Stay focused on rails and trails on the Eastside

The daily commute is going to change from the pavement up, and it will be for the better if we have the imagination and wit not to go with the traffic flow.

Changes great and small are coming.

In May, the 42-mile Eastside rail corridor, which the Port of Seattle recently bought from BNSF Railway, will be parsed out and resold to King County, Sound Transit, the City of Redmond and two regional utilities.

All those entities will help the Port recover its $81 million purchase price as they acquire ownership and easements to maintain freight service in the corridor, develop passenger rail and bicycles trails, and plan water and power lines.

How we all get around, through our neighborhoods and through the region, will continue to evolve, in part because we cannot afford not to change.

Two Washington State University researchers recently made the case for low-impact roadway designs during a WSU Innovators forum in downtown Seattle. We will all be talking about permeable pavers and pervious concrete as the health and condition of Washington waterways become a permanent topic of discussion.

The challenge is reducing pollution discharges and stormwater flows from commercial and residential development. Professors David McLean and Curtis Hinman describe the remedy as dealing with water where it falls.

An extraordinary amount of toxic crud drips and drifts off vehicles. Roadway materials, median strips and plantings are redesigned and employed to capture gunk before it floats away.

Enhancing transportation within the built environment is the broad theme. Opportunities scale upward from composite materials to rethinking how the old Eastside freight line between the cities of Snohomish and Renton — including a spur from Woodinville to Redmond — is recycled for future use.

The spirit of the discussion is captured in an April 6 resolution passed by the Woodinville City Council. The highest and best use of the corridor is dual rails and trails, the council concluded, because it is affordable and feasible, a cost-effective way to address transportation needs and serve citizens for generations.

The earliest vision for the corridor was creation of a colossal bicycle trail. Over time, keeping freight service and the potential for commuter links between Eastside communities took hold.

Chuck Ayers, executive director of the Cascade Bicycle Club, says he believes the rails and trails concept can work and coexist, but then he asks the questions that reveal underlying skepticism: Which comes first, rails or trials, and where does the money come from?

Bruce Agnew, policy director of the Discovery Institute's Cascadia Center, has a ready answer: Rails and trails must be done simultaneously. It is the only way Agnew sees it happening.

He views the Cascadia Center as the neutral broker among a variety of public entities and potential users of the corridors. The center is a longtime proponent of rail from Eugene to Vancouver, B.C., and has actively led discussions and hosted field trips on the possibilities for the Eastside corridor.

Agnew, consultant Thomas M. Jones of TMJ Group, LLC, and Loren Herrigstad, president of All Aboard Washington, have crunched the numbers to find competitive estimates for refurbishing tracks, building and paving a bike trail and developing commuter service.

Interest abounds in city halls and among Eastside employers, the latest being Google with its new Kirkland facilities. The Bel-Red Corridor anticipates the arrival of The Spring District, a new 36-acre mixed-use neighborhood.

Funding exists, from state and federal pockets to local-option motor vehicle excise taxes. Good ideas will attract money and votes to sustain them.

Eastside rails and trails is too great an opportunity not to happen — simultaneously.

Lance Dickie's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is ldickie@seattletimes.com