(SDOT MAP with travel times/ Is the ‘low bridge’ closed? LOOK HERE/ West Seattle-relevant traffic cams HERE)
6:57 AM: Good morning. No current incidents/alerts reported in our area.
7:42 AM: We’re headed outbound this morning and it’s very slow going just getting from Fauntleroy to Alaska to the bridge.
8:07 AM: Bridge finally loosened up past the 99 exit. Motorcycle officer was pulled over with somebody just past the gore point.
Don’t know what caused it but traffic was bad for buses coming down Fauntleroy today. It’s been a few weeks since we’ve had such a bad backup. It took about an hour to get downtown.
Wow, 9:45 and still backed up to Fauntelroy. It has never been this bad so late before. I’m on the bus and the bus lane definitely needs to go on 9.
Just saw the traffic cop pull someone over from the bus lane while on the C bus.
And you KNOW that if the cop is standing out in the rain when you get pulled over, you’re going to get a ticket.
Oh my goodness this is a wonderfully heartwarming image. I really wish I could shake this officer’s hand and give them my heartfelt thanks for pulling these people over. This just brings so much joy to my heart, particularly knowing that people — even within this very forum — brazenly admit to breaking the law about bus lanes and encourage others to do so, as well. I hope these drivers’ form of “citizen protest” ends up costing them dearly. If you don’t like the law, work to change it, or follow it. Intentionally breaking the law is the realm of criminals. If you really want to be in the bus lane, I strongly recommend getting on the bus. Or, keep getting tickets, your choice.
Jort, shaking a police officer’s while they are conducting a traffic stop sually isn’t a great idea. However, you can visit the SW Precinct and let the squad know how great of a job they are doing.if you are really feeling grateful, here is a worthwhile SPD charity that can always use donations:https://www.seattlepolicefoundation.org/support-us
Better than mine. Don’t know whether it was enforcement or stalls, but same spot.
Nice grab azimuth. I have seen cops do this to people who are or were in the bus lane. Sometimes stopping traffic to get a vehicle that thought they could get away by moving to the far left lane.
…brazen & careless. The officer and car occupants could be seriously injured. Other drivers could have been seriously injured. All to write a ticket for a bus lane violation. Seems completely out of whack. Not surprising that Jort loves it.
Getting on the bridge via Admiral is a nightmare this morning. Just traffic?
Meant bus lane needs to go now. All traffic on 99 ended at the merge point.
The solution to the traffic problems is not for the bus lane to disappear.
The lane on the bridge? Full agreement.The new NB99 lane? Needs to go as it is not helping anyone – car, bus or otherwise.
The lane on NB99, that one stays. The commuters who don’t like being stuck in their cats will figure it out; water taxi, bike, electric bike, bus, car pool. No, you all can’t use your car and zip from the peninsula/West Seattle during rush hour. That’s just common sense.
Haha. Lurker. You dont get it do u?.If the north bound lane is gone.All traffic moves. Faster!!.Bus, cars, all traffic. Give it up You are just irrational.. you are like the city planner. Something doesn’t work to stick to it instead of admitting the mistake and fixing it..
“doesn’t work” – that refers to the cars right? It’s been working fine for the cyclists, water taxis, most buses. The center of this debate is not the cars. City planning involves many different alternatives and options. Feel free to utilize them.
It doesn’t work for the buses either. I ride the 120/125 bus everyday, and it just moves the backup to before the bus lane on 99. There are no cyclists or water taxis on 99 so I don’t know what you are talking about there. Properly designed bus lanes are good, and we need more of them. This was a poorly designed, terribly communicated bus lane restripe that has not improved bus times, and has created backups on the bridge for drivers trying to reach other destinations besides downtown. There are plenty of real bottlenecks that need bus lanes. This wasn’t a bottleneck (for cars or buses), and this 1/2 mile section just created one.
No city in the history of human civilization has made congestion disappear by adding more lanes for private, solo cars. Seattle will not be the first city where this happens. The bus lane stays.
