Black Diamond NOW

Traffic Headaches

For those of us who live at the north end of Lake Sawyer, this last year has seen a significant change in traffic volumes, flow patterns and safety, including two very serious accidents at the intersection of 288th and SR 169 (Maple Valley Highway).  Construction activity around the lake and a new subdivision in the city of Maple Valley along 288th have certainly contributed.  Even more so, we see a lot more vehicles using 288th as a bypass to avoid traffic bottlenecks in both Covington and Maple Valley.  And when the railroad crossing along 216th (Lake Sawyer Road) was closed for a week, we saw just how dangerous it can get trying to make a left hand turn going north onto SR 169 from 288th.  

Given that little new traffic has yet to be generated by development at Ten Trails (fewer than two hundred new homes sold and occupied over the last three years?) and thus does not at this point appear to be materially impacting current traffic volumes, what has changed and better yet, what can we do about it?

1.  Traffic volumes have continued to increase along SR 169 given strong growth and development in both Enumclaw and Pierce County to the south and Maple Valley north of us. Even in Ravensdale too.   Following are the historical trends through 2018.  We should have 2019 data available to us in a few months.

Source:  WSDOT

Note:  Data for SR 169 begins at mile post 0 in Enumclaw and continues north past 416th, past Lawson Street in Black Diamond to 280th and 276th just after the railroad bridge crossing, before entering Maple Valley at Kent Kangley and then on north all the way to Renton.  For the above graphic, I chose to stop at the intersection of Witte Road and SR 169 in Maple Valley - which appears to be the peak congestion point for the highway.  Certainly plenty of growth fueled largely by development within Maple Valley.

2. The most serious bottleneck and safety concern within Black Diamond's jurisdiction are the intersections of Roberts Drive and Ravensdale Road with SR 169.  The City's Transportation Capital Improvement plan calls for completing design and engineering for roundabout intersection improvements and beginning construction this year in 2020 ($4,080,000) and completion in 2021 ($7,500,000) of which a total of $11,380,000 is developer funded.  This will be an important step forward and clearly Priority #1.

3.  What about the intersection of 288th with SR 169?  Who can champion and fund the changes needed?  Unfortunately, King County has responsibility here with both Black Diamond and Maple Valley responsible for 288th funding and improvements west of the power lines.  To make improvements at the intersection will require all three government entities to work together and with WSDOT to make any changes happen.

4. Why is traffic increasing so much on 288th and the 288th/SR 169 intersection and what can we do?  The answer to the first question is simple - 288th has become a bypass road for drivers to avoid both Covington and Maple Valley.  Lots of big trucks too.  For me, while Maple Valley, Black Diamond and King County work on a solution, I would simply avoid this intersection if heading north - which is in fact today the fastest and safest way for us to travel north.  How do I know that to be the case today?  Simply use your car navigation system.  To demonstrate, Judy and I have long used the facilities at Maple Valley Fitness which is located in the same shopping center as QFC which happens to be at the intersection of SR 169 and Witte Road.  To test what my experience tells me, this morning I used google navigation to get me from our home to the gym in Maple Valley.  Here are the results taken at different times of the day.  First at 8:20 am:

Faster from our house using Witte Road and we avoid a left hand turn onto SR 169.  Next routing taken at 9:02 am.

How about 11:55 am?

Here's preferred routing to the gym at 3:34pm.

And if you were heading south about this time to get back home, it's even more compelling and safer to avoid SR 169 at this time of day.

The only nuance heading south is that you should use the light on Kent-Kangley to make the left turn onto Lake Sawyer Road (216th) in the afternoon and early evenings.  And as traffic volumes increase, the incentives to avoid driving through Maple Valley on SR 169 and avoiding un-signaled left hand turns increase even more.  It sure is safer and nearly always faster.  And the same holds true for avoiding Kent Kangley as much as possible.

So, at least for now, while those that be find a longer term solution to the 169 & 288th intersection, I'm heading north avoiding left hand turns and SR 169 where possible.  

More destination route learnings in future posts - and let's encourage our city government to make this a priority.

