The Commute

People find it illogical that Kitsap Transit plans to run 35-minute service between Bremerton and Seattle for five months and then shut it down, but that’s the way it is. Transit has been saying it. I’ve been writing it. But Tuesday, even the bright folks from our editorial board had a hard time grasping why they would want to do such a thing.
Well, they probably don’t. It doesn’t make sense to spend millions to buy a boat and prove its wake doesn’t harm Rich Passage beaches, then not use it. Test runs with fare-paying customers is one of the lat parts of the study, all funded with research grants. When that runs out, the party’s over. There’s no money or permission from the transit board to continue.
Rich Passage I will operate from June through October. In November and December, scientists will observe how winter weather affects the shoreline. Analysis will spill into early 2013, wrapping up nearly a decade of work.
Transit executive director John Clauson and Dick Hayes, ferry project director, are avoiding any talk of service plans until the research is in the books. They don’t want beach owners to think they’re getting ahead of themselves.
“Our board has not committed to going beyond the scientific research,” Clauson said Tuesday. “No one should assume this boat is going to be running beyond this wake test. We’re going to get this test done and that’s as far as we’re going to go at this point.”
Kitsap Transit twice asked local voters for sales tax increases to fund passenger-only plans. Both failed. It’ll probably have to fine tune one of them and try again. Even if successful, that would take a long time. The plans had ferries running from Bremerton, Southworth and Kingston to Seattle. The Port of Kingston would love to turn its costly SoundRunner service over to a regional district.
“The main reason our last plan failed is because the people who didn’t like it convinced those who did that we didn’t have a boat that could get through Rich Passage, which was true,” Hayes said.
So, what becomes of the Rich Passage I after the research? Kitsap Transit could run it between Port Orchard and Bremerton, but that would be overkill. It can’t sell the $5.3 million foil-assisted catamaran.
“We could lend it to someone,” Hayes said. “In the (Federal Transit Administration’s) eyes, we’re just the custodians of the boat. If we were to sell it, we’d get our investment out of it, which would be nothing.”
Rich Passage I, which creates less wake at higher speed, will zip through the passage at 37 knots, then slow to 28 knots to conserve fuel. It will make two round trips in the morning and two in the evening. Times will have to fit between Kingston and King County dockings at the passenger-only float. Kitsap Transit wants to keep them close to the car ferry times so people have a backup plan.
So, too, are payment methods. The price will be $7 per round trip, or half of that for approved seniors, kids and the disabled. Staff talked of charging $3.50 at each end, but it would have had to compete against a “free” state car ferry in Bremerton and could get overrun in Seattle where the car ferry costs $7.70. Now they’re thinking about just collecting the $7 round-trip fare in Seattle. They’re also checking into selling monthly passes that guarantee a seat there and back, and a reservation system. There are only 118 seats, and they’re expected to be in demand.
Next year, if Rich Passage I tests fine, Kitsap Transit can dust off the old plans and start trying to figure out how to get it back on the water.

Plug-in electric cars make up a tiny fraction of new passenger vehicles sold, but they’re rising fast.
Despite a huge jump in plug-in vehicle sales from 2010 (345 nationwide) to 2011 (17,813), they only accounted for .03 percent of new cars sold, according to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. Some 314 of the Volts were registered in the Northwest, and 1,572 of the Leafs.
Then, probably in response to spiking gas prices, plug-in car sales boomed in 2012. In the first three months, Chevy Volt sales jumped 224 percent and Nissan Leafs 283 percent nationwide compared to 2011.
Northwest Power planners have to keep an eye on electric cars and all kinds of consumption to make sure there’s enough juice for everybody. They’re not expecting to have to build any new plants. Electric appliances will have to meet several new federal requirements over the next several years, and plug-in cars are generally recharged overnight when power demand is low.
The council is bumping up its estimate of how much power plug-in vehicles will use in the future in light of consumer response to high gas prices and technological advances that allow the cars to travel farther before recharging. They’re now predicting it’ll range between 130 to 580 megawatts per year by 2030. I don’t understand why the huge gap. The high number is the equivalent of about 350,000 Northwest houses.

The Kingston ferry route was one of four that had perfect on-time performances in March. On time for Washington State Ferries means leaving the dock within 10 minutes of the time printed on the schedule. Besides Edmonds-Kingston, the other routes were Point Defiance-Tahlequah, Mukilteo-Clinton and Anacortes-Sidney, B.C., which only had 13 sailings. Seattle-Bremerton finished the month at 98 percent, Seattle-Bainbridge at 98.8 percent and Fauntleroy-Southworth at 97.5 percent.