Wow! I feel sorry for those people stuck in their cats! (Silly autocorrect – I know you meant cars, but this brought a smile to my face 😋)
I was out around 5am this morning. SPD had vehicles blocking each end of the bit of 35th between Alaska and Avalon, forcing cars to detour. The electronic billboard mentioned an “incident.” It was pretty dark down there, but my passenger thought she saw a vehicle sideways in the dug-up construction area.Not sure when it cleared up, but perhaps that contributed to the Fauntleroy backup mentioned by others? WSB, any idea what that incident may have been?
We got a call at 5:30 about police blocking the road. SDOT had just noted the closure but before we could get out to check on it, they tweeted that it was reopened. I suspect it was related to a crash call around 3 am but wasn’t a major response, just one engine. Anyway, it was definitely cleared very early in the commute and wasn’t a factor by daylight …
I refer to the regular Tuesday traffic snarl as the “Terrible Tues”.
Police were out this morning giving tickets or warnings to people using the SW Manning serpentine to avoid the Admiral backup by cutting down to Avalon. While left turns on to Avalon have been prohibited from 6 – 10 am for some time, it now appears that with all the new striping done on Avalon, that there is no left turn on to Avalon at all, ever. There is a conflicting message to drivers here, as at the bottom of the street there is a sign that mandates it is a right turn only, yet about halfway down Manning there is still a sign that says ” no Left Turn” only from 6-10 a.m. Which is it SDOT?In addition to already putting one small shop out of business (the Shack Coffee house), If this is now a 24-hour right turn only, SDOT is now causing even greater impacts on dozens of small businesses on Harbor Ave. What this new change (again, if in fact this is 24-hours right turn only), is doing, is effectively making the entire North Admiral/Belvidere area drivers go all the way to 35th to come down Avalon to get to Harbor Ave. Or making people go North on California Ave from the Admiral Junction and go all the way around Alki Ave to Harbor Ave. simply to arrive at businesses at S. Harbor Ave. Many of the small business owners and patrons of businesses in the Active Space building must completely reroute themselves. People are also taking City View street from Admiral, which is in a tight neighborhood and is very narrow. This also requires turning left across double solids from Admiral. SDOT has not thought this out very clearly. so many drivers must now go MILES out of their way, go through (and disrupt) small neighborhood streets or choose to break the law. Not very practical SDOT.
I recommend you start riding the bus instead of getting mad about traffic.
What is impractical is car drivers on hilly peninsula expecting that their every demand be met.
Amazingly, SDOT did not make this change to terrorize small businesses. It was a safety related improvement to the street design. It had nothing to do with the redesign of the lanes on Avalon.
The 99N bus lane needs to go. This charade needs to end. There is no way that it’s helping anybody.
I’m a bus rider. Until a few weeks ago, I was also convinced that the bus lane needs to go. However, it’s been noted here before by other riders as well (folks taking the C line and 21) that the extension of the merge lane made a difference to buses. Our travel times to downtown have improved significantly. Could this be a coincidence? Definitely! However, it behooves us to look more into the matter and not just blame it on the bus lane. I understand the frustration of car drivers, but our improved bus times in the morning do indicate that many drivers do understand the zipper concept and have been using the merge lane correctly. Because, all through the summer and until recently, bus rides have been terribly delayed. I don’t know what went wrong today, but I would respectfully urge everyone to not think of it as just a bus lane problem.
ANU- you say that previously the buses were terribly delayed. Was that delay ever due to waiting to get onto 99? NO. From what I remember the delay was caused by the construction lane closures on Alaskan Way that caused backups onto 99, plus the mess re buses having to use 1st ave. The previous bus delays had NOTHING to do with not having a dedicated bus lane on that small section of NB-99. While the extended merge may have alleviated it slightly, there is no comparison to how smoothly traffic (buses and cars) flowed onto 99 before it was re-instated. It’s absolutely ridiculous and needs to be removed so that all traffic can flow once again. This is not a car vs bus rider argument though- ALL TRAFFIC flowed better when the bus lane was not there.