Tow Trucks - Then and Now

In 1906, Washington State had 1,253 automobiles registered here.  By 1910, the number had grown to 9,311 and by 1915, there were over 46,000 vehicles licensed in the state.  But there was a problem or two or three.  Roads were terrible, cars and trucks of the time were less than reliable and drivers were not particularly skilled.  The result was plenty of accidents and vehicle breakdowns.  Alas, time to bring in a team of horses.

According to Wikipedia, an enterprising fellow in Tennessee saw the light ($$$$) and began making the first motorized tow trucks in 1916.  I'm not sure when tow trucks found their way to the Puget Sound Region, but here's one in a photo dated 1918/1921.  

Image courtesy WSU Libraries Digital Collection, circa 1918

It didn't take long for a good idea to spread.  This rig seems to be all set for rope towing.  In a few years, the back of tow trucks were rigged with a beam, making it a whole lot easier to winch vehicles out of bad places - in this case after crashing through a barrier on a road in Tacoma.

Image courtesy Tacoma Public Library, Richards Studio A1011-0, circa 1926

Some were pretty neat looking too and carried cart like wheels for trailering disable vehicles.

Image courtesy University of Washington Libraries, SEA2839, circa 1929

Anybody remember the name William O McKay?  They were an auto dealer who started in Seattle in 1923 and continued  in business into the 1980's.  It's their tow truck shown in the above photo.  Tow trucks were a big part of their early customer service program, as it was for many auto dealers of the time.  And, of course, it always paid to be good friends with the police.

Image courtesy University of Washington Libraries, P124816, circa 1942

Today in Black Diamond, Royal Towing provides local service.  Very nice people, but I would just as soon not have to be on their customer list. 

Lots of changes in the business these days.  Not only is Royal Towning's equipment capable of hauling big semis out of ditches, but they also operate an auction business for the sale of unclaimed impounded vehicles.  Who would have thought?  Wherever there is an unmet need I guess.

 

Another Look at Traffic Volumes

I should be out hiking and taking pictures but with cloudy skies and a few rain showers, it was time to return to my quest for better understanding area traffic challenges.  This time, I'm focusing on current traffic volumes by highway milepost rather than rate of growth in traffic along each highway.  Starting first with Hwy 18 Traffic counts for the year 2018.

The above graphic starts to the west at milepost 6.61 at the Hwy 18 Green River bridge and charts traffic counts as drivers progress east through Covington and Maple Valley, ending at milepost 20.77 at the Issaquah/Hobart road.  What this chart does better than the earlier ones posted is to show where the biggest bulges begin and end.  Not surprisingly, milepost 11.39 is the intersection with Kent-Kangley road, accounting for a big volume jump at this point as drivers exit and enter Hwy 18.  We see another similar bump where traffic from Maple Valley enters heading to and returning from the west on Hwy 18.  Through traffic at the Issaquah/Hobart road and on to I-90 accounts for less than half of the traffic that we see through Covington and Maple Valley.  These critical intersections are where we have the big volumes entering and exiting Hwy 18 and likely the intersections where we would gain the most from further investment.

Mileposts for Hwy 169, the Maple Valley highway, begin in Enumclaw and head northwest to Renton.  Here, beginning at Kent-Kangley and on to Witte Road, both within Maple Valley, is where we see a huge bulge, growing from roughly 10,000 trips per day through Black Diamond to 40,000 at Witte Road before declining again to between 20,000 and 25,000 going to and coming from Renton.  And once again, I will point out that the City of Maple Valley's Comprehensive Plan for the year 2035 only forecast 30,000 trips per day.  We are already at 40,000 per day with virtually no impact of new building in Black Diamond.  Though they might improve safety, recent reductions in speed limits through Maple Valley may further reduce highway capacity.

The current bulge on Ken-Kangley between Wax Road and Hwy 18 through the City of Covington's business district and all those stop lights is rather obvious.

What should we do, throw up our hands?  We've got these same problems no matter how much growth we have here in Black Diamond, and at current levels of development, it is certainly looking to be a lot less than was originally forecast.  Be that as it may, my point very simply is that Black Diamond is not an island and we need/must work with our neighbors to solve these challenges.  Without a shared presence in dealing with Olympia and King County, we are but a voice in the wilderness.  Please be in touch with City Council members and Mayor Benson to encourage regional efforts and see how you can be of help.

