Letter: Follow engineers over politicians

Steven Wallace’s letter in the Dec. 21 Columbian regarding light-rail tracks on the proposed Interstate 5 bridge implies elitism by politicians in Salem and Olympia. The real reason we don’t have a bridge now is because previous decisions have been made by manipulating popular opinion rather than examining facts. The correct question to ask is: Will light rail be a cost-efficient way to add capacity to the proposed bridge? Transportation engineers should be answering that question, not politicians. In the past, their answer has been that a single rail line has the passenger carrying capacity of several lanes of traffic. To best represent their constituents, politicians should be following the advice of engineers.