Aug. 6--A state climate change panel is considering a slate of bold proposals to reduce vehicle use in the interest of lowering greenhouse gas emissions:

--More bike paths, sidewalks and HOV lanes. --More high-speed bus and passenger train alternatives. --Congestion pricing to induce people to drive at times other than rush hour. --Changes to the Growth Management Act that would reward high-density, transit-oriented development and make it harder to expand urban growth boundaries. How these recommendations would play in Clark County if the Legislature eventually adopts them is an open question. The state's first attempt to get the county's motorists to leave their cars in the garage didn't exactly catch on. In 2001, the Washington Department of Transportation painted a high-occupancy vehicle lane on Interstate 5 between Northeast 99th Street and Mill Plain Boulevard.

The experiment was abandoned four years later, a victim of driver preference and a bottlen ck on the Oregon side that limited its usefulness. And when it comes to limiting suburban growth and promoting transit-oriented development, Clark County appears to be moving in the opposite direction. Next month, county commissioners are expected to adopt a new land use plan that pushes out the urban growth boundary by 12,000 acres to accommodate another 184,000 residents over the next 20 years. About 1,900 acres west of Brush Prairie, released for r sidential development by the commission in April, is not served by C-Tran, so at least 1,500 new households there will have to depend on cars to get to work and run errands.

County Commissioner Steve Stuart called the county's efforts- to reduce driving "a mixed bag." The new county comprehensive plan does identify transit corridors for future bus rapid transit or light rail tied to a new Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River, he noted. Future bridge commuters will likely pay tolls, and those tolls could be pri ed to reduce congestion by rewarding drivers who avoid rush hour. The Chelatchie Railroad holds the potential for one day connecting Vancouver and Battle Ground by passenger rail. But that's all in the future. "You have to build the structure for those things to be successful," Stuart said.

"High-capacity transit has to have high densities to be successful, densities we don't see yet in Clark County." C-Tran spokesman Scott Patterson said the transit agency will overhaul its routes and schedules beginning Sept. 30, but the focus will be on increasing the frequency of bus service on existing routes and adding night runs, not expanding the area of its overage. "There aren't any plans currently to serve those areas" recently opened to development, Patterson said. "Were we to get more funding, our priority would be more service later in the evening and greater frequency" to make existing routes more convenient.

Team meets Tuesday A Climate Advisory Team appointed by Gov. Chris Gregoire last spring is approaching the halfway point in its assignment: crafting recommendations for the governor and the 2008 Legislature to reduce Washington's greenhouse gas contributions to 1990 level by 2020, and to 50 percent of 1990 levels by 2050. The team meets Tuesday in Seattle to begin receiving proposals from five working groups on strategies to limit greenhouse gas emissions and encourage energy efficiency and conservation in every part of the state's economy, from agriculture and forestry o energy generation to the residential, commercial and industrial sectors.

The transportation sector, which contributes 45 percent of the state's greenhouse gas emissions, would see some of the most sweeping changes. Technology fixes are a part of the mix. For example, the transportation working group will propose that Washington consider adopting California's low-carbon fuels target. Even so, K.C. Golden of the Seattle group Climate Solutions says those steps will take the state only so far without a significant reduction in miles driven by Washington residents. "It is still possible to do better with a low-carbon fuel standard," he said. "We have not pushed to the outer edges of what is possible.

But if vehicle miles traveled continue to increase at the current clip, the results pretty much flatten our greenho se gas emissions, and we need to reduce them." Significant reductions in the miles motorists drive will require both lifestyle changes and dramatic shifts in the way the state plans for growth and designs its transportation infrastructure. State transportation planners could be required to consider the impact of new highway projects on the state's carbon dioxide emissions. They could be directed to plan for the safe movement of bicycles and pedestrians along and across most highways.

Some highway lanes could be set aside for vanpools, buses, trucks, and even "green vehicles" like gas-electric hybrids. That's already happening in Phoenix, under an experiment that allows drivers of the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic and Insight hybrids to se 73 miles of HOV lanes if they get special permits and plates. Cities and counties could be required to invest in transit, bike trails and sidewalks as they expand their street systems. "Our development regs already require complete streets in most situations for new streets," Stuart said. That's been true for at least 10 years. "The challenge is retrofitting the streets we already have.

For sidewalks alone, we have almost a $400 milli n deficit." The county has a master plan for bicycle commuting routes, but just seven of 26 miles of bike paths and dedicated bike lanes have been completed, Stuart said. Retrofitting city streets and county roads with bike lanes and sidewalks will cost money. The transportation working group suggests increasing state funding for such projects and also giving local governments more flexibility to use their share of gas t x revenues to fund them. Growth outstrips transit Building alternative transportation systems that can catch up with runaway growth is a statewide challenge, said Mary McCumber of land use watchdog group Futurewise.

"Oregon made a decision on its growth management about two decades earlier than Washington," she said. "When we passed the Growth Management Act in 1990, we already had large numbers of people living in unincorporated areas. We had to bring those people into our urban growth areas. " The question for the future, she said, is, "How do we make our urban places work better, so people don't have to drive everywhere and get stuck in traffic?" One way, she said, is to require cities and counties to identify their centers of housing and employment, and try to place those close enough to each other so that people can use mass transit, or bicycle, or walk, from home to work and back.

Stuart said the county's new comprehensive plan attempts to do just that in places like the La Center I-5 interchange. "The La Center junction is being brought in for light industrial and office business park use," he said. "It will provide jobs for a city that has very few jobs right now, and a chance to diversify their economic base. It will increase the vitality of t e community." Another benefit: If it works, he said, it will reduce commute times for residents of La Center and the north county. In the end, said Golden, "Our growth management and transportation decisions are the decisions that have the biggest impact on how much we need our cars and what alternatives are available." The question of how or whether to rebuild Seattle's earthquake-damaged Alaskan Way Viaduct "is a great example," he said.

"Do we make a huge new investment that will cause us to use more fossil fuels?" Stuart agrees that Washington can't build its way out of its traffic problem. "You can never build enough roadways to build yourself out of congestion. When you increase capacity, you induce traffic and you tap latent demand." At the same time, he hopes Washington learns a lesson from Oregon's experience with Measure 37, the property rights measure passed by voters who felt that state's land use laws were too restrictive. "I believe Measure 37 was a result of overly draconian rules on the other side of the river," he said.

"You can only lead people as far as they can be led. Draconian measures won't work. If we get too restrictive, there will be pushback." Some Clark Cou ty residents will never use mass transit, even if it's available, and that's fine, Stuart said. "We need to provide options for people. Some will thrive in that high-density transit-oriented environment. However, there are people in this county who pay just as many taxes who want to live in a suburb or a rural area and they have no need or desire o be served by transit."