Streetcars are more feasible for West Seattle than light rail, said Grace Crunican, director of the Seattle Department of Transportation.

Crunican, who lives in the Admiral District, made her comment at a King County Council roundtable discussion about transportation issues at the Aerospace Machinists Industrial District Lodge in South Park. About 125 people attended.

A new high-occupancy vehicle ramp is planned from the elevated Spokane Street Viaduct down to Fourth Avenue South, Crunican said. With little money budgeted for the project, construction is still far off.

Crunican and the directors of the Washington and King County departments of transportation joined the discussion with the King County Council, as did the director of the Discovery Institute's Cascadia Project, an effort to improve transportation from Vancouver, B.C., to Eugene.

County Council member Dow Constantine said the county's list of transportation projects awaiting money to be built is "truly overwhelming." His colleague, Councilwoman Julia Patterson, agreed.

"There is more transit and transportation construction going on today in King County than at any time in the last 10 years," she said. The backlog is due to about 20 years of the county's lack of investment in the transportation system, Patterson said.

King County's decrease of investment extends to the Metro bus system too. County Council member Larry Gossett said Metro set a goal to provide 510,000 hours of bus service but received only enough money for 220,000 hours.

With the monorail project defunct, Constantine said it's time to "reinvigorate" bus service and the way to pay for additional bus service is to use "mitigation" money.

Government agencies often pay mitigation money to individuals, businesses and even other government agencies to soften the blows of financial loss and inconvenience resulting from the construction of a public work project. The coming years of construction to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct will definitely affect West Seattle residents so the Washington State Department of Transportation, which owns and operates the Alaskan Way Viaduct, probably will have to pay mitigation money to the city and county for construction impacts they will have to face.

During the question-and-answer period with the audience, North Highline Unincorporated Area Council member Ron Johnson said bus riders in north Seattle get a better deal on bus fare than residents of White Center and Boulevard Park.

Metro bus riders who start and end their ride in Seattle (considered one zone) during rush hours pay $1.50. If they continue the ride beyond the city limits, they enter a second zone and must pay $2.

Bus riders going to the northern city limits travel north to 145th Street before they have to pay $2. Yet southbound riders pay the higher fare when they cross the city limits at Southwest Roxbury Street, which is the equivalent of about Southwest 96th Street.

Johnson recommended extending the southern boundary of the one-zone ride to the Burien park-and-ride lot on Southwest 148th Street.

"We need a vision, especially for the southwest part of the city," South Park resident Joel Clement told the County Council and the transportation directors.

Most at the roundtable agreed there's been insufficient investment in the region's infrastructure of roads, bridges and viaducts.

Last fall, Washington voters decided not to repeal the state's 9.5-cent state gas tax. Nearly every panelist interpreted that affirmative vote as an expression of voters' confidence in what government has been doing to ease transportation problems.

Washington Secretary of Transportation Doug MacDonald said voters are concerned about safety on the roads. They also understand that roads are vital to the region's economy, he said.

Harold Taniguchi, director of the King County Department of Transportation, agreed it was a vote of confidence but he's concerned about the backlog of work.

"We've lost ground," he said. "We have a whole list of projects but not enough money to do them."

There's still a shortage of money to replace the South Park Bridge, Taniguchi said.

Grace Crunican of the Seattle Department of Transportation said Hurricane Katrina helped convince voters to invest in public infrastructure. Public approval of spending on infrastructure will be bolstered as people see road construction projects and street repairs getting done, she said. City pothole-repair crews help build public support for transportation investments by fixing potholes within a few days of their being reported, she said.

"Accountability is extremely important so the public can see we're using taxpayers' money to fix streets," Crunican said.

County Councilwoman Patterson called for a new regional approach to transportation problems in the central Puget Sound area instead of expecting Seattle or King County to attempt to improve mobility alone. That means getting people living outside King County to help pay for infrastructure from which they benefit.

The regional approach to transportation problems is underway in other western cities such as Denver, Phoenix and San Diego, she said.

Joining the call for a regional approach to transportation was Bruce Agnew, director of the Cascadia Project, part of the Discovery Institute think tank. Cascadia refers to the "bi-national region" stretching from Eugene to Vancouver, B.C. The Cascadia Project promotes high-speed passenger rail, freight mobility on Interstate 5 and seamless border crossings, according to its website.

Streetcars are a good mode of transit for cities because they fit the urban landscape, Agnew said.

He supported the use of water taxis and passenger-only ferries. However it's been difficult for private enterprise to make a go of it in the water taxi business and the state cut much of its passenger-only ferry service. So Agnew suggested setting up public-private partnerships to pay for waterborne transit. In San Francisco, he said, such transit is subsidized by a surcharge on bridge tolls.

Another idea is establishing "hot lanes" on congested highways. Solitary motorists could pay a toll for the privilege of driving in high-occupancy vehicle lanes. The idea is to free up space in the general purpose lanes.

Normandy Park Mayor Pro Tem George Hadley urged planners to de-emphasize construction of more bike lanes or other alternative transportation projects.

Hadley asked the audience of about 125 how many of them had traveled by bus to the transportation roundtable. Two people raised their hands.

"People want congestion relief," he said.

Craig Keller was skeptical of the basic assumption of the waterfront tunnel plan, which he considers expensive and unnecessary. The existing viaduct can be retrofitted for about $720 million, he said.

Just moving all of the electrical, natural gas, water, sewer and other underground pipes and lines will cost $300 million, Keller said. "People don't know about it," he said.

Tim St. Clair can be reached at tstclair@robinsonnews.com or 932-0300.