Offering frequent news and analysis from the majestic Evergreen State and beyond, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Spice up the jargon

In following the Columbia River Crossing project I became aware of WSDOT's Good to Go! program, which is something akin to New Jersey's E-Z Pass toll collection system. WSDOT intends to use Good to Go! on the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge and the SR 167 HOT lanes between Auburn and Renton.

First, the exclamation point! is very 2006. It didn't work for Mike! and WSDOT should just stop it. Really.

Second, what the heck is a HOT lane? It's a carpool lane with a toll. I suppose "HOT," for "high occupancy toll" works okay, but they really need to make this clear to people.

Third, in general, bureaucrats need to spend less time thinking up cute names for things, and the names they come up with need to be related to the thing they are naming. So "HOT" kind of works, "Good to Go!" doesn't work at all. Many people in Washington have probably heard of New Jersey's E-Z Pass because we get so much media from New York and environs. So how about calling it "WA-Pass" or something?

And really, WSDOT need to be a little more creative with their slogans. I mean, anyone could think up "Good to Go!" or "make a run for the bridge" or "think outside the single occupant vehicle commuter model by utilizing multi-modal transportation options in conjunction with new facilities that increase capacity, relying on new revenue streams generated by electronic collection of user fees."

I thought jargon had been outlawed or something.

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