We as a region have a chance this fall to expand our regional light rail system by up to 60 miles and give commuters even more alternatives to sitting in traffic on our overcrowded freeways. The proposed Sound Transit 2 package enhances the rail transit system we're building today. This is work the region should have approved back in the 1960s and 1970s. Imagine what transportation in our region would look like today if we had.

It will be the first of what we think will be many expansions of the initial Link light rail line between downtown Seattle and SeaTac International Airport, scheduled to open in just two years. When the Link light rail trains now being tested in Sodo start moving thousands of people a day, we as a region will demand more rail connections to the places we live, work and play.

The Sound Transit 2 package - which is part of the larger Transit and Roads ballot - also lays the foundations for expanding light rail service to Ballard by renewing planning studies which had, frankly, been on the back burner while we awaited the now-defunct monorail.

Surveys show voters in the region are behind the package - from Ballard, east to Redmond, north to Snohomish County and south to Tacoma. Our future depends on making these investments. How can we thrive as a region if we can't move workers, customers and freight? To keep our region moving we must provide enticing transit options that will lure people out of their cars while preserving capacity for freight and commuters who don't have any other choice.

The Transit and Roads package makes key mobility investments across the region, but they won't work without the transit component. As has been pointed out in this paper, by 2030 Sound Transit's proposed regional system will move more than 300,000 people every day.

But what needs to be emphasized is the fact that most of those riders will be riding rail when it matters the most - during the rush hours when traffic is at its worst. Today about 40 percent of the people who work in downtown Seattle get to and from the office by transit. With the Sound Transit 2 package, we can get that number up to 60 percent by 2030.

For Ballard and West Seattle residents, the package builds new transit lanes on the South Spokane Street Viaduct and adds a new ramp at Fourth Avenue providing fast, direct access to the light rail station at Lander. It also widens Mercer Avenue to help free up a notorious choke point to and from I-5 for Ballard residents. And by funding light rail planning for Ballard and West Seattle, it builds the foundation for a future expansion we think will happen sooner rather than later.

Light rail gives us the most efficient and flexible way for this region to stay on top of the growth that's coming our way - a 40 percent increase in our regional population. Light rail is a smart investment since its capacity can grow by simply adding more frequent and longer trains. When we need it, we can expand the trains to four cars and run at frequencies of every four minutes or better in each direction. With a system running at maximum capacity, we could move 24,000 people an hour in the space of two freeway lanes. In comparison, freeway capacity is approximately 2,000 cars per lane each hour, most of which have single occupants.

We're already on track to start extending light rail from downtown Seattle to the University of Washington as soon as next year. That line is one of the highest-rated projects in the country and is at the front of the line for $750 million in federal funding.

The package we vote on in November would build on that success to go north from the University of Washington to Northgate, Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace, Lynnwood and Ash Way. It would extend east to the Mercer Island, Bellevue and Overlake, and south from the airport to the Des Moines, Federal Way and Tacoma, building a light rail "spine" throughout the central Puget Sound Region.

While we live here on the west side of the city, our daily lives take us throughout the region. The Sound Transit 2 package gives us a fast, worry-free way around traffic every day, all day.

Larry Phillips and Dow Constantine are members of the Sound Transit Board and the King County Council. Phillips may be reached at 296.1004 and Constantine at 296-1008.