That hopelessness pervades the region's congested corridors is ironic. Not only does the urban Northwest's economy continue going gang-busters, but the region is entering perhaps its biggest transportation building boom ever. Yet it seems too little, too late. There is an anxiousness about the headaches the construction fixes themselves will create. The boom creating the revenue to fund transportation improvements is viewed as part of the problem.
More jobs mean more people.
Officials project the region's population will increase from 3.2 million in 2000 to 4.7 million in 2030. And more opportunity means more travel. The cycle breeds pessimism, which is pounded into the region's collective psyche by a drumbeat of sorry statistics. Today, a typical driver in the Puget Sound region spends the equivalent of 71 hours per year delayed in traffic, according to an estimate by the Texas Transportation Institute. With a burgeoning, more mobile population, congestion is expected to realize a fourfold increase by 2020 - even with proposed improvements, states a projection by the Puget Sound Regional Council.