Anyone notice the cones are gone from the Southernmost turn lane from the WS Bridge to 35th? Still a merge point a block and a half to the South, but this is progress having two turn lanes again.
Things are clearing out a bit quicker but it is clear to me the bus lane on 99 northbound is a net negative during morning rush hour, including buses. The SOV/HOV backups into downtown expected from bypassing the tunnel, prompting the prophylactic bus lane, aren’t materializing. Extending the merge point has probably only prolonged the backup since cars are staying in the bus lane for a further distance, but the psychological need to merge into the lane you want as quickly as possible still exists for many drivers and always will. The necessary trade-off of bus priority over cars and trucks isn’t there, and is causing network effects into West Seattle with few or no tangible benefits to anybody, in fact it appears to me to have poor outcomes for the buses as well, unfortunately. I will be sending a comment to the vested agencies to fix this and encourage others to do the same.
Agree 100%. The diversion rate isn’t as high as their projections, so appears that people are mostly willing to pay the toll for the mobility. The rest of the grid has experienced only a minor increase in traffic, if any. Given the bus-only lane is so short, it simply does not make logistical sense to keep it and it has been slowing buses down as well.
Emergency response vehicles on 1st Ave right near the bridges on ramp. Traffic is awful on 1st Ave right now.
Sorry, comment time is over.
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