Given the Seattle Time’s and other media’s doomsday warnings about the nine-day closure of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, I expected this morning’s commute to and from West Seattle to be akin to driving drunk without hands (gridlock, chaos, mass commuter suicides, etc). Since that’s a particular hobby of mine, I drove the route. Does eliminating those lanes on Highway 99 bring Seattle to its knees, as we’ve been told, and are drivers incapable of adjusting their patterns?
Here is my experience:
7:40 a.m.—I began in downtown Seattle driving south on 1st Avenue to SODO, equipped with a full tank of gas, 12-ounce coffee, pastry, two newspapers, a sack lunch, toothbrush, first aid kit, map, Bible, and handgun. Traffic: heavy but flowing. Mood: Prepared.
- On the West Seattle Bridge—but where are the cars?
7:45 a.m.—Got lost in SODO. Finished pastry, no time to read newspapers or polish gun. Traffic: Heavy but flowing. Mood: Anxious.
8:10 a.m.—After a detour to Beacon Hill and a few illegal U-Turns, I merged onto the West Seattle bridge with five other cars and a hearse bound for West Seattle. Heavier, eastern-bound traffic moved at a clipped pace.
8:30 a.m.—After celebrating my successful commute to West Seattle by buying another cup of coffee on California Avenue SW, I turned around, expecting to crawl back to Seattle with the thousands of other commuters kneecapped by the Viaduct closure. I then merged onto a deserted West Seattle Bridge headed east, driving approximately five miles over the speed limit. Where is the traffic? Am I too late for carmaggedon? The mass commuter suicides?
- Merging onto I-5.
8:35 a.m.—Merged onto I-5 headed north. Traffic is heavy but moving at 35 mph. We stop once; I pull out my phone to take a picture and am honked at.
8:45 a.m.—I take the Seneca Street exit into downtown. My coffee is still hot, my gun still cold. Mood: Victorious.
Lest you think my trip was an anomaly, the Seattle Times saw exactly the same thing: Traffic was moving easily as early as 6:52 a.m. and their headline was properly incredulous—”Commute from West Seattle: easiest of the year?”
Not to hump a dead horse but remember how, as recently as three months ago, the Seattle Times editorial board was declaring that surface/transit was an unworkable alternative solution to the tunnel because it “amounts to gridlock”? It seems that West Seattle drivers aren’t lemmings running towards a cliff—they’re intelligent people able to instantly change their habits to avoid congestion if given alternatives (i.e. beefed up Metro bus and water taxi services).
But as many people are sure to point out, there’s no use dwelling on the past. I just thank God we’re spending $4.2 billion to make sure this morning’s commute never happens to anyone again.
@50, I know, I live in one of their abodes. Like a chameleon, I blend in . . . they think I am one of their own!
@ 45 What if we threw in tolls, and the possibility of being buried alive in an earthquake? Starting to sound good!
Adding more anecdotal information, I biked in from WS today, and saw way more bikers than normal. And the West Seattle Blog mentioned at capacity Water Taxi routes, something that rarely happens. Alternative modes, working from home and going downtown early/late seems to have worked today for W.Seattlites. We’ve been preparing for months.
I feel bad for all the I-5ers that didn’t register the impact it would have on their commute, and don’t have as many options.
Cienna, we’ve been here before. Your highway closure flame war folly has been done here already, and by your much more ridiculous, competent and hysterical predecessor.. http://tinyurl.com/3gjk5sk (plus many more).
Ive noticed that the commute to work was pretty easy, but walking from the convention center station to First Hill. Wow, never seen it that bad. Boren Ave was basically a parking lot of gridlock, ive never been able to walk passed so many cars moving at slow and stop.
Cienna, please try driving to West Seattle during the rush hour. Taste the bumper to bumper traffic crawling along 1st Ave S, sitting at S Hanford St, waiting for the trains to go by, and crawling along S Spokane waiting for the tractor trailer trucks to leave the train yards. A 20 minute trip took about 50 minutes today.
I’m sure you’ll feel the sanctimony disappear.
I’ve been taking the water taxi every work day for years, and I’ve never seen anyone turned away, ever, but apparently the first several runs had to. Usually, there’s only 30 or so people on a the 8:15 commuter run.
Glad people are taking it; annoyed that there’s no longer a guarantee that you’ll get on without waiting a half-hour.
More people taking it isn’t necessarily a good thing if it’s a subsidized service. Metro, for example, basically loses more money the more people ride.
@57: Huh? You mean if my bus is carrying 40 people instead of 20 Metro loses money?
Right.
The “grid” part of “gridlock” is easy to forget. People might not be considering is the much heavier traffic on arterial streets. Up at 70th and Roosevelt, it was bumper-to-bumper at rush hour while I-5 southbound was a parking lot.
@3 @15 @25 @29 @34 @35 Nope.
Look, just go to the Seattle Times animation showing traffic congestion. Search for Viadoom.
People North of the Ship Canal and in other areas if the city now have heavily increased congestion.
They give you a side by side comparison, so you don’t have to believe me, if you don’t want to.
We in the job-creating areas, not the millionaire and billionaire job-exporting areas, are suffering massively increased congestion and longer commutes just so the 1%ers can build a taxpayer-subsidized tunnel we don’t need that literally DOUBLES carbon and particulate pollution emissions.
@58, #57 was talking about people that use bus passes subsidized by the government, i.e. taxpayers. I don’t know if their assertion is correct, but at least that part you seemed to have missed.
I know lots of people simply avoiding this commute short term. The no tunnel/no rebuild option pushed by The Stranger would be a traffic nightmare on I-5 and downtown. But what do people that live their whole lives on Capitol Hill care about commuters and people who’s jobs involve driving? Most people on Capitol Hill complain if they have to drive to Ballard, “It’s soooo faaaaaar!”
Please, the loss of the viaduct is a blessing. I have been able to breath so well this week, loving it. But aside from that, what happened to people … I don’t know … planning their day and commute? If you want to drive, that’s just part of the price you pay.
I don’t get it….. I commute from Admiral to Cap Hill every morning and generally Mondays aren’t so bad and Fridays are hit or miss…. but Tue-Thur between 7:20 am & sometimes as last as 10am are NIGHTMARES heading to I-5. That’s why I rely on 99.
A good day on the West Seattle bridge is 10 minutes across, 30 at worse.
Everyday of this closure I’ve been getting up mega early and leaving at ridiculous times to beat the commute – according to the news and other co-workers though they’re telling me it’s been the worst thing ever…
??
@58: No, but once it gets to the point where they have to start running more buses, it does. Fares aren’t high enough to cover expenses.
My bus has been packed full every day I’ve ridden it this week. This morning my park and ride lot was completely full, nowhere left to park.