The main reason for delays was heavy traffic, particularly at Port Townend-Coupeville and Bainbridge.

This month probably won’t be as good because two Triangle route boats are being slowed to preserve their drive motors.

 Visit WSF’s accountability Web page www.wsdot.wa.gov/Ferries/accountability  to view the on-time performance figures.

Lawmakers gave some teeth to the state’s DUI laws a couple weeks ago, but nothing like a couple national groups want to do.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and an industry coalition called the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety are developing a DADSS — Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety. Their goal is to equip every passenger vehicle in the country with technology to disable the car if the driver is drunk.
Here in Washington, some drunken drivers can get their licenses back if they install an ignition-locking device. Though you need to blow a .08 blood alcohol level to get busted for DUI, a .025 will keep the car from starting, said Washington State Patrol spokesman Bob Calkins. Once the car is running, there’s a retest within the first 10 minutes, and randomly after that.
For a first offense, you need to keep the interlock device at least one year, at least five years for a second and at least 10 for three or more DUIs.
Cops figure people need to get to work or take their kids to school, even if they’ve been busted for DUI, so they’re better off driving an interlock-equipped car than driving illegally and possibly drunk.
Now, with a bill signed by Gov. Gregoire on March 29, the ignition interlock device must come with a camera so the drunk can’t have somebody else blowing into it. And the drunk must foot the bill for the device, which can be a couple hundred bucks to install and another $50 to $100 a month to rent.
The bill, which passed the House by a 98-0 vote and 49-0 in the Senate, also:
Authorizes police to administer breath or blood tests for felony DUI arrests without the suspect’s consent.
Raises the amount of emergency response costs DUI offenders are liable for from $1,000 to $2,500.
Requires plea agreements and sentences for felony DUI cases to be kept as public records and prevents courts from vacating convictions for felony DUI.
Authorizes courts to order offenders to submit to alcohol monitoring.
Expands DUI laws to cover “huffing.”
I can’t disagree with any of this. If anything, it’s still not stiff enough. I guess if you get drunk and go into the ditch, it’s one thing while causing a wreck that gets somebody killed is another. A lot what you run into is just luck and fate, however.
Suppose you do kill somebody. Another bill this year increased the penalty for vehicular homicide from two to three years in prison to six to eight years. It still doesn’t seem like much for taking a life.
Drunken drivers kill more people in Washington state than all other criminals combined, if you count the drivers themselves. From 2000 to 2010, drunk drivers killed 2,042 people, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report. That’s more than the 2,028 people who were the victims of an intentional killing during the same period.
The national groups mentioned earlier, which include most of the world’s auto makers, have spent four years and $10 million preparing to tackle drunk-driving deaths. They look at alcohol detectors as standard safety equipment, and want to put them in every car like airbags and seat belts. They’ve recently completed the proof-of-concept phase and now are beginning two years demonstrating alcohol detection systems. They could begin to be installed in vehicles in eight to 10 years.

People will complain it’s more of the nanny state and Big Brother taking over, but if they do it right, it’s OK by me. Restaurant trade groups want to keep an increase from $10 million to $24 million for the program out of the federal transportation budget. They say DADSS supporters claim the alcohol detectors would be set at .08 BAC, but due to legal, liability and logistical concerns, they would have to be below the legal limit, most likely around .03 to .04 percent.

Then there’s the problem of misreads. If the devices were reliable 99.99966 percent of the time, that would still be more than 4,000 misreadings a day, 4,000 sober people who couldn’t drive their cars, according to Sarah Longwell, managing director of the American Beverage Institute.

Through the miracle of technology, I was able to hear about a wreck on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge via an email alert sent by DOT, then go to the DOT website and see a picture of a blown-over mobile home blocking the two right lanes. I texted my kid and warned him in case he was over in Tacoma. I know none of this is cutting-edge stuff, but it’s amazing what I can do now that I couldn’t not that many years ago. It’s darn useful for a reporter, and hopefully for others.

There’s a string of cameras all the way from Purdy to the bridge, and beyond. I use those a lot, because we write about accidents in that fringe of our coverage area, plus it’s part of my commute. It’d be cool to have more cameras in Kitsap, but we don’t really need them. There are a few at each ferry dock, a string between Poulsbo and the Hood Canal Bridge to check backups from bridge openings, and one just south of Gorst at Highway 3 and Christopherson Road. I have no idea why it’s there.

