How A Web Site Could Fix Our Traffic

What if instead of politicians and engineers, everyday folks talked about what road and transit projects were important to them, and what taxes would be best?

The concept was part of a cutting-edge research effort that was under way online even as Puget Sound area voters mulled and panned Proposition 1, the $17.8 billion roads and transit measure.

The results, University of Washington researchers said Tuesday, show how grass-root, participatory democracy might point to a better way to solve the region's transportation debate.

"This is something new for the world, something new for the region," said Tim Nyerges, a UW geography professor. "It's basic research in participatory democracy that has a geographic focus to it.

"I think it's a good example of what future public participation might look like in regards to complex problems facing regions."

The university's effort drew on a $2.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation to create a Web site where people could anonymously debate the merits of road-and-transit projects.

Of 260 people who signed up, 135 stuck through the four-week process. Nine were from

Snohomish County, the rest from King and Pierce counties.

Individually, they drafted their own tax packages and chose from menus of key projects.

A computer sorted their favorites, clustering five for a final vote.

In the end, 62 percent backed an $11.8 billion project list that leaned on several tax sources, including gas taxes, tolls on I-5 and I-405, a head tax on workers, car tab fees and vehicle license fees.