Getting up at 4:30 in the morning in Olympia to make an 8 a.m.

meeting 60 miles away in downtown Seattle is “for the birds!” For us

country folk, that means you wake up the rooster on the way out the driveway.

But that’s not unusual these days. Recently I left our house at 5:15

a.m. and headed north on I-5 for Seattle. Traffic was heavy for the first 30

miles, but I traveled along near the 60-mile-an-hour speed limit. No sweat, I’m

in Tacoma at 5:45 a.m. . . . but then I hit a wall of

stop-and-go traffic and didn’t roll into the parking garage

in downtown Seattle until 7:25 a.m. — an hour and

40 minutes later. I couldn’t even blame it on an

accident blocking traffic — it’s just more vehicles

on the road.

I thought to myself, “Are we crazy to oppose I-745?” Initiative 745

would pump 90 cents of every transportation dollar into new or existing roads.

The idea is that if people are going to commute to work in their cars, why

not spend the money on roads?

But I’m not sure that building new roads or adding to existing

freeway capacity will solve our congestion problem. For example, there are

choke points — like I-5 through downtown Seattle — that may be next to

impossible to widen.

Yes, roads will be a key part of our transportation system, and

the highway and freeway system needs upgrading and additional capacity.

But we need other transportation investments as well. For

example, more and more people tell me, “If I could just catch a train from

Olympia to Seattle and avoid the traffic jams, I’d do it in a flash.”

Mass transit can be a viable option as long as it is convenient,

user-friendly and cost effective. Will it be all those things? Maybe, maybe

not. And perhaps we won’t know for years to come — but it can work.

In Washington, D.C., for example, the Metro subway system cost

taxpayers billions of dollars when it was built back in the ’60s and ’70s. Today,

it moves thousands of commuters and tourists each day quickly around

the nation’s capitol. It is convenient, efficient and safe.

Has the Metro system eliminated traffic jams in D.C.? No. The

traffic jams are as bad today as they were before it was built. Does that mean

the Metro is a failure? No. Thanks to the Metro, traffic congestion has not

worsened in Washington, D.C., despite 30 years of population growth.

Sometimes when I’m crawling along I-5 at a snail’s pace, I yearn

for a simple solution to all our traffic troubles. But the truth is, there

is no simple solution. Traffic congestion

is a complex problem that requires a careful, balanced solution. Sitting

in traffic is “for the birds,” but I

don’t think spending 90 cents out of each dollar on roads is the answer.

That’s why I’m against I-745.

Don Brunell is president of the Association of Washington

Business, Washington state’s chamber of commerce. Visit AWB on the

Web at www.awb.org.