When I get an email saying the Hood Canal Bridge is opening, sometimes I go to the camera to see if it’s a submarine, but they turn off the camera for security reasons.

Cameras are part of fixing the clog on I-5 near Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Emergency crews can use them to see what kind of mess they’re responding to, and people can check traffic before leaving to see if they might want to wait or take a different route. DOT’s website now also features travel times between Olympia and Tacoma, a stretch that carries 132,000 cars a day. Earlier this month, DOT began using ramp meters at Marvin, Nisqually and Mounts roads to space out traffic as it enters I-5. It’s the same idea they had for Highway 16 and why the cameras and ramp meters were installed in the Gig Harbor area. When the new bridge opened, however, they didn’t need them anymore.

The joint-base ramp meters, traffic cameras and online information were part of a $2.5 million project to improve traffic near there. More improvements are on the way. DOT recently got a $15 million grant to install more ramp meters, new signals and widen shoulders to allow cars to drive on them between on- and off-ramps during peak commute hours.

The Washington State Transportation Commission will propose toll increases for the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Tuesday, and the amount will hinge on whether it wants a big reserve fund. Chances are, it will, because the fund was its idea.
In March 2010, it adopted a policy that 12.5 percent of annual bridge costs must be kept in reserve to cover revenue shortfalls and cost increases. After being pressed on the policy, it got confirmation from the state Attorney General’s Office in January that it was within it’s legal authority.
Randy Boss disagrees, claiming the reserve fund is neither necessary nor legal. That’s no surprise, considering he’s challenged nearly everything to do with the bridge for a decade. But 26th District legislators back him up.
Sen. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, said he and Rep. Larry Seaquist, D-Gig Harbor, didn’t like the idea from the start, and told the commission so. If the bridge was built using toll revenue bonds, backed exclusively by tolls, that’d be one thing. But the bonds are paid through the state Motor Vehicle Fund, and are backed by the full faith and credit of the state.
“There has not been a risk that we’re going to default on making payments,” Kilmer said. “The notion that you would have this giant reserve, particularly at a time when folks are really hurting, just doesn’t make sense. I know a lot of families that would like to have a 12 1/2 percent reserve in their savings accounts, but that’s not the reality of this time. My hope is there’s a sensitivity to that reality.”
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge citizen advisory committee, which grudgingly accepts the reserve fund but doesn’t treat 12.5 percent as a firm number, last week recommended toll increases from $2.75 to $3.65 for electronic payment, $4 to $5 at the toll booths and $5.50 to $7 for pay by mail. Those rates would generate a reserve of about 9.3 percent.
The Transportation Commission says cash flows and expenses vary month to month, and there are times when reserve funds are needed to cover costs. Unforeseen disruptions to tolling operations or traffic volumes can stop or significantly reduce toll revenues, but debt payment obligations never go away.
“Traffic loss due to weather, a rate increase, natural disasters, or other events on the Highway 16 corridor that could hinder or stop traffic on the bridge are real threats that cannot be ignored,” said a statement from executive director Reema Griffith.
Seaquist thinks 12.5 percent is too much.
“We should slice that reserve account as thin as possible,” he said. “It is more important to keep tolls low to keep our local businesses open and our low-income citizens able to use the bridge to get to the doctor or to school or to work.”
Rep. Jan Angel, R-Port Orchard, said because of fines being dismissed and other problems from switching to a new statewide tolling system, she can’t tell how the bridge is doing financially.
“Until many of these questions are answered to the satisfaction of the CAC (citizen advisory committee), I do not believe any toll prices should be raised,” she said. “We need good data to make good decisions.”
The Legislature passed a Kilmer bill last week, deferring sales taxes on construction of the bridge for six more years and saving about $5.8 million per year in needed toll revenue. That, combined with eliminating the reserve fund, would make a toll increase for July 1, 2012, to June 30, 2013 unnecessary, Boss said. At the end of that period, there would be $3.3 million left in the bridge account.
“There’d be no reason to raise the toll,” Boss said. “We’d have $3 million left in the bank if we don’t have to hit the sufficient minimum balance, and the sufficient minimum balance is illegal.”

The way the process works, the Transportation Commission views the citizen group’s recommendation as the low point, discusses whether it’s enough, but usually accepts it or inches it up. In this case, they might bump the electronic rate from the recommended $3.65 to $3.75 and get a little closer to their 12.5 percent goal. I don’t think they’ll eliminate their reserve policy, though, and there’ll be no opportunity to testify for that at the meeting. But there will be at April public meetings in Gig Harbor and Port Orchard and a final hearing May 21.

