Last week, I was driving home after an evening meeting in Everett. Like a lot of parents, I wasn’t thinking about the meeting anymore. I was thinking about getting home before the kids went to bed.
Another crash. Another backup. Another reminder of how quickly one incident can bring traffic across much of our county to a standstill.
By the time I got home, I’d missed another evening with my family that I wasn’t planning to miss.
If you live in Snohomish County, you’ve probably had your own version of that experience. Maybe it was missing the first pitch of your kid’s baseball game. Maybe you were racing to daycare, hoping you beat the dreaded late pickup fee. Maybe you were just ready to be home after a long day at work.
That’s why traffic matters.
Not because anyone enjoys talking about roads. Because every extra 20 minutes sitting in traffic is 20 minutes we’d rather spend somewhere else.
When people ask why traffic keeps getting worse, the easy answer is growth.
I think the better answer is that our county has continued to grow faster than we’ve built the transportation system to support it.
How We Actually Get Around
Before we talk about solutions, it’s worth looking at how people actually get around Snohomish County today.
More than nine out of ten Snohomish County commuters who travel to a workplace rely on our road network by driving alone or carpooling.
That isn’t a criticism of transit. It’s simply the reality of how our county is built.
Our jobs are spread across the county. So are our schools, neighborhoods, and businesses. For most families, driving isn’t a preference – it’s simply how life works today.
Until transit is built out to serve most daily trips, underinvesting in the roads people still depend on comes with a real cost. It means longer commutes, more time away from family, more money spent on fuel, and fewer practical options for getting to work, school, childcare, and everyday life.
As we continue expanding transit, we also have to make sure the transportation system most people rely on every day keeps up.
Different Communities. Different Transportation Challenges.
I’ve heard a version of this question a lot over the years:
“Why can’t Snohomish County just do what Seattle does?”
Seattle’s transportation priorities reflect where their community is today. Ours should reflect where Snohomish County is today. We’re simply trying to solve different transportation challenges because we’re at different stages of growth.
Once you’ve built the backbone of a transportation system, the next challenge becomes figuring out how to move more people through it.
I don’t think we should skip the first step.
Transit should absolutely continue to grow, but it works best when it’s built on a transportation network that’s already well connected. That’s the stage Snohomish County is still working toward.
We still have major pieces of our transportation network that haven’t been finished.
Highway 9 is probably the clearest example. For a county approaching one million residents, it’s hard to believe one of our primary north-south corridors is still largely two lanes.
The aging US-2 trestle is another example. And when either of those corridors slows down, there often isn’t another good way around.
That’s why our transportation strategy has to look different.
I’ve been on the County Council long enough to know these aren’t easy decisions. I’ve supported transportation projects that I believe moved our county forward. But over time I’ve also become convinced that we haven’t spent enough time asking one simple question:
Are we building the transportation system that Snohomish County actually needs?
I don’t think we’ve answered that question well enough.
Planning for the Next Generation
Snohomish County is expected to add another 300,000 residents over the next twenty years.
The question isn’t whether that growth is coming. It’s whether we’ll be ready for it.
Another 300,000 residents means more families, more jobs, and more people trying to get where they need to go every day.
If we wait until they’re here before improving our transportation network, we’ll always be behind.
So What Do We Do?
We need to keep investing in transit.
Light rail, Swift Bus Rapid Transit, commuter rail, and better local bus service all have an important role to play in Snohomish County’s future.
You’ve probably heard the phrase:
“You can’t build your way out of traffic.”
There’s truth to that if you’re talking about a transportation system whose backbone is already largely complete.
But Snohomish County isn’t there yet.
Completing Highway 9, replacing the aging US-2 trestle, and improving east-west connections aren’t about squeezing one more lane into a finished system.
They’re about completing the transportation network that hundreds of thousands of Snohomish County residents still depend on every single day.
I don’t think our transportation priorities fully reflect where Snohomish County is in its growth.
We need to keep expanding transit.
And we also need to keep building the transportation network our county still lacks.
Looking Ahead
The transportation system we rely on today didn’t appear overnight.
The roads we drive on every day exist because someone decades ago decided they were worth building before the need became obvious.
Now it’s our turn.
Another 300,000 people are expected to call Snohomish County home over the next two decades.
The decisions we make today will shape how they experience this community, and how we experience it alongside them.
If we get this right, we’ll spend less time sitting in traffic and more time where we actually want to be. That seems like a worthwhile investment.
About Snohomish County Councilman Jared Mead
Snohomish County Councilman Jared Mead has served on the Snohomish County Council for the past six years. He was born and raised in Snohomish County, and his wife Krystal—an Everett Public Schools teacher—and he are raising their four children in South County.
COMMENTARY DISCLAIMER: The views and comments expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the Lynnwood Times nor any of its affiliate
Jared Mead Commentary: Traffic, what’s at stake?
