Orphan Road

While I'm sympathetic to SC's idea that a regional trasnportation authority would aid in planning, I think it's still an open question as to whether it would make it any easier to raise money for Puget Sound transportation projects, which is really its main purpose, according to the Rice-Stanton commission report.

After all, voters in the RTID district, who would make up the bulk of the RTC's population, just recently voted down the $17B Prop. 1. Simply redrawing the map around these people doesn't get you the $62B you need to complete our backlog of infrastructure projects.

But more importantly, I'm not convinced that the people within this mythical "region" we call Puget Sound actually view themselves as such. Shawn Bunney, for example, is mighty pissed that Pierce County tax dollars are flowing to Seattle. Why the hostility, if we're truly one region? It's not just the "Cascade Curtain" that divides us. There seems to be a Lake Washington Curtain, a Duwamish Curtain, a Sea-Tac Curtain, etc.

Update: Josh Feit has more good questions.