republic wish? Two nearly contravening items on the ballot, one so far down you'd better bring a flashlight to find it, do not speak of a region with a plan in mind, or a convincing argument for sustainable voter support.

Proposition 1's predecessor, melding both transit and highways into a more ambitious package, failed just last year. Sound Transit, through its spokesmen, said they welcome the chance to go to the voters cleanly as a simple, transit-only tax request.

Many insiders were telling the Transit board to wait another year at least; 2010 would give us some breathing room on taxes, if there is such a thing. But the feeling was that with a large plurality coming out of Seattle for Democrats, enough votes would be left over to fund light-rail extensions out to the year 2023.

The thing that stymies many voters, including me, is that we have so many uncertain decisions before us, it's hard to vote for any of this stuff with certainty.

For example: What is the Interstate 90 corridor? No one truly believes the Highway 520 floating bridge can be tolled without eventually tolling I-90, but that's not on the ballot. What happened to the supreme urgency of replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct? That old bridge was described as rotting away. It's not on the ballot, either.

In tiptoeing around the major arteries and getting into the small debates about taking light rail to Lynnwood, or finally synchronizing all the traffic lights (why does this take an initiative?), the region nitpicks itself and asked voters for smaller and small things while the problems enlarge.

We have no unanimity of elected officials on what we should do. Some prefer buses only; some want light rail to cross I-90; the head of the state department of transportation, the very person who must have the most knowledge of the problems, has ducked meaningful comment on the issues facing voters. We are asked to vote in the dark.

Our best bet is to let these latest tax increases and dinkey solutions pass and get on with regional reconstruction of our decision-making process, beginning next year in Olympia. I still hold out hope for a directly elected Sound Transit Board, a unified decision-making process that includes Kitsap County and its ferry issues. I still hold out hope for the rule of the majority on a 520 floating bridge instead of the tyranny of the minority.

The region has been so fat and dreamy for so long, we have lost the ability to move quickly and spontaneously, or to anticipate a future that is beyond a few neighborhoods. The result has been an expansion of government participation and a decline of government decisions.

After next week's election, we may get some clarity about the next four years. But not if our asymmetrical region continues to confront big questions and issues with out-of-date and incoherent layers of government.

Learn more: I-985 campaign:

voterswantmorechoices.com;Anti-I-985campaign:no985.org.

Sound Transit: future.soundtransit.org;Yescampaign:masstransitnow.org;Nocampaign:notoprop1.org

James F. Vesely's column appears Sunday on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is: jvesely@seattletimes.com; for a podcast Q&A with the author, go to Opinion at www.seattletimes.com/edcetera