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Peter Steinbrueck former Seattle city councilmember and Sightline board member Gordon Price got together for a lively debate last night in Seattle’s downtown library. The question: whose home town was the greatest city—Seattle or Vancouver, BC.  The premise, however, was that each advocate had to argue for the other guy’s hometown.  Steinbrueck launched his argument noting the fact that Vancouver had accessible and safe bathrooms in public places. Seattle has...

While putting together an analysis of gasoline consumption, I have been trying to figure out just why Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) in the Northwest has been dropping. Part of the challenge of explaining downward VMT is that it has typically never happened in a sustained way. But, in the last year or so it has been sustained, defying the conventional wisdom of transportation planners. One factor that comes to mind...

A recent Gallup Poll reveals solid majority support for higher fuel efficiency standards such as those President Obama announced Tuesday. A March poll found 80 percent of Americans in favor of higher standards. So, why are reporters painting a picture only of consumer woe and sacrifice when it comes to this landmark announcement? Obama launched his proposal along with state governors from both sides of the aisle—and public support is...

Encouraging news as the Obama administration pushes to build smart energy policy into the Federal budget.  According to a March 2009 poll by Pew, a majority of the American public (59 percent) favors setting limits on carbon dioxide emissions and making companies pay for their emissions, even if that may mean higher energy prices. A third (33 percent) oppose capping carbon emissions under these conditions. (Compare that to 2007 numbers...

Sightline Flashcards are monthly communications strategy tips based on current thinking and research from leading experts. By design, they are short and to the point. This month’s Flashcard, developed in cooperation with the Washington Budget and Policy Center, is informed by extensive messaging research conducted by Demos. Flashcard — in-depth: Breaking Bad Habits As tempting as it is, try not to reinforce negative stereotypes about government and taxes: “us” and...

As regular readers know, we’ve done a bit of cheerleading for the “cap and dividend’ concept—which is also called “Cap-and-Cashback,” since it would hand cash receipts from government-run carbon auctions right back to consumers.  Cap-and-Cashback strikes us as a fundamentally fair climate policy, since it protects low- and middle-income families from the effects of rising energy prices. Yet some people criticize cap-and-dividend as being unfair, because they think it could...

With the US economy in the tank, could it possibly make sense to increase the tax burden? An increase in the state gas tax just might a win-win—boosting the economy while benefiting the environment.  Several states—including Oregon, California, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Illinois—are considering gas tax increases.  Just consider some of the possible benefits: Less pollution. Last year, we saw that higher gas prices encourage people to drive less, which means...

Fifteen years ago this Autumn, a 28-year-old researcher names Alan Durning lugged a refurbished library table into the cramped bedroom closet of his Seattle home, drilled a phone line through the wall, and filed the legal papers to create a nonprofit research institute. We’ve come a long way since 1993, but our overarching goal remains the same: to arm change-makers with the independent research, ideas, and tools they need to...

Sightline’s greatest achievements over 15 years.

Brilliant. That’s the word kept crossing my mind as I read this clearly-written report (pdf link) about the Puget Sound Regional Council’s study on using road tolls to fight congestion.  The study found that a well-designed, comprehensive system of congestion-busting tolls could make a major dent in traffic backups in the Puget Sound.  It would also speed up transit, shorten commute times, and reduce gasoline consumption. But much to its...