2007 Report to Citizens: Transportation
Keeping traffic flowing and commerce moving along safe, well-maintained roads, highways and bridges is important to Washington residents and our economy.
Listening to citizens
- The safety of our roads and bridges ranked the highest measure of performance in transportation. Citizens also expect transportation projects delivered on time and on budget.
- Reducing the amount of time it takes to travel on highways is a significant measure of success.
Taking action
- Strategically targeted transportation projects have improved safety and eased congestion in key locations, and 85 percent of transportation projects came in on budget and 91 percent on time.
- Offered more commuter options to reduce traffic, eliminating 26,000 drive-alone trips each weekday morning.
Getting results
- Roughly 94 percent of pavement on state highways and 97 percent of all bridges are in fair or better condition. It is more cost effective to keep our system of roads and bridges in good condition than to let them deteriorate.
- Our state highways are safer than they’ve ever been in state history, despite more people driving on the roads. In 2007, fatalities per vehicle mile traveled hit an all time low of 1 per 100 million.
Challenges
- Over the past two decades, our population has grown five times faster than the lane miles on our highways, and vehicle miles traveled have increased more than ten fold. We can’t keep up by just building more highways. We must also manage demand.
- Rising cost of fuel and other materials will make it difficult to meet project budgets for highway projects.
How we measure our progress
Source: Department of Transportation - Gray Notebook Percentage of bridges and highways in fair or better condition remains stable |
Source: Department of Transportation - Gray Notebook Rising cost of fuel and materials impact transportation projects |
Do you like this report? Do you believe it should include any other information? Please let us know by contacting accountability@gov.wa.gov.