Traffic Update - Hwy 18, Maple Valley Highway (SR169) & Kent-Kangley (SR516)

As one might expect during a strong economy, traffic volumes continue to grow in our area.  WSDOT recently released data for 2018.  Following are traffic volume trends for Highway 18, the Maple Valley Highway and Kent-Kangley dating back to 1970.  For each highway, I have focused on plotting traffic volumes for major intersections used by our communities of Black Diamond, Covington and Maple Valley.  Traffic counts measure volumes both ways.

Data source:  Washington State Department of Transportation

After stalling during the last recession, traffic volumes on Hwy 18 have really taken off since 2013, particularly at the intersection of Hwy 18 and Kent-Kangley and the two major intersections between there and Maple Valley.  Though traffic has increased north of Covington and Maple Valley, the much higher growth and volumes are to the south, meaning that lots of local area commuters are using Hwy 18 to access the Valley Freeway, the Kent/Auburn Valleys and even I-5.  Less going to or from Snoqualmie Pass and I-90.  Traffic counts at the Hobart intersection are less than half that seen to the south in Covington and growing at a slower rate.

For SR169 (Maple Valley Highway) it's probably easier to look first at where traffic hasn't been growing at an accelerating rate.  That would be from Enumclaw, Black Diamond and interestingly north of Maple Valley measured at Cedar Grove Road.  Flat or declining number of commuters headed to Boeing?  Obviously, to date, there has been little new traffic resulting from the Oakpointe development.  That is changing, but at least so far, at rates closer to 100 - 150 units per year rather than the 300 per year on average originally anticipated.  And this is great real estate market.

Where's the bottle neck?  Maple Valley at Witte Road and commuters trying to get on Hwy 18 or Petrovitsky Road.  This is where the cork is on SR169.  The bad news - current traffic volumes here currently exceed the 30,200 volume level included in the City of Maple Valley's Comprehensive plan for the year 2035.  It's currently over 40,000 with little increase coming from Enumclaw and Black Diamond or an increased number of commuters heading to Renton.  That's the bad news.  The good news is that localized corks can be unplugged without requiring rebuilding or expanding the entire highway.  Finding the money and will to make these significant targeted changes in Maple Valley will be the challenge.

With all of the growth in Covington's commercial and multi-family housing districts, it should not be surprising that the current biggest bottlenecks along Kent-Kangley are between Wax Road and Hwy 18.  These bottlenecks are called traffic lights and traffic already backs up to the top of the hill at 216th (Lake Sawyer Road), particularly on weekends.  The new commercial development planned in Covington envisions major improvements to an intersection with Hwy 18 to the north of Kent-Kangley but what about Kent-Kangley itself?

It should be clear that Black Diamond is not an island and what we do impacts others as do others impact us.  In Black Diamond, we control the intersections within City Limits and have included projects in capital plans to mitigate impacts of our in-city growth, but not in Maple Valley or Covington or unincorporated King County.  FYI - the Ravensdale zip code area had the fastest population growth anywhere in King County between 2016 and 2017 at 13.6%.  How is this possible!

It's time to get representatives from all four jurisdictions and maybe Enumclaw too and roll up their sleeves and work on some regional/local area solutions.  More about this later.

What's Happening Here?

Judy and I moved to Lake Sawyer in 1981.  It's fair to say that a lot has happened during our time here with more change to come.  To gain a better historical perspective, I put together some aerial views of Black Diamond and Lake Sawyer that date back to 1936 (see my earlier post Black Diamond - 1936 to 2017).  However, to better understand change in Black Diamond, we also have to view change that has and will occur in the area surrounding us - we are not an island.  Unfortunately, King County aerial photos taken in 1936 exclude most of Maple Valley and areas north and directly east of us.  So, I have been trying to track down other information sources that might be helpful in better understanding our regional neighbors, starting with area population trends.

I had not realized before how rapid the growth in Maple Valley has been.  School enrollment is another good indicator and our community is served by three districts - Enumclaw, Tahoma and Kent.

Data source: Washington State Board of Education

The Kent school district dwarfs the other two but the growth in the Kent school district has been in nearby Covington and Lake Sawyer area with two new high schools, one or more middle schools and several grade schools.  The Tahoma district, fueled by growth in Maple Valley, has nearly doubled in the last 25 years while Enumclaw enrollment has declined.  

