Letter: Wasting time in traffic

Sitting daily in bumper-to-bumper traffic, waiting to cross the Interstate 5 Bridge, provides one with time to reflect on the events that have brought us to this dysfunctional impasse. Well-documented errors that led to the failure to move ahead with a replacement bridge years ago did not include miscalculations of the need or where we would find ourselves if we did not act. Though Republicans in Washington’s Legislature can claim credit for saving us from the terrible waste they envisioned if we had gone ahead with yesterday’s plan, they failed to provide an alternative that would have saved us from the horrible waste of today. Failure to act in times of crisis is rarely an effective strategy. Learning from past mistakes, consulting and being guided by the professionals and acknowledging the science behind urban planning and population projections is surely the path forward. Factoring the cost in dollars of the tremendous waste in time and resources we are now (and for the foreseeable future) experiencing should be central to our thinking as we try once again to act responsibly in planning for our future needs.