The Commute

Washington State Department of Transportation won the Francis B. Francois Award for Innovation for its social networking efforts. Secretary of Transportation Paula Hammond picked up the award during the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ annual meeting recently in Palm Desert, Calif. The award, from CH2M Hill, comes with a $10,000 scholarship.

Under communications director Lloyd Brown, WSDOT initiated the agency’s first blog in November 2006. Since then it has used a variety of social networking sites to hear from the public and provide real-time information to the community. The department now uses the blog, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and SlideShare to communicate with the public and the media.

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Now that Port Townsend/Jefferson County has named one of the new 64-car ferries, it’s Whidbey Island’s turn.

The state Transportation Commission approved the name “Chetzemoka” for the first ferry for the first new ferry. It’s being built at Todd Pacific Shipyards in Seattle and will join the Port Townsend-Keystone route next summer.

Chetzemoka was a Klallam chief and was recommended by the Jefferson County Historical Society. Now the Island County Historical Society and Swinomish Tribe are touting Squi qui, says Jeff Chew of the Peninsula Daily News. Squi qui was a key figure in the Lower Skagit Tribe that occupied central Whidbey Island in the mid-1800s.

I love these names. Even if they weren’t historically significant, they’re fun to say. Try is. Cet-ze-mo-ka. Swin-o-mish. Squi-qui. I can’t wait to see what they come up with for the third boat. That one will run between Point Defiance and southern Vashon, so it’ll probably be some historic Indian from down there.

Chew says the Keystone Ferry Advisory Committee gathered some other possible names for the second boat. One is “Mary Margaret Haugen” the state senator from Camano Island who was so influential in getting the ferries built. Here are some others:

Snakelum, after Coupeville’s Chief Snakelum

Calista, after a steamer once operated by Coupeville sea captain Howard Lovejoy

Skookumchuck, the Chinook jargon word for rough, fast-moving waters

Leschi, after a ferry that served Kirkland and Seattle in the 1930s

Defiance, after Point Defiance

Haida, for the Haida Tribe

The Salish Sea

The state is also looking for a name of the class of 64-car boats. They’re based on the Island Home ferry that operates in Massachusetts, but they don’t want to keep that name. Other classes in Washingtoin State Ferries are Issaquah, Super, Jumbo and Jumbo Mark II, for example.

At the governor’s suggestion, WSF is having a contest with fourth-grade students from Chimacum, Port Townsend and Whidbey Island to name the new ferry class. Fourth-graders were chosen because they’re studying Washington state history. Submissions are due in mid-December. A panel from the governor’s office, Department of Transportation and the communities will select a winner by mid-January.

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The National Safety Council is estimating 447 people will die in traffic accidents over the Thankgiving holiday and 23,7000 will be disabled. That’s down from 484 deaths last year. I don’t know how they’re figuring but they do say to wear your seat belt. You have a 45 percent better chance of surviving.

Seat belts will save 395 lives this weekend. If everybody wore their belts, another 103 would be spared.

If you spot a drunk driver, pull over in a safe spot and call the police.

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Before the week is over, I should mention that it is Teens Don’t Text and Drive Week. They’ve got a day or week or month for just about everything nowadays. I wonder if there’s a czar somewhere you have to get hold of to see if you can have a day, like “Ed Friedrich Finally Writes a Blog Entry Day.”

Anyway, a press release from the National Safety Council says that more than 10 drivers ages 15 to 20 are killed in crashes every day, and another 745 are injured. It doesn’t say how much of that carnage is from texting.

It does say that not texting should be part of your GDL — Graduated Driver Licensing — along with setting a curfew, no speeding, no teen passengers, no cell phones while driving and seat belts at all times.

I can see how you could crash while texting. I can barely sit on the couch and do it.

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A fund has been set up to benefit the five kids of a highway worker killed last week while clearing storm debris from Highway 101. Neal Richards died on Nov. 18.

Oddly enough, he had a sister who was a road crew flagger killed last year in a highway construction work zone.

