The entire population of Portland is moving here.

Some have already arrived.

Projections are that between 2000 and 2030, 1.2 million people-equal to the population of metropolitan Portland-will be added to the Puget Sound area.

We can try to keep everyone moving by adding ever more freeways and more lanes to existing roadways.

We can continue to drive to work alone in our SUVs, paying $3 or $4 a gallon for gas and adding to global warming.

But it isn't going to work.

Already, traffic from Tukwila to Bellevue is choked up for five hours each workday morning. The average vehicle inches along Interstate 405 during rush hour at 23 miles per hour.

Finally, we need to get serious about mass transit. We have begun with the light rail link to Sea-Tac International Airport, set to open in late 2009.

Light rail stations at South 154th Street and the airport/SeaTac city center will spark transit-oriented development in Tukwila and SeaTac.

King County Metro is moving forward with an expanded bus center close to Burien Town Square and, possibly, a hotel next door.

More people can choose to live where they can go to work, shop, go out to eat and be entertained without taking their car.

Tourists can move around the area without renting a car or taking expensive taxis.

Airport workers can use light rail to get to and from work.

Pilots and flight attendants could walk from their condos across International Boulevard and catch their planes without taking any kind of shuttle.

One idea is condominiums on top of a SeaTac hotel, much like what is springing up in downtown Seattle.

Anyone who has lived or vacationed in cities with good mass transit systems knows how convenient they can be.

Of course, the urban lifestyle isn't for everyone. Some suburbanites still love the smell of beauty bark in the morning.

So, we do need highway projects, too.

That is where the combined roads and transit measure slated for the Nov. 6 election ballot comes in.

Unfortunately, the uneasy coalition of roads and transit proponents is threatening to come unraveled.

The roads crowd thinks it is weighted too much toward transit while the Greenies think highways get an unfair advantage.

The measure is expensive and does not solve all our long-delayed transportation problems.

But voters should reject the nattering nabobs of negativism, as a disgraced former vice president put it, and consider the measure carefully before November.

KUDOS TO Highline schools Superintendent John Welch for his award as top large district superintendent in the state.

With more of a background in finance than education, Welch brings best management practices to the business of education.

Recognition should also go to Welch's mentor, previous superintendent Joe McGeehan.

He could have used his last year as the district's head to ease into retirement. Instead, McGeehan took on the highly charged issues of school closures, boundary changes and the beginnings of high school redesign.

When Welch took over, he didn't have to deal with some of the controversies.

Much of what Welch was honored for began during the McGeehan regime.

We should also reflect on what might have been after a curious nation-wide search for a new superintendent. Finalists were deputy superintendent Welch and the former superintendent in two Midwestern districts.

The former superintendent sported great credentials. She was dynamic and knowledgeable in her public interview.

But apparently the consultants weren't able to delve into confidential personnel issues, because a simple Google search revealed she fought bitterly with the public and her school boards in those two districts.

Reportedly, her attorney demanded the board pay off her luxurious condo before she would leave her first superintendency.

She was also charged with being prickly with the press-which I can attest to after a brief encounter.

The other finalist would have been a disaster in Highline where district staffers and board members overwhelm dissenters with politeness.

Eric Mathison can be reached at ericm@robinsonnews.com or 206-388-1855.