One indicator of area growth is the value of New Construction and it's quite apparent that Maple Valley has been growing by leaps and bounds.

Data Source:  King County Assessors Office

2009 - 2018 data breaks down as follows.

I always thought that Covington is where the growth has been, but not so.  The following table shows current construction activity by city over the last 12 months measured by the number and value of building permits issued.  This readily available measure also allows us to keep easier track on the level of construction activity in our community.

New home construction in Black Diamond at Oak Point's master planned development is now showing in the data, but at a level of construction no where near earlier projections.  Commercial and multi-family construction permits in Covington, Enumclaw and Maple Valley have increased significantly.

Here are overall home sales (new and existing) by city over the last 12 months.

Obviously, there is a cause and effect between all of these numbers and traffic counts, which remains the number 1 fear and concern of those in not just our community but in the communities around us too.  I will focus more directly on traffic in a future post - and it's pretty interesting actually.

 

No Parking

I think this might have been a no parking zone?

Oops

Another Vehicle Use Factoid

I found this data for vehicle use absolutely astounding.  Nearly 60% of all automobile trips in 2017 were 6 miles or less.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Transportation

No wonder mid day traffic is as heavy as it is these days.  Not the commute miles I would have expected.  Time to tune up my bicycle.

Household Vehicle Trips & the Rise of Internet Shopping

One of the more interesting traffic analyses that I've run across in a while tracks the number of trips per household by reason and in total.  For example, how many trips are now being taken by households for work, shopping, recreation etc. compared to historical patterns?  The decline of brick and mortar retail and rise of internet purchasing appear to be making a significant impact - and positively so, at least from the perspective of taking vehicle traffic off the highways.

Source:  Energy.Gov  Vehicle Technology Office

Diamond Stage Circa 1924

Live in Black Diamond and want to go shopping in Seattle or conduct business in the big city?  The railroads didn't always make this easy in the early 1900's.  From out of the way terminal locations to inconvenient schedules, the railroad's bread and butter was shipping coal and thus their #1 priority.  Accommodating people could often get in the way.  As a result, alternative services would occasionally spring up - providing people oriented transportation.  In 1924, The Diamond Stage Company provided "bus" service along the Seattle - Black Diamond run.

Image courtesy Roger Parry and the Black Diamond Historical Society, circa 1924

For a period, Diamond Stage maintained a terminal in what was once the Krause Saloon located just behind the Railroad Terminal.  A similar service was also maintained between Seattle and Enumclaw but I am not sure how the two services may have been connected.  The vehicle we see above was called a Locomobile and manufactured by a company called Locomobile Company of America.  They built these and other automobiles between 1899 and 1929.

Black Diamond Transportation Improvement Plan

An important heads up.  The City of Black Diamond has scheduled a public hearing for Thursday May 17th at 7:00 pm to receive public input regarding the city's proposed Six Year 2019/2025 Transportation Improvement Plan.  The numbers in this year's plan are eye popping. Over $26,000,000 in transportation improvement projects are being planned. Traffic is a subject that we all love to hate and our input is essential.

Fortunately, Oakpointe is responsible for funding $21,000,000 of these projects but significant funding challenges for the city remain.  The Council, Mayor and staff need to hear from us.  I have attached for your reference, a copy of the draft plan.  In addition, for those interested, I have also included a copy of my comments and input.  Please participate and help make our city the best it can be.

Download Traffic CAB_2019-2024 TIP Public Hearing_051718

Download TIP Public Hearing Comments

 

Traffic - Wait Times at Black Diamond Intersections

Good news!  Significant progress has been made on the traffic modelling required for projecting future demands on our city's transportation infrastructure.  We should soon have an opportunity to review and provide input on the city's Comprehensive Plan, of which traffic is a major component.  Base line data has been completed for the year 2015 (prior data dates back to 2007) and initial projections have been made for 2020 and 2035 reflecting impacts/needs resulting from both expected growth within the city and elsewhere within the region.  This work is done intersection by intersection for all intersections within the city. 

