A friend and I are in the habit of sending each other links to published news stories that mystify us in their obviousness: who needs to be told that people who enjoy reading buy more books than people who don’t or that air conditioning bills are higher in the summer than in the winter? Somewhere along the way we started calling these stories new from the “Department of Duh” and in that spirit I give you this dispatch from the US DOT as a message from the Department of Duh: Seattle suffers from traffic congestion.

This announcement was made at a press conference on June 7 during which U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters announced that nine US cities semi-finaliists to take part in a DOT program called Urban Partnerships that provides funding and advice on how to combat congestion. Peters named Seattle as one of the semi-finalists, along with Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Miami, New York City, San Diego, and San Francisco. (What? No LA?) Winners will be announced by mid-August.

Okay, okay, I know–I should be happy about this, not sarcastic, but, still, I can’t help but wonder What took you so long? It’s not like this is a brand-new problem that just popped up. Some of these cities–Seattle included–have had these problems for decades. (Has New York City ever not been congested?) Woe that serious efforts weren’t enacted years ago. Well, let’s hope that Seattle’s one of the winners and let’s hope even more that the traffic relief measures get some serious action and don’t just go the “Seattle Way”. I do’nt know about the rest of you but at this point I’m almost willing to accept ANY plan, no matter how ridiculous, if there’s some actual action on it.