Americans cherish their freedom to travel how and when they choose. Whether commuting to work or school, a quick trip to the store, a sporting event, a family vacation, or just a day of shopping, moving about freely is as essential as breathing to most of us.

At the same time, public surveys show a growing lack of awareness of the facts surrounding our transportation systems. For example, did you know that ...

• not one plan coming from government seeks to reduce traffic congestion below today's levels or accounts for future growth?

• reducing traffic congestion is not even the top priority in transportation planning today?

• in King County alone, less than 3 percent of daily trips are taken on transit, yet we spend nearly 60 percent of our transportation dollars on transit.

• and by their own best estimates, Sound Transit's light rail rider-ship projections - if they're lucky - will not equal 1.5 percent of all daily trips when it's completed 20 years from now? Meanwhile, Sound Transit will consume almost 3 out of 5 tax dollars to build light rail.

At the Washington Traffic Institute, our goal is to help give you the facts and a better understanding of how transportation works in Washington State - information you may not be getting in the press. Informed people make better decisions at the polls and help guide their legislative representatives in Olympia.

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