So -- what are traffic volumes and wait times at each of the city's intersections?  Following is a map showing each of the city's traffic intersections and the peak hour volume of traffic we faced in the baseline study year of 2015.

We don't have to be traffic engineers to know that intersections with higher flows are likely to have longer wait times, particularly since only two intersections in town today are signalized.  Following are the 2015 baseline peak hour wait times for each intersection and the resulting "level of service".

No surprises really.  The two SR 169 intersections at Roberts Drive and Ravensdale Road both fail today to meet a minimum Level of Service for state highways at LOS D.  Engineering and seeking permit approvals from WSDOT for improvements to these intersections have been underway for some months - funded by Oakpointe as required by the MPD conditions of approval and development agreements.  Initial improvements are likely to include signalization to begin with, followed by installation of a large roundabout at a defined future date as growth dictates.

The other already "failing" intersection within the city is the intersection of 216th and 288th, which in 2015 was at LOS D - current minimum standards for city street intersections are LOS C.  If you have ever tried to take a left had turn from either 288th or 216th during peak commute hours, you can well attest to how long delays here have become.

This data is baseline for 2015.  The traffic engineering/modeling task is to project these flows ahead reflecting growth both within the city and by our regional neighbors, identify what improvements will be needed to maintain at least minimum levels of service in the city and develop a funding plan to mitigate these impacts.  

More about current modeling and funding in future posts, along with opportunities we will all have to better understand and provide our input.

 

Traffic #uggh - County Roads

My earlier Traffic #uggh post focused on the growth of traffic volumes on major state highways serving our community.  County arterials have seen similar growth.  Once again, I am pleased with the amount of data being tracked by King County.

The map you see above is a print screen from the county's web page Traffic Counts in Unincorporated King County.  Each of the pinkish squares represents an intersection at which traffic counts are being maintained.  Click on an intersection and this is what you will find:

This specific drop down is pointing to the intersection of Covington-Sawyer Rd at Thomas Road - a high volume intersection in more recent years following the opening of Kentlake High School.    The county samples traffic counts at this location every other year and as you will see, the growth rates have been particularly significant (my guess would be people like me avoiding Kent-Kangley to get to Costco or otherwise by-pass Covington).

                                            2016                2014                2012

West of Thomas Rd.          12,236               N/A                11,710

East of Thomas Rd.           11,386             10,267             10,730

South on Thomas Rd.          2,516               2,185               1,981

It's also worth noting the traffic flows specifically on Thomas Road - likely fueled by continued growth in unincorporated King County?  That's a 27% increase over just 4 years.  Where are you county GMA?

Following is the data for Auburn Black Diamond Road.

                                                2016                 2014                2012

West of 218th                         6,043                5,181               4,861

East of 218th                          4,338                4,033               3,692

South on 218th                       2,948                2,462               2,272

A few more intersections you may be interested in:

If you are interested in data for other intersections within unincorporated King County, follow this link to Traffic Counts in Unincorporated King County.

When the City of Black Diamond updates the city's Comprehensive Plan and traffic model, it's important to understand that city modeling will include only traffic counts and projections on roads and intersections within city limits.  Hopefully, we will have that information available no later than early next year.  But for regional modeling, however, and understanding regional impacts of growth in Black Diamond and other area cities, to get funding, we will have to wait until 750 building permits have been issued as part of the Master Planned Developments - last done based on data gathered in 2007. 

Fortunately, thanks to both WSDOT and King County, we do have some data available that helps us understand some of the changes that have occurred in our area since 2007 and help us in our city planning.  

Next week, as part of my #uggh focus on traffic, I'll include a list of traffic mitigation measures, intersections, road improvements etc. and their timing that are required of Oakpointe as condition of their permits for development of both Preliminary Plats 1-A and 2-C.  It's a surprisingly long list.

 

Traffic Woes Circa 1941

As World War II began to heat up, the Seattle Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation located in Tacoma's tide flats had grown to employ over 500 people.  Most drove to work as this photo of their parking lot will attest.

 

Photo courtesy Tacoma Public Library, Richards Studio D11993-1, circa 1941

I didn't realize that car ownership was so high in the 1940's.  People loved their cars.  The only problem - access to the plant was limited to a two lane road running down east 11th Street, across the bridge and onto Alexander Ave.  A whole lot of congestion at the end of the day.  And within two months, the plant was slated to hire 5,000 more workers.  Now that's what I call a major league traffic jam in the making, leaving city fathers to sort out the problem.  Somehow, they made it work.

