Floating modifiers
Quality over quantity: Plan for 520 lacks creativity
Editor, The Times: march 10 08
The Seattle Times' support of a "six lanes plus" option for a new Highway 520 Bridge is a view toward the past, not a vision for the future ["'Six lanes plus' for the 520 bridge," Times, editorial, Feb. 24].
History of road construction clearly shows that we cannot build our way out of traffic woes. New roads and greater capacity soon fill to pre-construction gridlock levels as people move farther away from their places of work because they "can" commute within a reasonable time frame. Sure, at the end of the road they have a nice, rural house in a quiet setting, but at what cost to society as a whole?
We need new, creative thinking that will preserve the quality of the environment in which we live. The age of cheap gas is over. Why destroy the quality of living in Seattle for the benefit of those who want to commute?
As I sit in my office every morning and watch traffic at a standstill on the 520 Bridge, it seems obvious that if the people on the Eastside who want to work in Seattle traded houses with the people in Seattle who want to work on the Eastside, we would have no need for a larger bridge.
The time for new thinking is now.
— John Williams, Seattle
