Proposition 1: Sound Transit moves from "if" to "get it done"

The moment must not pass without another round of applause. Solid voter approval of Sound Transit's Proposition 1 to expand light rail, commuter train and bus service is a generational conversation changer.

In the midst of economic uncertainty, voters in Snohomish, King and Pierce counties turned out in strong numbers to say with a pragmatic eloquence: Get started, get it done and do it right.

The region has wrung its hands over traffic and mobility for decades. A year ago, voters were asked to approve a complicated, expensive package of roads and transit with a long lead time to results. Opponents gamed the cost estimates with the desired effect. In the absence of agreement on a price tag, voters said no.

Then a brief pause, followed by an extraordinary turn of events.

By spring 2008, the board of Sound Transit was looking at a transit-only package with a 15-year deadline, and a fast start with 100,000 new hours of bus service and 65 percent more commuter rail. Thirty-four miles of light rail would be added by 2023.

In July, the board voted 18-zip to go to the ballot.

Certainly, the $17.9 billion measure had opponents, but little opposition. Trying to fight a new war with old tactics, critics went to court to challenge how budget numbers were presented. The cost estimates held up to scrutiny, and a judge told the usual suspects to stuff it.

Proposition 1 enjoyed eager and active support. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels remained an unflinching advocate of regional transit. The Sierra Club loudly opposed the roads-and-transit blend in November 2007, but worked hard for Proposition 1's passage.

The campaign for the measure was less about pitching the plan, than making sure the word got out. Phone banks and volunteer help did just that.

Proponents had a solid proposal of long-term investments with immediate dividends. The board's vote to return to the polls was taken as gas prices topped $4.25 a gallon. Households wanted options.

I say the groundwork for this month's success was laid in 2006, as Eastside communities and their local elected officials embraced high-capacity transit. Leaders in Bellevue, Issaquah, Kirkland and Redmond pushed Sound Transit for more work on the Interstate 90 corridor, Highway 520 and Interstate 405.

Chambers of commerce and downtown associations on both sides of Lake Washington supported Proposition 1. They helped move the endless conversation from if the region needed a mutually beneficial transit system to when and how it might be accomplished.

Planning for Phase 2 extensions approved by voters started in 2004 at Sound Transit. Eventually, a decision has to be made.

Forty years ago, the region waded through a ballot full of visionary capital improvements promoted by Jim Ellis, Seattle attorney and civic crusader. Voters said yes with a notable exception: light rail. Passage of four decades has not dulled his irritation with the campaign run by General Motors to kill the transit plan. GM paraded a trailer with a plexiglass box to display a chrome-plated engine that would power the bus of the future. No one, GM said, wants something as old-fashioned as street cars. The engine and bus were never made.

Ellis is still annoyed by an ad full of rich praise for the Forward Thrust campaign, which noted taxpayers could cut their cost in half by eliminating one measure: transit. The package was paid for with property taxes, not sales taxes. Transit needed 60 percent to pass and received 51 percent. Two years later, in the midst of the epic Boeing slump, a second try failed miserably.

This time, Ellis believes voters acted on a growing recognition that transit is basic to dealing with urban density. They saw public investments that had to be done, understood them to be expensive, but knew they must be started.

The conversation changed from woulda, coulda, shoulda to get it done — overdue, pragmatic progress.

Lance Dickie's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is ldickie@seattletimes.com; for a podcast Q&A with the author, go to www.seattletimes.com/edcetera