TRANSPORTATION GOVERNANCE PROBLEM STATEMENT

Our current governance system for the delivery of services and infrastructure that transcend jurisdictional boundaries is highly decentralized. Many people must collaborate to make decisions about services and capital projects and then must further collaborate and act consistently with those decisions to ensure implementation. The system ensures the involvement of many elected leaders, but may impose a cost in efficiency and effectiveness.

Because citizens are unable to identify a central point of accountability, it may also contribute to the lack of popular support for important regional systems.

While this same fragmentation and marginal accountability are common to a number of regional issues, addressing this situation is as it pertains to transportation is particularly vital to the Puget Sound region's long-term economic, environmental and civic health. This is because the magnitude of backlogged projects and unmet needs is especially severe for transportation, because it is central to the health of our regional (and state) economy, and because, unlike a number of other issues, almost everyone is affected by the continuing problems with transportation.

Similar to a number of other governmental issues, the current system used to govern transportation grew incrementally over a long period of time and was driven by economies and societies that were much more localized than the highly interconnected reality of our region today. As a result, transportation governance today is complex, fragmented, internally competitive and extremely confusing to the citizenry.

•  At least 468 entities are responsible for some form of transportation planning or implementation in Washington State, many of those in the Puget Sound Region. The last major overhaul of the transportation governance system occurred in 1977.

•  Transportation is funded from a increasingly complex set of revenues, many restricted by the State constitution, state and federal statute or local policy.

Although other regional services would benefit from analysis of the relative effectiveness, efficiency and equity of their governance systems, transportation governance is receiving current attention from many in the political, civic and business communities.