Mitigating I-5 Bridge Resurfacing "Years of Pain".

 The July 16th Seattle Times Traffic Lab article detailed “Years of Pain” resulting from WSDOT plans for resurfacing I-5.  It followed an April 3^rd Traffic Lab article “State shifts plan on Ship Canal Bridge project” detailing plans to use the results for 20% of the bridge to make a more accurate estimate for repairing the rest.  That, “in the end we will have a safe, reliable bridge for years to come”.  

The WSDOT estimated closure would result in diverting 84,000 vehicles of the roadways 240,000 daily vehicles, trips prevented and thousands more delayed by cascading congestion”.  Sound Transit plans to run 1 Line trains every 10 minutes will do little to help as much of that capacity is already used by current riders. Any additional riders from stations along I-5 will simply reduce access for 1 Line boarders at stops at UW and Capital Hill.

Sound Transit could alleviate the problem by running the 1 Line trains every 4 minutes rather than 10 during peak commute.   However, the only way to mitigate the problem is to increase the number of riders using bus routes for the commute into and out of Seattle. 

Sound Transit blundered when it chose to spend hundreds of millions extending light rail rather than add parking near stations for access to bus routes or for local routes from where people live to the stations. The money spent extending light rail did nothing to increase its transit capacity, it only increased the operating costs.  4-car trains lack the capacity to attract riders needed to reduce peak hour multi-lane roadway congestion and cost too much to operate off peak.

Sound Transit exacerbated the capacity problem by choosing to use light rail trains to replace Community Transit (CT) and King County Metro (KCM) routes into the city. The “Years of Pain” could be mitigated if CT and KCM re-implemented those previous routes with increased frequency if needed during time spent resurfacing the entire I-5 route.

Bus riders on both services would welcome no longer needing to shift to and from trains for the commute into and out of Seattle and the more convenient stops for egress and return access there than stations in DSTT.  A better permanent solution for everyone after the 'Years of Pain."