The phrase,'Unsound Transit', was coined by the Wall Street Journal to describe Seattle where,"Light Rail Madness eats billions that could otherwise be devoted to truly efficient transportation technologies." The Puget Sound's traffic congestion is a growing cancer on the region's prosperity. This website, captures news and expert opinion about ways to address the crisis. This is not a blog, but a knowledge base, which collects the best articles and presents them in a searchable format. My goal is to arm residents with knowledge so they can champion fact-based, rather than emotional, solutions.

Transportation

Friday, March 28, 2008

Puget Sound grows 8% since 2000: Adds 0% Road Capacity

Tri-Cities leads in state's population growth, census says
Seattle-Tacoma up 300,000 since 2000

By NICHOLA K. GERANIOS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Many of Washington's metropolitan areas have grown substantially since 2000, with the Tri-Cities, Bellingham and Olympia showing the highest percentage growth, the Census Bureau reported Thursday.

The state's smaller communities, called "micropolitan" areas, also showed solid growth, the agency said.

More than 5.6 million of the state's 6.4 million residents live in metro or micropolitan areas, with the rest in more rural settings.

The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan area contained about half the state's population, estimated at 3.3 million in July 2007, the Census Bureau estimated. That was an 8.7 percent jump from the April 1, 2000, population of 3.0 million.

Tacoma, if broken out as a stand-alone metro area, had 773,165 people, the Census Bureau said.

The Tri-Cities metro area of Richland, Kennewick and Pasco grew 19.4 percent in that time, to 228,992 people, sixth largest in the state.

The Tri-Cities metro area consists of Benton and Franklin counties, located on the Columbia River in arid, sunny southeastern Washington. The area is home to high-paying jobs at the huge Hanford Nuclear Reservation and has a big farm and food processing sector. Tourism, anchored by numerous wineries, golf courses and youth sports, is also on the rise.

The Tri-Cities area will likely soon supplant Yakima and Bremerton-Silverdale to become the fourth-largest metro area in Washington.

Yakima had 233,062 people, but grew only 4.7 percent since 2000. Bremerton had 236,732 people, but grew just 2.1 percent since 2000, slowest among the state's metro areas.

Spokane, the second-largest metro area, had 456,175 people, up 9.1 percent.

Bellingham grew 15.7 percent to reach 192,999 residents. Olympia grew 15 percent to reach 238,555 residents.

Mount Vernon-Anacortes grew to 116,397 people, up 13 percent. Wenatchee grew 8 percent to 107,170 people. Longview crossed the 100,000 mark for the first time, with the state's smallest metro area growing 8.1 percent to 100,467.

The fast-growing Vancouver, Wash., area is part of the Portland metro area and was not broken out separately in the statistics. But recent county population estimates from the Census Bureau said Clark County, which includes Vancouver, had 418,000 people and grew more than 20 percent since 2000.

Nationally, Seattle-Tacoma was the 15th-largest metro area.

Micropolitan areas also showed steady growth. Ellensburg grew 15.5 percent and Shelton 14.1 percent between 2000 and 2007.

Moses Lake, with 83,047 residents, was the largest of those and grew 11.2 percent. Pullman (1.2 percent) had the smallest growth rate.

Washington had 6.46 million residents in 2007, growing 9.7 percent from 2000

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