Traffic #uggh

If there is a word in the English language that elicits universal loathing, it has to be traffic.  It might be the one headache in our lives  ever destined to get worse, never better - or at least it seems so.  What can we do about it?  In my view, our first and most important step is to become informed as best we can.  To my surprise, when I first began researching local Black Diamond traffic issues and those of our surrounding communities, I found that there is quite a lot of data available at a level of detail I would not have expected.  This data comes from both the State of Washington (WSDOT) and King County and can tell us a lot.

Photo University of Washington Libraries, 1986.5.7326.3, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, circa 1939

A few years ago, I pulled together several graphs that show historical average daily traffic counts by major intersection measured/estimated by WSDOT for two of our area's most important highways - Kent Kangley (SR516) and the Maple Valley Highway (SR169).  I recently updated these charts to make them current through 2016 and also added Hwy 18.  Data for the year 2017 should be available in the next several months and will add that when available.

First, following is historical traffic count data for the Maple Valley Highway (SR169).  The intersection labeled as Enumclaw is the technical beginning of SR169 and represents where SR164 intersects.  

Interestingly, SR169 traffic volumes beginning in Enumclaw have not increased at nearly the rate seen at other SR169 intersections, though increased traffic from Bonney Lake that bypasses Enumclaw via 400th likely now shows up as increased traffic counts at Lawson St. in Black Diamond.  It's been a real steady climb in traffic using Kent Kangley (SR516) to access SR169.  Increasing volumes at Witte Road show just how much growth there has been in both Covington and Maple Valley - and judging from current building at 4 Corners and in Covington, these numbers are going to continue growing significantly.  It's also worth noting that through 2017, there will have been zero impact from Master Planned Developments in Black Diamond.

Not surprisingly, Kent Kangley (SR516) traffic counts have also grown considerably at intersections other than just SR169.  

The three intersections I tracked began at Hwy 18, through Covington and up the hill to 216th, also known as Lake Sawyer Road, and then to Witte Road.  Clearly, the Kent Kangley exit to and from Hwy 18 is a busy place and getting busier.  

The increases in traffic on Hwy 18 have been huge, surpassing that for all other "local" state arterials.  Given that Hwy 18 is the closest freeway to Covington, Maple Valley and Black Diamond, lets hope that all intersections along Hwy 18 are being appropriately upgraded to increase their capacity lest they become the next major bottleneck to our area's traffic flow.  I believe there are plans in the works funded principally by the state, but will follow up to learn more.

My focus on historical data has been to provide a factual perspective on trends.  There is much more to learn for each individual intersection, which are often the most important places for planning improvements to state highways.  The following print screen image of WSDOT's traffic geoportal webpage shows each intersection currently being tracked for each major highway in the greater Black Diamond, Maple Valley and Covington area.

If we want to look at, say, the Lawson Street intersection, we will find the following:  average daily traffic counts for the year 2016 (they are typically measuring traffic counts every other year and estimating in between years), traffic counts between here and nearby mileposts, and % traffic counts for trucks as shown below:

Lot's of data to absorb but a sound base of info that most of us can understand without having to be a traffic engineer or completely reinvent the wheel as we look ahead.  In addition, we also have valuable traffic count data available to us from King County for county roads in unincorporated areas.  I will post graphs and maps summarizing this information next week.  

Now, you might want to ask why am I going to all this work to pull this data together.  Simple - the last traffic modeling done for Black Diamond was completed in 2008 based upon data gathered in 2007.  This was done as part of the MPD submittal process that began in 2009.  A whole lot has happened since then and though Oakpointe is responsible for mitigating traffic impacts that result from their development, they are not responsible for funding improvements that are not the result of their development - such as increased traffic volumes caused by growth in Maple Valley, Covington, unincorporated King County and even Bonney Lake.   There also will be no update to MPD funded traffic modeling until building permits have been issued for 750 homes in the MPD's.  This is some years away yet.  In the mean time, our city needs to be planning and prioritizing how to address current and future traffic problems, including funding, and we as citizens need to be informed and provide meaningful input.

