Why Traffic Will Get Worse

The Jan 7^th Seattle Times front page Traffic Lab article headline, “If you think Seattle Traffic is bad now . . .” again exemplifies the paper’s ability to identify problems but neglects proposing ways to effectively reduce congestion.   To say the “traffic scrum began unofficially New Year’s week” may reflect Seattle’s problem but those commuting into and out of Seattle have already endured years of congestion as attested to by the Dec. 26^th Seattle Times front-page article “Everett to Seattle: 94 minutes in the morning”.   

The article includes concern about gridlock from “hundreds of buses a day out of the transit tunnel and onto city streets”.   Traffic Lab apparently doesn’t recognize Seattle congestion is not due to too many buses.   A single bus can replace up to 100 cars on the streets, so any increase can reduce Seattle congestion. The increased number of buses could be accommodated by converting 4^th Ave into an elongated T/C.  Each route would have one or two designated drop off points on one side and pick up points on the other side to reduce transit times.

The article’s proposal to, “create a quick transfer from 520 buses to UW Station trains” as a way to “reduce central city gridlock,” is another example of anti-bus attitude.    Sound Transit used the same justification for implementing East Link on I-90 bridge center roadway, terminating I-90 corridor bus routes at South Bellevue light rail station.  Still not recognizing buses aren’t the problem.

Both proposals are seriously flawed.  East Link because it limits the bridge center roadway capacity to a fraction of what’s needed to meet cross-lake transit needs.  At least during peak commute, East Link trains will be full well before they ever reach the South Bellevue station. 

Those transferring at the UW station will initially have the benefit of twice East Link capacity.  However once the extensions to Lynnwood and Everett begin operation even a fraction of Sound Transit ST3 ridership projections will fill trains before they reach UW.  However, the current plans for transfer appear to have a more immediate problem in that it doesn’t include a T/C where buses can wait for returning commuters.  

The UW T/C could have been a major benefit for commuters from both sides of the take.  It had been included in the initial Sound Transit light rail proposal as the terminus for Central Link, with a second bridge across the Montlake Cut to facilitate access.  Not only would the T/C provide 520 bus commuters with access to light rail, the return routes would provide Seattleites with access to Overlake and Bellevue T/Cs. 

While the T/C would reduce the number of buses into Seattle, its primary benefit was it took advantage of light rails fast reliable service, again in both directions. Thousands of eastside commute could have used the T/C to transfer from 520 BRT routes to light rail trains running every 4 minutes into downtown Seattle. The return routes would provide access to Bellevue and Overlake T/Cs for thousands of Seattleites.  (The afternoon routes would be reversed)   The large ridership on both inbound and outbound routes would’ve taken maximum advantage of the 520BRT/Central Link capacity.

Instead the second bridge was dropped and Sound Transit signed a “Master Implementation Agreement with Sound Transit”  (MIA) that precluded a UW T/C.   It also included a provision whereby Sound Transit gave the UW a lump sum payment of $20,000,000 for “conditions and easements” with the Northgate extension. Eliminating the UW T/C allowed Sound Transit to promise construction companies years of lucrative contracts and high paying jobs for their labor unions extending light rail to Northgate and beyond that do nothing to increase capacity.     

The T/C would have allowed direct BRT routes to and from Microsoft rather than East Link’s multi-stop, circuitous route across I-90 Bridge through Bellevue to Overlake T/C.  The Sound Transit decision not to include 520 BRT in the ST3 funding “may” have been influenced by the same concerns.  The result is thousands of commuters from both sides of the lake don’t have access to adequate public transit. 

Traffic Lab needs to recognize more buses aren't the problem, they’re the solution.  Without increased buses traffic is only going to get worse.