Hi MNW, I agree with the first part of your comment, but don’t agree that all traffic flowed better without the bus lane. Unfortunately, that wasn’t my experience. Bus commute times have been bad ever since the viaduct removal process started… early summer/late spring, I think. Every change made by the authorities since then only made the situation worse. It wasn’t super smooth flowing for buses before the lane was reinstated either. It was still bad. Here’s my conjecture: Before the lane was reinstated, traffic was flowing more smoothly for cars than it has since then. Reinstatement of the lane made things much worse for both cars and buses. It is only the latest change with extension of the merge lane that had made things slightly better for buses, but unfortunately, it’s still bad for cars. Hence, everyone’s opinion is divided on the matter.
Something is going on westbound bridge. I5 south is backed up to I90 trying to get to West Seattle. Not moving, bad blocking wreck I’m guessing.
I talked with someone who came that way a little before noon and he said the backup was due to a huge number of trucks all queued up to get off on Harbor Island, and that trucks coming over from I-5 N who needed to get over as well essentially ended up causing all lanes of traffic to get blocked since they weren’t moving. By the time I got around to looking at the traffic cams (a couple hours later) it had cleared up.
Jort & TSurly. So we give up our car’s. How do you propose to make up the revenue loss?? There would be NO MORE money collected from tab’s. There’d be NO MORE money collected from the gas tax. There’d be NO MORE sales tax collected from car,or car part’s/services.
I never said get rid of your car. I only say that If you choose to drive everyday, you are directly responsible for adding to to traffic and need to own that, not blame it on everything else around you.
I ride the C line every day. The only point when traffic flowed well from the bridge and down 99 was after Alaska opened back to 2 lanes and before the new bus lane went in – a period of about 2 weeks. You may have noticed that your bus commute got shorter because traffic started shifting from 1st ave back to Alaska in the weeks that followed, but that does not change the bus lane blockage adding time to our commute. Imagine if the bus could get on the bridge, go down the bus lane and then through the interchange onto 99 then all the way down to Alaska – all with no traffic. That’s easily 5 minutes that would be cut off the trip. The commute would be even faster for the buses without the bus lane. The point is not that our commute is shorter now but that it get to be the shortest possible. Just because some parts are working better doesn’t mean we should just stop there.
Matt, I wish all bus riders were as rational as you. You are absolutely correct and the timing of the bus lane addition is so unfortunate….we had just started getting some traffic relief due to Alaskan Way lanes opening back up. I wish they could just open up the bus lane to all for a couple days, just to show SDOT/Metro/Bus Riders how much faster their commutes would be. I used to take the bus all the time and am all about prioritizing mass transit but this new bus lane doesn’t help anyone.
I’d have to respectively disagree Matt. I sat in that (current) bus lane on a bus stuck behind numerous SOVs blocking the lane in order to exit at Dearborn. I also sat in my car some mornings blocking those buses behind me from getting where they needed to go on schedule. It isn’t as bad as you are making it out to be for bus riders. The wait to get onto 99 from the bridge for bus riders is hardly even noticeable compared to the time wasted sitting on 99.
CAM- the traffic you were stuck in on 99 was due to the construction on Alaskan Way near Dearborn. So bus lane or not, that traffic would have been there. Now that Alaskan Way is opened back up you don’t see that same traffic back up. Now all the traffic is waiting to get onto 99. The new bus lane is not the reason there is not traffic at the Dearborn exit now.
You are assuming you know the date and time of these events and you are assuming inaccurately.
I believe a boat came in and all of the Truckers line up on the EB WS Bridge when they need to pick up loads. Why they don’t have them come in on the surface streets is beyond me. I guess they think they know better to clog all lanes coming into WS on the bridge then to in-convienance the truck drivers down on the surface streets. What a bunch of BS.
Sorry, comment time is over.
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