Road closures plus big events give Seattle a traffic migraine
SEATTLE - Much of Seattle was one big traffic jam Saturday as thousands of people headed into the city for the Northwest Women's Show, Emerald City Comicon, the Sounders game and other big events.
And the same thing could happen again Sunday as streets are shut down for thousands of runners taking part in the Hot Chocolate Race.
Transportation officials have been urging people to leave early if they plan on reaching their destination on time.
People are trying to be prepared - some even using public transportation to get to events in town - but it hasn't been the easiest commute for everyone.
Some 20,000 people were expected at the Northwest Women's Show this weekend at CenturyLink Field.
"We came early because of that," said Delsie Flanagan of Bellevue.
Coming in early, though, wasn't a guarantee for an easy commute - for most of Saturday, all lanes on the Alaskan Way Viaduct were closed for inspection.
"I had to go pick up some of my stuff down in Green Lake and then came back up this way and thought, 'I"ll just hit Aurora.' Well then, the viaduct was closed so we went all the way around," said vendor Tobi Kirsch.
"I had to call the customers and let them know I'm going to be 45 minutes late just by doing the ride-around," said Scott Douglas.
Along Interstate 5 in the University District on Saturday morning, crews continued pavement repairs. Work starts again Saturday night beginning at 10 p.m. - three of four lanes will be closed.
"No point getting mad about it - there's nothing you can do about it. You just have to work your way around," said motorist Thomas Greaves.
Some are working their way around the West Seattle Bridge - the ramp to southbound I-5 is closed all weekend. After the doors closed Saturday night at the NW Women's Show, thousands more arrived for the Sounders home opener against Montreal.
"Just thousands and thousands of people crowding around trying to get wherever they are to wherever they want to be," said Sounders fan Sean Kelly. "It's going to be a mess."
On Sunday morning more traffic is expected around downtown and the Seattle Center as thousands of runners participate in the Hot Chocolate Race.
And the same thing could happen again Sunday as streets are shut down for thousands of runners taking part in the Hot Chocolate Race.
Transportation officials have been urging people to leave early if they plan on reaching their destination on time.
People are trying to be prepared - some even using public transportation to get to events in town - but it hasn't been the easiest commute for everyone.
Some 20,000 people were expected at the Northwest Women's Show this weekend at CenturyLink Field.
"We came early because of that," said Delsie Flanagan of Bellevue.
Coming in early, though, wasn't a guarantee for an easy commute - for most of Saturday, all lanes on the Alaskan Way Viaduct were closed for inspection.
"I had to go pick up some of my stuff down in Green Lake and then came back up this way and thought, 'I"ll just hit Aurora.' Well then, the viaduct was closed so we went all the way around," said vendor Tobi Kirsch.
"I had to call the customers and let them know I'm going to be 45 minutes late just by doing the ride-around," said Scott Douglas.
Along Interstate 5 in the University District on Saturday morning, crews continued pavement repairs. Work starts again Saturday night beginning at 10 p.m. - three of four lanes will be closed.
"No point getting mad about it - there's nothing you can do about it. You just have to work your way around," said motorist Thomas Greaves.
Some are working their way around the West Seattle Bridge - the ramp to southbound I-5 is closed all weekend. After the doors closed Saturday night at the NW Women's Show, thousands more arrived for the Sounders home opener against Montreal.
"Just thousands and thousands of people crowding around trying to get wherever they are to wherever they want to be," said Sounders fan Sean Kelly. "It's going to be a mess."
On Sunday morning more traffic is expected around downtown and the Seattle Center as thousands of runners participate in the Hot Chocolate Race.
I'm certain it was the only major metro area in the country that had this problem yesterday.
@SandyBeach Yes, I'm sure you are correct.
(For those that cannot decipher sarcasm the term applies to both my comment as well as that of SandyBeach.)
or you could be proactive and not schedule all the maintenance on such a busy weekend. DOT fails as always.
@SwampThing Please tell us when the maintenance SHOULD be scheduled. Traffic problems would be far worse if done during the week.
Oh good grief, not another one of THESE weekends. This city cannot handle more than one thing at a time that involves driving to it.Â
It's almost as though Seattle takes pride in its traffic jams, like it means "we've arrived". Â Life's way too short for this. Â As much as I love the city, my plan is to bail on this place as soon as I can retire - to someplace with less traffic & less expensive to boot. Â Too many things to do in life to sit in traffic jams brought about almost entirely by the idiots running this place. Â No excuse for 50 years of lack of planning & inaction. Â
@Smartypants In retrospect you are correct. However, back in the day, when the window of federal money was made available for traffic mitigation and an extended monorail, we did not anticipate Microsoft, Boeing and Genentech and the military pulling half of the US population to the Puget Sound area.
Our bad. We hoped to prevent Seattle from becoming the mess into which it has evolved since the out of town bad drivers moved here so we can take the blame.
And we want a Seattle Sonics Team here as well. Talk about a traffic nightmare especially when more of the viaduct comes down and traffic is rerouted to surface streets untill the likely long delayed tunnel is complete.
It is part of the socialist city plan to get people out of their cars and forced to use public transportation. The so called road improvements are to keep the unions happy.
@contraryjim No it's not...I don't even know how to drive, so I ride the ST-511 from Ash Way to Seattle all the time...and I was stuck in the middle of it last night around 6-ish just as much as a regular car.
@contraryjim Have you ever actually driven in Seattle?  The roads need all the improvements they can get.. Â
@contraryjim Oh, Bulls**t.
@Furd @contraryjim Succinct, I like it.