Contributions can be made at any Bank of America branch.

Funeral and memorial services will be held on Saturday. A procession will begin at 11 a.m. at Drennan and Ford Funeral Home in Port Angeles and travel to Sequim View Cemetery in Sequim. Graveside services will begin at noon.

A memorial will be held at 2 p.m. ad the Elks Lodge in Port Angeles, followed by a reception there.

The D

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The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Citizen Advisory Committee meeting scheduled for tonight has been canceled because not enough committee members were available to make a quorum. The meeting has not been rescheduled.

It was the first of three public meetings to discuss what bridge tolls will be raised to in July.

Submit comments or questions to the citizen advisory committee online at http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Tolling/TNBTolling/CACfeedback.htm or by mail to TNB-CAC, 401 2nd Ave. South, Suite 300, Seattle, WA 98104-2862.

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Washington State Ferries spokeswoman Marta Coursey just sent out an e-mail that the rumors that the Steilacoom II was “sinking” stemmed from a photo posted on the Bitter End blog. The author has acknowledged that the photos he received were fake.

The Steilacoom II is out of service because of a ship service diesel generator issue. It’s not known what caused it to fail, but parts have arrived from Portland and are being installed now. The damage is unrelated to sea conditions on Admiralty Inlet, Coursey said.

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A generator problem on the Port Townsend-Keystone ferry Steilacoom II will shut down the route until early Friday afternoon, Washington State Ferries spokeswoman Marta Coursey said at noon Thursday. The boat has been out since early Wednesday afternoon.

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Kitsap Transit came out Wednesday with how it plans to get along without the Manette Bridge, which will be closed all of next week between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. They’ve got it figured out before the state has even announced — to us, anyway — that the bridge will be closed. I presume its for annual inspection.

Routes 21, 25 and 29 will be detoured, and KT will run a Manette shuttle to serve riders who’ll lose service on the aforementioned routes.

Here’s the details:

#21 Perry Avenue - The #21 bus will travel to and from the Bremerton Transportation Center using the Warren Avenue Bridge.  It will serve Sheridan between Wheaton and Schley, Schley between Sheridan and Magnuson, Magnuson to Perry Avenue and Perry from Stone Way to Sylvan. The portion of the trip between Perry and Sylvan and the East Bremerton Transfer Center will operate normally.

#25 East Park – The #25 bus will travel to and from the Bremerton Transportation Center using the Warren Avenue Bridge.  It will serve the Harrison Hospital loop then serve the north portion of Lebo, Rickey, Pine and Sheridan as it normally does.

#29 Trenton Avenue – The #29 bus will travel to and from the Bremerton Transportation Center using the Warren Avenue Bridge. It will serve Sheridan between Wheaton and Perry, Perry between Sheridan and Stone Way, and Stone Way between Perry and Trenton. The portion of the trip north of Trenton and Stone Way and the East Bremerton Transfer Center will operate normally.

Manette Closure Shuttle – The Manette Closure Shuttle bus will serve Shore Drive, 11th, the south end of Trenton Avenue and Perry Avenue, Old Wheaton Way and Harrison Hospital, taking riders to the East Bremerton Transfer Center.  It will meet the eastside buses at the transfer center, then operate as a take-home back to the Manette area.

Manette Closure Shuttle Schedule: www.kitsaptransit.com/MCShuttle.html

Manette Closure Shuttle Map: www.kitsaptransit.com/mapManette.html

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There will be no ferry service between Port Townsend and Whidbey Island until at least Thursday.
The Steilacoom II had generator problems that forced it to cancel sailings, beginning with the 2:15 p.m. departure from Port Townsend. A crew from the Eagle Harbor maintenance facility is on site and will work into the night to make repairs, said Washington State Ferries spokeswoman Linda Lacombe. It might be into Thursday morning before it can be fixed.
The operations center will send out an update before midnight so people will know what to expect in the morning, she said.
The state is leasing the Steilacoom II from Pierce County until an under-construction ferry can take over next summer.

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