The proposal to toll Interstate 405 from Bellevue to Lynnwood received less than an enthused response at a public meeting held at Kirkland City Hall Feb. 19.

A presentation by Tolling Division Assistant Secretary Craig Stone to the State Transportation Commission (WSTC) at the beginning of the meeting intended to relieve some concerns about the proposal, as well as explain the necessity for it on a highway which Stone said is among the worst, if not the worst, in the state when it comes to traffic congestion. Traffic is so bad, he said, the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane is not meeting state and federal requirements for vehicles to be traveling at 40 miles per hour 90 percent of the time. Instead, Stone said, vehicles are driving at that speed only 60 percent of the time, despite adding nine transit centers, 5,000 new park and ride parking stalls and 1,700 vanpools since 2002.

The proposed toll would charge for the use of the existing carpool lane from SR 522 to I-5, along with two lanes between Northeast 6th Street in Bellevue and SR 522 in Bothell, or 17 miles, for those with less than the specified occupancy. Motorcycles, and buses that seat at least 16 people, would be exempt from the toll.

Stone cited tolled highways in Miami and San Diego as evidence of how the proposal would reduce traffic congestion. Though the commission has yet to determine the tolling rate, the estimate is between 75 cents and $10, though Stone added that they estimate 77 percent of tolls would be less than $1.

The proposed toll rate on I-405 from Bellevue to Lynnwood is just one step in an overall plan to toll the entire highway from where it begins, north in Lynwood, to where it connects with State Route 167 in Renton. SR 167 already has a tolled HOV lane.

The WSTC will make their final decisions at a meeting on March 18 at Kirkland City Hall.

The public comment segment of the meeting was rife with emotion as both attendants and the advisory board members argued and debated. At one point during the meeting, one man spoke out of order.

Among the people to speak during the public comment was Kenmore Mayor David Baker, who stated that since tolling on 520, the Kenmore Crosslake Corridor has been swamped with commuters looking to avoid the toll by driving north of Lake Washington on State Route 522. If I-405 is tolled, he warned, communities like Kenmore “will be severely affected” as the city’s streets take the brunt of toll diversion.

“We would respectfully ask that you consider using tolling for mitigation for cities affected,” he said.

The first person to comment attacked one aspect of the proposal that would raise the exemption for carpooling from two to three people or more during peak times. He said that he and a friend carpool to take the HOV lane, but if this new policy is implemented they likely won’t be able to find a third person. If that happens, he said there is no point in carpooling and they will just take their own vehicles, which would add more cars to the road and make traffic even worse. And while public transit is an option for some people, he said, it’s not convenient for everyone who either doesn’t live or doesn’t work near a transit center.

The real solution to traffic congestion, he said, is to provide incentives, possibly financial ones, for more people to carpool.

“Who made this proposal?” he asked.

One man spoke out of order to express his skepticism about the impact of their comments on the commission’s decisions, wondering aloud if the commission had already predetermined things such as the tolling rate and the public comment was to satisfy legal obligations.

One man who has lived in Kenmore for 18 years concurred with his sentiments, claiming “It’s a done deal.” He added that the problem has been a reactive rather than proactive plan for dealing with traffic when the infrastructure was being built and the population on the Eastside was growing. While he said he doesn’t have a problem with tolls, the inconsistency with having certain roads tolled and not others causes spillover traffic in streets that aren’t designed to handle it. Originally from Springfield, Mass., he added that the tolled highways on the East Coast have more lanes than I-405. The current tolling proposal for I-405, he said, would just be a “band-aid.”

“You’re not looking at the bigger picture,” he said.

One person to support the toll proposal was Sonny Putter, the former mayor for Newcastle, who said it was the “best sustainable solution” and the only realistic one for traffic congestion.

Sean Osborne, a Shoreline resident, called the toll a “disgusting undemocratic idea” and advocated raising the gas tax instead.

The only Kirkland resident to speak was Bob Campbell, who said they needed to give commuters a break and not toll I-405, which he referred to as “405 the parking lot.”

Transportation Commission Executive Director Reema Griffith told the attendants that state and federal mandates for I-405’s HOV lanes leave them with little choice for improving traffic.

“We have a mandate we can’t ignore,” she said.