The transportation bill signed by Gov. Chris Gregoire last week didn’t include Rep. Drew Hansen’s proviso that the Legislature intends to fully fund ferries through the 2013-15 biennium. That got stripped out at the last moment. But the governor will still see it.

Hansen, D-Bainbridge Island, and other ferry community lawmakers got the two Transportation Committee chairs — Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, and Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island — to write a joint letter to Gregoire, which they did on Wednesday.

“We are writing today to ask that you consider notifying Washington State Ferries that it is the Legislature’s intent to appropriate funding for the ferries in the 2013-15 biennium at a level sufficient to maintain current ferry routes and schedules at existing levels, and directing WSF to conduct public outreach consistent with the Legislature’s intent to maintain routes and schedules at existing levels,” the letter reads.

The chairwomen said they were writing to leave no doubt about their commitment to a stable ferry system.

Washington State Ferries, which created a discounted fare last year for cars 14 feet and shorter, now has a laser system to measure them. If you own a Mini Cooper, Mazda Miada or one of dozens of small cars, go to the ferry dock early and have it zapped to confirm the length. If car is less than 14 feet, you’ll get a windshield sticker and it’ll never have to be measured again.

The discount is being phased in over three years and will ultimately be 30 percent less than standard vehicles (14 to 22 feet). This first year, which began Oct. 1, regular car-and-driver fare is $12.75 one way in the Central Sound. It’s $11.50 for small cars. Even more reason for me to run out and buy a little roadster.

Rep. Drew Hansen, D-Bainbridge Island, got an amendment included in the House transportation budget Monday that would keep ferry service at its current level through the 2013-15 budget cycle, which ends June 30, 2014.
Hansen, Rep. Sherry Appleton, D-Poulsbo, and four other House members from ferry communities wrote to the House Transportation Committee requesting the provision.
The bill passed the House 82-16 and moves to the Senate.
The amendment reads, “It is the intent of the Legislature to appropriate funding to the Washington State Ferries Division in the 2013-15 biennium at a level sufficient to maintain current ferry routes and schedules at existing levels. The Washington State Ferries Division must conduct any public outreach consistent with the policy direction provided in this subsection to maintain current ferry routes and schedules at existing levels.”
Hansen said the amendment would be hard to get around.
“There are other safeguards that would make it very, very hard to ignore,” he said. “Under RCW 47.60.330, the ferry system has to consult with affected ferry users by public hearing before any substantial change to service levels. In addition, legislative approval is required to eliminate or add a ferry route; the governor and his/her ferry system can’t cut a whole route without legislative approval. So because my language requires all outreach be consistent with maintaining service, they obviously can’t be conducting any outreach about cutting service … which means that, in effect, it would be hard for them to cut.”
Hansen also sponsored an amendment that requires the Department of Transportation to maintain passenger-only ferry and transit service as part of any modifications at Colman Dock in Seattle.
The supplemental transportation budget is Engrossed Substitute House Bill 2190.

We almost got through airport security without a hitch this morning, but then they pulled Larry aside. Said it was a random check. They wiped some goo on his palms and ran them under a machine searching for bomb residue. Guess they didn’t find any.

Outside of that, we got from the hotel to the plane like clockwork. Got a couple Dixie-size cups of Starbucks on the 737 and a two-bite bag of pretzels/bagel chips. Tried to sleep because we got up at 4:30, but you know how that goes.

You know how they measure your carry-on bag to make sure you’re not sneaking on an extra inch or two. They should do that with people. There are some big people. Pretty soon they’ll start measuring them and if they’re too big they won’t let them sit in coach. They just did something like that with ferries. The Coast Guard bumped up the average person’s weight from something like 150 to 185, off the top of my head, so they can’t carry as many people.

San Diego looks pretty nice. We haven’t done any sightseeing, but the sun is coming out and it’s getting more comfortable. Can’t complain, considering it was in the 20s or 30s up there this morning when we left.

I haven’t been here for years. Once, when I was covering the Tacoma Stars, the team flew me down with them to cover a game against the hated San Diego Sockers. But it was in and out the same night. I remember something about barely being able to leave because it was late and the airport’s right downtown and they shut it down at night because of the noise, or something like that.

We’ll probably kill some time around town today and plan our coverage. We don’t get on the Stennis until 7:30 tomorrow morning. Don’t know when she’ll pull out. You know, OPSEC.