More about this in my next #uggh post.

 

Vehicle Fuel Efficiency Continues to Climb

On the lookout for some good news for a change, I ran across the following report issued last week by the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (Energy.gov).  Despite consumer's growing appetite for large vehicles, nearly half of all new cars purchased last year exceeded 30 mpg fuel efficiency.  Those cars exceeding 50 mpg grew to an all time high 5%.  Great long term trends.

For light trucks, consider that in 1975, 95.7% had a fuel efficiency of 20 mpg or less and 80% 15 mpg or less.  Today, nearly two thirds of new trucks purchased had a fuel efficiency of 20 mpg or greater.

Good news indeed!

Before and After the Automobile

Though my grandchildren find it hard to grasp (and me too for that matter), there was a time in development of the northwest where roads and reliable means of transportation were scarce.  It could take three or more days just to make it from the Green River valley to population centers such as Seattle and Tacoma.  Water transport was best, but if not available, you were left with horse drawn wagons pulled along faint trails first established by local Native Americans.  Making a trip into town with your summer's harvest was something to be planned for days if not weeks.  Then along came the railroads, forging new territory and opening up whole new areas for settlement and exploitation by resource extraction industries.  Now you could make it from Black Diamond to Seattle within the same day.  Your routes and schedule, however, remained quite constrained and expensive.  By the time Washington became a state in 1899, few "travelable" roads existed.  The challenge - how better to exploit the established railroad infrastructure while roads got built?

Let's try handcars.

Image courtesy Railroad Handcar History

Railroad handcars are described as first coming on the scene in 1860 - custom built by the railroads.  Simple, relying on manpower and not steam, they provided some flexibility of movement without costing an arm and a leg.  Unfortunately, these cars were dangerous and killed men.  Most were out of service by 1887 when safer "commercial" models first became available.  They do look like fun and could move a few people some distance.

How about building a steam powered model?

Photo courtesy Washington State Digital Archives, John T. Labbe Collection, circa 1893

Nice and sturdy with brakes, now this looks like it could move you around pretty quick.  Hard to keep in fuel and water though.  Not for use over longer distances and pricey.

Even if you had an early automobile, there weren't many roads.  How about a Model T for use on rails?

Photo courtesy Washington State Digital Archives, John T. Labbe Collection, n.d.

It was one way for the Forest Service to patrol for fires using established logging railroads and a whole lot safer.  Or perhaps you would like to ride in a "speeder" used by loggers (see my earlier post Ever Ride in a Speeder?).  Not that speeders were safe.  Judy's dad broke a vertebra in his back after falling off one and plenty of family stories about Judy and siblings jumping off to avoid a collision with a locomotive headed their way.

Perhaps you would like to try this "dummy" used to transport upscale clientele or perhaps family of the boss?

Photo courtesy Washington State Digital Archives, John T. Labbe Collection, n.d.

Where are we headed after the railroads and after the automobile?  Pretty soon you'll be able to book a flight on Blue Origin rocket launch being developed by Amazon's Jeff Bezos or on Space X owned by Elon Musk.  Both of these companies are now successfully launching rockets into space and returning them back to earth safely.  Ready to go?
 

Natural Resource Industry - In It's Prime

What natural resource industry that began operations in Western Washington in the late 1800's is even bigger and employs more people today than ever?  Not coal, not timber, not fisheries.  What industry employs more people in Black Diamond and immediate vicinity than any other?  Still need hints?  Following is a photo of one of these businesses in the Puget Sound region taken in 1889.

Photo courtesy University of Washington Libraries, BOY78, William Boyd photographer, circa 1889

It's a rock quarry, of course, and the aggregates industry is big business today - rock, stone, sand, gravel, concrete.  All you have to do is drive the Maple Valley Highway between Enumclaw and Renton one morning and you'll see Black Diamond's Palmer Coking Coal and a slew of local competitor trucks on the road.  You'll see Cadman, Corliss, Stoneway, Miles, Northwest Aggregate and numerous independent truckers.  The glaciers were apparently good to us, leaving behind not just coal seams but enormous deposits of aggregate. 

