Smart Growth Transportation System in Seattle, Washington

摘要

I'm going to take a few minutes to reflect on what a smart growth transportation system looks like in another metropolitan region. On the basis of the two presentations we've had so far, a lot depends on local conditions—smart growth is a nice, big idea, and there are many different ways you can deal with the transportation system. The solution really depends on where you are and what issues you are facing. I'm going to talk about the Seattle metropolitan area and how we are dealing with this issue. We are the Central Puget Sound region. We are a large region, more than 6,000 square miles. Seattle is the metropolitan center, but we have lots of governments—we like local home rule. We have four counties, 82 cities, and hundreds of special-purpose districts. We've gotten a lot of growth over the last decades, much of it related to jobs, and we have some concerns at the moment, but we have been a very high-growth area. We currently have 3.3 million people.