There are two floating bridges that cross Lake Washington. Seattle is on the west side and the Bellevue/Issaquah/Renton smallish megalopolis is on the east side. Most people don't live where they work; we've noticed in recent years that traffic on I90 is terrible in both directions. It used to have the pattern of bad west bound in the morning and then bad east bound in the evening. Now there is no good time to go anywhere. 520, which is the northern bridge is now a toll bridge; tolling will pay for its replacement. After the contractors sank the first I90 bridge inadvertently, 520 became the most senior bridge. It has limited carrying capacity with only four lanes, none of which are HOV lanes.
See the section of I90 between Mercer Island and Bellevue? WSDOT is closing 3 out 4 lanes on that section of bridge for a week. DOT is projecting 10 mile backups on I90. This will clog up 405 in both directions as people drive around the lake, or as people head north up to 520.
Jim and I plan to spend that week either heading for the far eastern reaches of the area, walking, or riding our bikes.
I truly cannot imagine living in the Seattle Tacoma Metro area! The traffic we experienced in just 4 days rivaled anything we experienced driving through Los Angeles having lived in San Diego for 50 years! Throw in major road work and you've got a recipe for road rage hell on your hands! I think I've crossed Seattle off my list forever!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to be interested to see how much longer we return here. We have friends and family in the area, they are the draw. But honestly, it's just amazing how much worse it is each year.
DeleteOh my, that sounds horrendous. I am really glad we were there last month instead of now. Since we stayed so far south (Pacific, near Auburn), we missed the worst of the Seattle traffic, but of course we saw some of it. Now you know why we rode our bikes all the way into the city and back instead of driving!
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