Drivers complaining about Mercer Mess traffic lights
SEATTLE -- Drivers using Seattle's Mercer Mess say traffic lights are making for a slow commute, but city officials say they're doing all they can to speed things up.
The Mercer Mess is currently under construction, making the notoriously slow corridor even slower for drivers. The city's Traffic Management Center is constantly making changes to accommodate the construction, but drivers say the timing of traffic lights isn't helping.
"It's terrible. Everything gets behind and its so backed up," one frustrated drivers said.
For some drivers the lights are never fast enough, while others say they're too fast on the main drag.
"This light here, only four or five cars go through at a time," a driver said.
At Seattle's Traffic Management Center, workers say they're doing all they can to monitor the traffic and adjust the lights accordingly.
Despite complaints from drivers, signal operations manager Brian Kemper the lights are working fine.
"From a planning and execution perspective, they were doing the right thing,' Kemper said.
The city constantly monitors the traffic flow at the 25 intersections that make up the Mercer Mess. Drivers planning to cross the main east-west flow going to and from I-5 during commute hours will be sitting at the light for a longer period because they don't have priority.
"There is more queuing of traffic then there will be when the project is finished," Kemper said.
Kemper knows the frustration isn't going anywhere any time soon.
"There have been some unfortunate congestion impacts from that construction job still and that's going to happen," he said.
If you think there a timing issue at any traffic light, the city encourages you to call the Transportation Department to let them know.
The Mercer Mess is currently under construction, making the notoriously slow corridor even slower for drivers. The city's Traffic Management Center is constantly making changes to accommodate the construction, but drivers say the timing of traffic lights isn't helping.
"It's terrible. Everything gets behind and its so backed up," one frustrated drivers said.
For some drivers the lights are never fast enough, while others say they're too fast on the main drag.
"This light here, only four or five cars go through at a time," a driver said.
At Seattle's Traffic Management Center, workers say they're doing all they can to monitor the traffic and adjust the lights accordingly.
Despite complaints from drivers, signal operations manager Brian Kemper the lights are working fine.
"From a planning and execution perspective, they were doing the right thing,' Kemper said.
The city constantly monitors the traffic flow at the 25 intersections that make up the Mercer Mess. Drivers planning to cross the main east-west flow going to and from I-5 during commute hours will be sitting at the light for a longer period because they don't have priority.
"There is more queuing of traffic then there will be when the project is finished," Kemper said.
Kemper knows the frustration isn't going anywhere any time soon.
"There have been some unfortunate congestion impacts from that construction job still and that's going to happen," he said.
If you think there a timing issue at any traffic light, the city encourages you to call the Transportation Department to let them know.
If you're going to synchronize lights, it's easier to do on a one-way street than on a street with traffic flowing in both directions. I'm not sure if this is the reason behind the current problems, but it certainly doesn't help.
The Mercer mess will probably ease traffic flow heading into Seattle. Â The real problem is I-5. Â No matter how they reengineer Mercer, the bottle neck will be I-5 and you'll always get stuck on the Mercer on ramps. Â
McGinns mess. Â
 @Andrew Bush Yeah, right. Cause everything was great down there before we elected him.
You would think for $164 million there would be improvement in traffic flow.  What a boondoggle to the taxpayers this project has turned out to be.
 @NWNative Considering it is still under construction the traffic flow would not improve anyway until after the construction has finished. Once construction has finished and then we can determine if it was a boondoggle or not.
 @timdog  @NWNative It isn't looking too promising. I hope it gets better as I pretty much avoid this area at this point.Â