As a state, Washington aggregate businesses generate an estimated $360 million in annual revenue.  We also rank as the #5 national producer of construction sand and gravel.  Per the numbers, each Washington State resident consumes on average 13.5 tons of aggregate per year.  Could that be why I feel like I'm getting heavier each year?  Road and building construction/maintenance are the biggest consumers of aggregate products but we also landscape our homes and manufacture bricks, tiles and other ancillary products.

Bigger than the coal industry too, nationally employing over 100,000 workers.  Big business and from the looks of it on the highway, highly competitive too.  Right Bill Kombol?

 

How Long Do Our Roads Last?

Fortunately, we are not the pothole capital of the state but with the heavy amount of truck traffic we see in Black Diamond, we do have our challenges.  Fortunately, we live in a region with generally mild weather, without extreme temperatures and limited freeze/thaw problems.  Making the switch, however, from dirt roads geared to horse drawn wagons and bikes, to roads capable of handling autos and trucks has not always been a smooth one (no pun intended).  Earlier, I posted a photo of the concrete road built to provide access to Mt. Rainier National Park (see Roads - Then & Now).  Concrete clearly had it's problems but so to did the alternatives, including the modified "bitulithic" material known as Warrenite. 

The following photos taken in 1912 show reconstruction of the Bothell Road.  Billed as the "second coming" in road construction material technology, Warrenite turned into to one of those "oops" moments.  Following is a photo of the road just a few months following completion of initial construction. 

Photo courtesy of University of Washington Libraries, IND0590, Webster & Stevens photographers, circa 1912

The photo shows where practically the entire surface had clung to passing autos and wagon wheels, leaving a disintegrated mass of stones strewn to the side of the road.  The piles of sand were on hand to spread across the surface and hopefully extend the surface life, what little of it there was left.  And that was not all.

Photo courtesy University of Washington Libraries, IND0588, Webster & Stevens photographers, circa 1912

On a modestly warm day, walking across the road was impossible as the gentleman in the picture above can attest while he attempts to remove all the sticky goo that clung to his shoes.  The equipment used to make Warrenite looked first class for the time.

Photo courtesy University of Washington Libraries, IND0402, Webster & Stevens photographer, circa 1912

The above contraption is identified as being the "portable" model for making Warrenite.  It even had it's own donkey engine to provide power and heating, and a team of horses to spread the goo on the roads surface.  Needless to say, the surface had to be completely replaced which meant digging up the whole road including foundation and reapplying it all at a cost of $17,000 per mile.  Pretty steep price at the time for a road that didn't last long even after the second application.

Photo courtesy University of Washington Libraries, IND0587, Webster & Stevens photographers, circa 1912

Now is the season of road construction in Washington.  I sure hope that we are getting our money's worth.

Computers on Wheels

Despite our love of SUV's and pickups, average vehicle fuel economy in the U.S. reached an all time high in 2016.  Following is a breakdown by vehicle type.

Source: Energy.Gov

These trends are particularly interesting given our recent period of lower gas prices and increased sales of SUV's.  Since 1975, fuel efficiency gains for SUV's alone have grown by 131%.  How can this be?  A lot of factors, no doubt, but one that I hadn't thought of before was changes in vehicle transmissions.

Long gone are the days of 3 speed transmissions that I grew up with.  Now we even have CVT's (Continuously Variable Transmissions) and up to 10 speeds.  The high rate of change between 2008 and 2016 is also quite notable following several decades of apparent limited change in transmission technology.  I guess our cars are now just computers on wheels. 

And what does the future hold?  Would you believe that 26% of all cars sold in Norway in 2016 were electric plug in vehicles?

Roads - Then & Now

Summer is approaching and time to make a mess of our highway system again.  Road construction season can be short so gotta git er done now.  Paradoxically, we seem to have more lane closures and other traffic constraints just as traffic volumes reach their peak.  Anyone try to get across Snoqualmie Pass this weekend?  This was not always the case as this photo taken in 1925 will attest.

Photo courtesy Washington State Digital Archives, Asahel Curtis photographer, circa 1925

It didn't realize that they built rural roads this good.  This one led to Mt. Rainier National Park.  But even in 1925, the "rule of roads" did apply.  Build a road and it will fill up with traffic - sooner rather than later.  And it's always too late.