Thurston Regional Transportation Plan update: council hears targets, gaps and local projects tied to Tumwater

Katrina Van Every, transportation manager for the Thurston Regional Planning Council, told the Tumwater City Council on April 22 that the draft Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) lays out a 25-year roadmap for the region and must be updated every five years to meet state and federal requirements.

The RTP sets regional goals on safety, greenhouse-gas reduction, land-use alignment, equity and system maintenance and includes a financial forecast and a list of about 80 regionally significant projects. Van Every said the draft will be revised after public comment, sent to TRPC’s transportation policy board in June for a recommendation, and presented for final action in July.

Why it matters: the RTP is used by jurisdictions and state agencies to prioritize projects and to demonstrate how regional investments support state and federal targets. Van Every said the region’s planned land use and roadway capacity alone will not meet the regionally adopted targets; additional strategies are required to avoid future congestion and meet greenhouse‑gas and vehicle‑miles‑traveled (VMT) goals.

Van Every told council members the RTP’s targets include a state-adopted safety goal of reducing traffic fatalities and serious injuries to zero and regionwide greenhouse-gas targets (a 45% reduction below 2015 levels by 2030 and an 85% reduction by 2050). She said current trends show serious injuries and fatalities have increased in recent years and greenhouse-gas emissions remain on an upward trend despite progress on some measures.

The RTP relies on jurisdictional inputs for land use, population and planned projects. Van Every highlighted a persistent mismatch between the region’s stated land‑use goals — for example, a Sustainable Thurston objective that 72% of households be within a half‑mile of urban centers by 2035 — and the pattern of housing development. She said the region is seeing modest gains on some indicators (per‑capita VMT has improved) but not at the pace necessary to meet the RTP’s more aggressive long‑term targets.

On greenhouse gas and vehicle miles traveled, Van Every said the RTP aggregates all vehicle travel within the Thurston region (including passenger vehicles, trucks, buses and motorcycles). She noted that WSDOT monitors vehicle types at specific locations — for example, the Nisqually River bridge locations where roughly one in ten vehicles is a truck or large bus at certain crossing points — and that freight patterns vary by corridor.

Van Every listed projects in the draft RTP relevant to Tumwater and the south county: the Brewery District transportation project; the Tumwater Boulevard interchange; Mottman Road improvements (a coordinated project with Olympia); new local connections including an E Street connection and a Tye Drive extension; trail phases (Deschutes Valley Trail and Cairn/Frater Woodland Trail phases 3–4); expanded transit service and an “innovative service zone” study; Smart Corridors Phase 4; and an I‑5/90/Third Avenue interchange improvement study. The draft also identifies miles of new/ rebuilt bicycle and pedestrian facilities and new or realigned interchanges.

Van Every said the RTP carries policies for safety, equity (including environmental justice elements consistent with state law and the HEAL Act), climate mitigation and serving disadvantaged households (for example, policies that emphasize ensuring home‑charging access and equitable access to zero‑emission vehicles for households below 80% of median income). She emphasized that the plan includes a financial forecast intended to reflect reasonably anticipated revenues and not “pie in the sky” projects.

Council members pressed for clarifications on what counts in the VMT data (passenger cars versus all vehicles, and whether through‑truck traffic is included), truck impacts at Tumwater near the freeway, and how the RTP treats airport growth. Van Every said federal forecasts show virtually no passenger service growth at the Olympia Regional Airport through 2050 and that she did not have the airport’s cargo forecasts or associated emissions on hand.

Next steps: the RTP draft is on TRPC’s website and open for public comment. Van Every said TRPC will review comments, present a revised draft to the transportation policy board in June, and seek final action by TRPC in July. All public comments will be addressed in appendix materials in the published RTP.

Van Every concluded by leaving contact information and encouraging Tumwater residents to comment directly or through their council representatives.

• Key excerpts from the meeting: “The regional transportation plan is really our roadmap for what a complete and high functioning transportation system should look like over the next 25 years,” Van Every said. “Planned land use and roadway capacity improvements alone will not be sufficient to meet regionally adopted targets and goals.”

• Context: The RTP frames regional priorities that guide local capital programming and federal/state grant applications; Tumwater is updating its comprehensive plan this year and some local changes may not yet be reflected in the draft RTP.