Last week, I was driving home after an evening meeting in Everett. Like a lot of parents, I wasn’t thinking about the meeting anymore. I was thinking about getting home before the kids went to bed.
Another crash. Another backup. Another reminder of how quickly one incident can bring traffic across much of our county to a standstill.
By the time I got home, I’d missed another evening with my family that I wasn’t planning to miss.
If you live in Snohomish County, you’ve probably had your own version of that experience. Maybe it was missing the first pitch of your kid’s baseball game. Maybe you were racing to daycare, hoping you beat the dreaded late pickup fee. Maybe you were just ready to be home after a long day at work.
That’s why traffic matters.
Not because anyone enjoys talking about roads. Because every extra 20 minutes sitting in traffic is 20 minutes we’d rather spend somewhere else.
When people ask why traffic keeps getting worse, the easy answer is growth.
I think the better answer is that our county has continued to grow faster than we’ve built the transportation system to support it.
How We Actually Get Around
Before we talk about solutions, it’s worth looking at how people actually get around Snohomish County today.
More than nine out of ten Snohomish County commuters who travel to a workplace rely on our road network by driving alone or carpooling.
That isn’t a criticism of transit. It’s simply the reality of how our county is built.
Our jobs are spread across the county. So are our schools, neighborhoods, and businesses. For most families, driving isn’t a preference – it’s simply how life works today.
Until transit is built out to serve most daily trips, underinvesting in the roads people still depend on comes with a real cost. It means longer commutes, more time away from family, more money spent on fuel, and fewer practical options for getting to work, school, childcare, and everyday life.
As we continue expanding transit, we also have to make sure the transportation system most people rely on every day keeps up.
Different Communities. Different Transportation Challenges.
I’ve heard a version of this question a lot over the years:
“Why can’t Snohomish County just do what Seattle does?”
Seattle’s transportation priorities reflect where their community is today. Ours should reflect where Snohomish County is today. We’re simply trying to solve different transportation challenges because we’re at different stages of growth.
Once you’ve built the backbone of a transportation system, the next challenge becomes figuring out how to move more people through it.
I don’t think we should skip the first step.
Transit should absolutely continue to grow, but it works best when it’s built on a transportation network that’s already well connected. That’s the stage Snohomish County is still working toward.
We still have major pieces of our transportation network that haven’t been finished.
Highway 9 is probably the clearest example. For a county approaching one million residents, it’s hard to believe one of our primary north-south corridors is still largely two lanes.
The aging US-2 trestle is another example. And when either of those corridors slows down, there often isn’t another good way around.
That’s why our transportation strategy has to look different.
I’ve been on the County Council long enough to know these aren’t easy decisions. I’ve supported transportation projects that I believe moved our county forward. But over time I’ve also become convinced that we haven’t spent enough time asking one simple question:
Are we building the transportation system that Snohomish County actually needs?
I don’t think we’ve answered that question well enough.
Planning for the Next Generation
Snohomish County is expected to add another 300,000 residents over the next twenty years.
The question isn’t whether that growth is coming. It’s whether we’ll be ready for it.
Another 300,000 residents means more families, more jobs, and more people trying to get where they need to go every day.
If we wait until they’re here before improving our transportation network, we’ll always be behind.
So What Do We Do?
We need to keep investing in transit.
Light rail, Swift Bus Rapid Transit, commuter rail, and better local bus service all have an important role to play in Snohomish County’s future.
You’ve probably heard the phrase:
“You can’t build your way out of traffic.”
There’s truth to that if you’re talking about a transportation system whose backbone is already largely complete.
But Snohomish County isn’t there yet.
Completing Highway 9, replacing the aging US-2 trestle, and improving east-west connections aren’t about squeezing one more lane into a finished system.
They’re about completing the transportation network that hundreds of thousands of Snohomish County residents still depend on every single day.
I don’t think our transportation priorities fully reflect where Snohomish County is in its growth.
We need to keep expanding transit.
And we also need to keep building the transportation network our county still lacks.
Looking Ahead
The transportation system we rely on today didn’t appear overnight.
The roads we drive on every day exist because someone decades ago decided they were worth building before the need became obvious.
Now it’s our turn.
Another 300,000 people are expected to call Snohomish County home over the next two decades.
The decisions we make today will shape how they experience this community, and how we experience it alongside them.
If we get this right, we’ll spend less time sitting in traffic and more time where we actually want to be. That seems like a worthwhile investment.
About Snohomish County Councilman Jared Mead
Snohomish County Councilman Jared Mead has served on the Snohomish County Council for the past six years. He was born and raised in Snohomish County, and his wife Krystal—an Everett Public Schools teacher—and he are raising their four children in South County.
COMMENTARY DISCLAIMER: The views and comments expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the Lynnwood Times nor any of its affiliate
Author: Lynnwood Times Contributor
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