TRAFFIC/TRANSIT TODAY: Pre-holiday weekend Friday; port-truck backups

(WS high/low bridges and Highway 99 views; more cams on the WSB Traffic page)
Happy Friday! Lighter traffic around the region today, and that’s not surprising since we’re going into a holiday weekend (it’s a four-day weekend for Seattle Public Schools and those who follow its schedule). SDOT’s traffic-watchers report heavy truck traffic on northbound Marginal, north of the bridge, also not surprising since ships *are* being offloaded today but weren’t yesterday and won’t be for the next three days, as reported here.

TRANSPORTATION NEWS NOTES: One more reminder of Metro‘s three-times-a-year service change tomorrow … While it was announced in the north end, the city’s new Vision Zero street-safety plan has many changes in store for West Seattle, as mentioned in the report from our partners at The Seattle Times – we’ll be following up this morning.

7:55 AM: Michael reports via Twitter that “lower Spokane St. is a mess” too – “lots of truck traffic.” (See the lower-left camera in our quad split above.) Scanner-monitored discussion indicates that traffic officers are getting involved, if they weren’t already.

8:12 AM: SDOT reports a stall on northbound 99 just before King Street:

Stall on the Alaskan way viaduct NB before King St in left lane, expect long delays, use alt routres pic.twitter.com/cwWGBhM3gB

— seattledot (@seattledot) February 13, 2015

8:22 AM: SDOT now reports the WSDOT incident-response truck cleared the stalled pickup quickly. That gives us the chance to remind you …

PRESIDENTS DAY TRANSIT NOTES: On Monday, the West Seattle and Vashon Water Taxis will NOT be running. Metro will be on REGULAR weekday service (except for the routes affected in the “No UW” mode).

9:15 AM: Per scanner, police are directing traffic at E. Marginal/Spokane.

AN February 13, 2015 (7:48 am)

Lower bridge east bound is really backed up. Saw a police car under the viaduct on west marginal way.

WSB February 13, 2015 (8:04 am)

The 911 log is down right now (stuck at 12:26 am) so it’s a little harder to track incidents. None down there that I know of aside from the truck backups, but overall, incident reports are more valuable than ever today with the 911 outage.

CMP February 13, 2015 (8:19 am)

I just read about the Vision Zero plan in the Seattle Times. I cannot wait to see how 30 mph goes over on Fauntleroy, Harbor, Delridge and best of all, 35th Ave SW. I’m actually looking forward to it but would still love to see the east side of Admiral go back up to 35 mph.

Kathy February 13, 2015 (10:03 am)

CMP, please rethink your suggestion to raise the speed limit where people are already threatened by motorists routinely going 15-20 mph over the 30 mph speed limit. Is your getting home 5 seconds sooner worth my life? If anything, the east side of Admiral Way needs a redesign to promote adherence to the existing speed limit without the need for a lot of expensive enforcement.

sophista-tiki February 13, 2015 (10:19 am)

oh man. stalled truck on the viaduct, thats one of my biggest fears is that my truck will run out of gas or die in a super traffic spot with no where to get out of the way.

Hannah February 13, 2015 (10:44 am)

The reality with the increase traffic admiral is now a major arterial and will need to handle the traffic and speed
Not unlike Fauntleroy or 35
Reality of the crazy increase density, which has been out of controll

sam-c February 13, 2015 (10:46 am)

is the port traffic the reason for the helicopter? is it a news helicopter?

WSB February 13, 2015 (11:04 am)

Nothing else going on that we know of. And certainly the truck backup would be much easier to contextualize from the air.

VoteforMeSeattle February 13, 2015 (1:32 pm)

Kathy – as noted by Hannah, the portion of Admiral between the bridge and California is – and for a LONG time has been – a major arterial.

In my 30+ years in West Seattle, I’ve seen an accident there . . . well . . . never.

I am sure you are a NIMBY type who lives on the hill, but that was your choice. There are no structures on the west side; hence no reason for pedestrians, etc. to cross; hence no good reason for a 30 mph speed limit.

WSB February 13, 2015 (1:53 pm)

Never seen a crash between the bridge and California on Admiral Way??? Just three from a very quick search; I’m in the middle of the speed-limit followup and don’t have time to look up more. First one was deadly.
.
https://westseattleblog.com/2010/03/heavy-rescue-call-2-vehicle-crash-at-37thadmiral/
.
https://westseattleblog.com/2010/05/crash-blocks-admiral-way-at-the-bridge
.
https://westseattleblog.com/2013/11/west-seattle-traffic-alert-crash-on-admiral-way
.
And note that we only cover major crashes (major in terms of blocking a road and/or major injuries/death) so this is by no means any tally of total crashes. I can also think of an off-the-road crash on the east side closer to the bridge within the past couple months but I included that with another crash elsewhere and it’s not coming up at the moment – TR

Kathy February 13, 2015 (2:23 pm)

VoteforMeSeattle:

Admiral Way is a residential arterial with a painted lane for bikes and bus stops that require pedestrians to cross it. Your assumption that I live on Admiral Hill is erroneous, however I do drive on it and bike on it, and I am telling you, raising the speed limit on that hill would make it less safe and would be rather pointless in terms of time saved by motorists. I suggest you relax, and please obey the posted speed limit.

CandrewB1 February 13, 2015 (3:55 pm)

SDOT needs to clarify which truck is causing the back-up; it is hard to tell from their photo. Perhaps calling him a scumbag will help things.

Joeb February 13, 2015 (5:13 pm)

As far as the port, I thought trucks were going to use terminal 5 to queue up but it looks like it has been Marginal Way for days. Did something change and I missed it?