Me thinks the I-711 signature campaign ain't doing so well. Eyman is starting from scratch with just 2 months left to collect signatures. Oh look, opening car-pool lanes to all traffic ISN'T as popular as a lot of people here assumed.

Opening of car-pool lanes cut from initiative

by Rebecca Cook The Associated Press

OLYMPIA - Initiative writer Tim Eyman has decided to drop the idea of opening up car-pool lanes to all traffic.

The Mukilteo watch salesman who sponsored tax-cutting Initiative 695 followed up this year with two proposals, one on taxes and one on road building. The highway initiative included a proposal to open car-pool lanes to all autos, all the time.

The idea drew quick praise and criticism. Gov. Gary Locke suggested a study of opening the lanes on weekends. The state Transportation Commission studied the idea and gave it thumbs down. Republican legislators tried in vain to open the lanes anyway.

"It was a huge, interesting debate that had nothing to do with the original intent of the measure," Eyman said yesterday.

The debate was distracting voters from what Eyman thought was the main thrust of the initiative: requiring that 90 percent of highway money be spent on road construction and maintenance, not transit programs.

Plus, car-pool lanes turned out to be a lot more popular than Eyman had expected. He and other signature gatherers spoke to many people who liked the idea behind the measure, but also liked using the car-pool lanes.

So last week, Eyman quietly re-filed the initiative, now I-745. It's exactly the same as the old one, I-711, except without references to car-pool lanes. He delayed announcing the change until new petitions could be printed up.

Refiling the initiative means signature gatherers will have to start from scratch. July 7 is the deadline to gather nearly 180,000 signatures to put the initiative on the ballot.

-- Patrick (patrick1142@yahoo.com), May 09, 2000

Answers

Actually, we can keep talking. I-695 took a couple of tries, as did I-200.

This proposal may well rise from the ashes as well. Only time will tell.

the craigster

-- (craigcar@crosswinds.net), May 09, 2000.

Sure, but then again, at least the other tries made it all the way through the signature collecting process. If Eyman is willing to pull the plug on the entire initiative with only 2 months left to collect signatures just to delete that portion, that seems to indicate that a LOT of people didn't like the idea.

From the articles today, the not so hidden message seems to be that when approached by signature gatherers, people would express interest in the 90% road funding idea, but actually decline to sign due to the HOV section. That's not an ambivalence that may turn to support stance, that's a downright opposition stance. I think Eyman is smart enough to know an unpopular issue when he sees one. And since he couldn't sell it connected to another issue, I find it hard to believe that he'll try selling it on it's own, or for that matter try attaching it onto another idea later on if it might sink that one too.

In any event, it would appear that the politicians who oppose the opening of HOV lanes actually WERE listening to the majority of the people in this case.

-- Patrick (patrick1142@yahoo.com), May 09, 2000.

Time will tell, Patrick, time will tell.

;-)

-- (craigcar@crosswinds.net), May 09, 2000.

Yup.

"95 percent of people who carpool and 72 percent of people who drive alone think HOV lanes are a good idea."

Carpool lanes too popular to kill TRANSPORTATION: Eyman rewrites initiative to leave lanes alone.

The Associated Press

OLYMPIA -- At first, carpool lanes must have seemed like an easy target. What Seattle commuter, stuck in traffic, hasn't stared enviously at the carpoolers smugly speeding by in the HOV lanes?

But when Tim Eyman, author of the popular tax-cutting Initiative 695, started pitching his new highway initiative he found out what traffic experts say they've known all along: People like carpool lanes -- a lot.

Eyman's original highway initiative would have opened up carpool lanes to all traffic, all the time. But after talking to potential voters, he rethought that idea and rewrote the initiative.

"I think, based on the feedback, that this will end up being a really good move," Eyman said Tuesday.

According to a long-term survey of nearly 9,700 drivers by the 95 percent of people who carpool and 72 percent of people who drive alone think HOV lanes are a good idea.

Washington State Transportation Center, Only 33 percent of lone drivers think HOV lanes should be opened to all traffic, and 56 percent disagree with the statement, "Constructing HOV lanes is unfair to taxpayers who choose to drive alone."

"I look over there and drool when I just have myself in the car," admitted Michelle Maher, a member of the state Transportation Commission, which last month unanimously opposed opening the lanes on weekends. "But there is a lot of support for keeping HOV lanes the way they are."

Eyman's "Traffic Improvement Initiative" would require that 90 percent of all transportation money be spent on highway construction and maintenance, rather than on transit.

But a small provision on carpool lanes soon overshadowed the rest.

The final straw came for Eyman a few weeks ago, at the King County Republican Party convention. He work-ed a booth getting signatures. People kept walking up and asking, "Where's your carpool initiative?"

"I'm like, 'Wait a minute here.' Clearly that was never the original intent," Eyman said.

Reactions to opening the carpool lanes were all over the map.

"There was a splintering of opinion," Eyman said. For many, he said, "It was an issue that was a deal-killer."

So Eyman rewrote the initiative to focus on how the state spends transportation money.

The move is risky. Signature gatherers will have to start from scratch. They need 179,000 signatures by July 7 to get the initiative on the November ballot. To help, Eyman has hired paid signature- gatherers, a first for the grassroots leader. He think the change will pay.

"We've got a more compelling message," Eyman said. "Was this a smart move? Ask me on July 7."

-- Patrick (patrick1142@yahoo.com), May 10, 2000.