520Bridge.jpg
If you want to see what tolls will do, just look at the 520 Bridge experiment. (WSDOT Photo)

What tolling the entire Puget Sound would look like

BY Chris Sullivan  on January 25, 2013 @ 6:52 am (Updated: 9:07 am - 1/25/13 )

The state is considering tolls on I-90 to help pay for the 520 Bridge project. The tunnel through downtown Seattle is going to be tolled. The Washington State Department of Transportation is also looking at requiring three people to use the HOV lane on I-405.

If you want to see what tolls will do, just look at the 520 Bridge experiment. A year into tolling, trips across the bridge are down 30 percent. That's 30,000 fewer trips on 520 each day.

More than 10 percent of those trips went to I-90. Some went to Highway 522. Others have gone into transit or vanpools.

Ted Trepanier is a traffic analyst with Kirkland traffic management firm Inrix. He also spent 26 years with the Department of Transportation. Trepanier said adding tolls on certain corridors simply moves traffic around, reducing congestion in one spot and adding it in another: system-wide. Drivers have no where to go. So they'll look to get out of their cars.

"If you go system-wide with those kind of shifts, opposed to one corridor, that means your overall congestion levels will go down," he said.

He said it's too soon to say whether the state will eventually have to toll I-5 to help manage the congestion caused by the toll on the new Alaskan Way tunnel.

But he says it's a possibility.

Chris Sullivan, KIRO Radio Reporter
Chris loves the rush of covering breaking news and works hard to try to make sense of it all while telling stories about real people in extraordinary circumstances.
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Comments (33)


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  • hawks$life wrote...
    whaaaa!
    January 25, 2013 12:16 pm
    *first world problems*
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Pures wrote...
    Why waste money on seattle, there is so much more offered outside the city.
    January 25, 2013 1:09 pm
    So I cross the 520 bridge about 3pm to meet an out of town friend at the market by 4pm. We wander the market for a while and hit the pike place brewery for dinner by 5pm. We dine and leave town by 7pm. 520 toll rate of $5.13 @ 3pm 520 toll rate of $4.41 @ 7pm Parking charge $12.00 Cost of doing business in Seattle $21.54
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Ted Bundi wrote...
    @Pures
    January 25, 2013 1:53 pm
    You got a deal... when we took guests to Seattle between parking (we moved the car from the Center area to Pioneer) and the tolls we shelled out about 45 bucks. And they wonder why people like me don't go into town anymore. No, I wasn't going to ask my guests to hop on a 2 hour, 2 transfer bus ride... one way.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    I told you so.
    January 25, 2013 1:58 pm
    The Dimocrats said they would NOT toll other roads. Another lie. But what else is new. How do you know a Dimocrat is lying? Their mouths are moving.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • clevesside wrote...
    This is inevitable.....
    January 25, 2013 2:23 pm
    ... as my pappy once said. Too bad he's not here to prove himself right. Part of the plot to force folks out of cars statewide. This is the future, now.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • cohojack wrote...
    Tolls
    January 25, 2013 4:54 pm
    Let's do it. How else can we pay for our highway?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • tntp212 wrote...
    really tho..
    January 25, 2013 6:27 pm
    for folks, like myself, that live in Bellevue and work in Seattle this would be a major blow. there is no way that I could afford to spend $7-10 a day in tolls without it impacting many family's well-being. I don't think this is something that they are looking to do while they are figuring out how to keep the puget sounds economy working and growing. I will say that I am not opposed to tolling, just the astronomical rates at which they choose to do so. Seems like they could charge $1 each way and folks wouldn't blink.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • tlmbrt wrote...
    This is a WIN-WIN
    January 26, 2013 1:08 am
    for leftist Democrats. Either they will get people to use their cars less, or they will make tons of money to spend on their cherished social welfare programs- everything BUT highways!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }