No hitch hiking at Stevens Pass

www.wsdot.wa.gov/News/2013/12/16US2NoHitchHiking.htm

This info did not start my day off to well...   
(If you see a Bright yellow jacket wearing lad walking up the highway with a big powder filled smile, please don't attempt to pick up. I am in no way soliciting a ride, nor prostitution...)

So rather than planning to create a pullout to increase safety they intend to substitute an actual plan with arm waving and a sign? And let me get this straight, the goal of that arm-waving is to basically stop backcountry skiing near a resort?

Good luck with that :

It's not hitch hiking if you know the driver, right?  

I "try" not to hit the highway when riding sidecountry at Stevens, but sometimes it doesn't quite work out, but I get that WSDOT is trying to prevent an accident though. I've shook my head at idiots skiing out on the avalanche paths on the west side of the pass on a sketchy stability day.

I decided to be a "concerned citizen". I'd prefer you don't cut-n-paste, but feel free to use my ideas to write these guys.
to: berendt@wsdot.wa.gov,
darren.wright@wsp.wa.gov
date: Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 8:23 AM
subject: Stevens Pass no-hitchhiking zone

Good Morning,
You two are listed as the contact people for this article: www.wsdot.wa.gov/News/2013/12/16US2NoHitchHiking.htm

This plan is a folly. In an effort to decrease stopped vehicles in the limited sight distance (and occasionally lower traction) zone at Tunnel Creek your agency has decided to make hitchiking illegal. WSDOT then goes on to explain that because hitch hiking will be illegal, and it is sooooo dangerous to walk all the way back to the resort that, ergo ipso facto, people will not backcountry ski into this zone and clog up Highway 2.

This is laughable. Let me tell you a COLD, HARD, FACT. People in Washington WILL backcountry ski adjacent to an active ski resort. Backcountry skiing is on the rise everywhere in the PNW, and that is doubly true where it can be accessed from the top of a chairlift. All that will be accomplished by this enforcement is punishing drivers who attempt to make things safer for the kids that will come down by giving them a lift back to the resort. But hey, you never know, this may discourage drivers enough that you may get a kid killed this winter as he tries to wallow his way back up to the resort in the dark on the side of the highway. Will you have a press release then explaining why that happened?

I don't even ski this zone, never have. I don't normally get worked up about WSDOT or civic stuff. But this is just stupid and cheap arm waving that will do more harm than good. If you want to make the road safer, spend some money and create a 3 car pullout there, and another on the east side.

Sincerely,
[REAL NAME REDACTED BECAUSE IT'S SOOPER SEKRET]

I don't see anywhere in the WSDOT article that says you can't pick up AT Tunnel Creek hairpin or AT Yodelin. Those two locales seem to be safe and smart bets for exiting the terrain outside the ski resort boundary. Nothing is stopping folks from donning skins and ascending back to Cowboy Mt. or Big Chief ridgeline. The area between Tunnel Creek and the ski area parking lot is pretty hazardous, I wouldn't think to hitchhike that stretch or want to cause a slide onto the highway. Same goes for the stretch from the eastside lots to Yodelin.

The section stating; " nor to prevent a person from signaling or requesting transportation from a passenger carrier for the purpose of becoming a passenger thereon for hire" invites a taxi service or perhaps "Cash Cab" to start making some trips up and down the hiway. Or did I mis-interpret?