Have you noticed the Mercer Mess getting any better?
Nov 29, 2017, 6:26 AM | Updated: 7:20 am
(File, KIRO Radio)
(File, KIRO Radio)
Seattle’s Mercer Mess is notorious for long backups and congestion, but the Seattle Department of Transportation says things are improving with a new signal system.
“Before installing our new system, wait times during the height of work-week rush hour backups (between 6-7 p.m.) was approximately 34 minutes … Today, during that exact same time frame, the wait is down to 17 minutes,” the Seattle Department of Transportation writes on its blog.
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SDOT says it has effectively cut drive times in half through the Mercer Street area over the past eight months. It’s crediting a new adaptive system controlling traffic lights between Third Avenue and I-5 along Mercer Street. The new system installed in March — called SCOOT (Split Cycle Offset Optimization Technique) — has senors monitoring each lane of traffic on the road. That information informs traffic lights.
The department admits that the times aren’t perfect, “by a long shot.”
According to SDOT’s data:
Before the Mercer Adaptive Signal:
- 5 p.m. weekday – 14 minutes
- 6 p.m. weekday – 16 minutes
- 7 p.m. weekday – 18 minutes
After the Mercer Adaptive Signal:
- 5 p.m. weekday – 4 minutes
- 6 p.m. weekday – 6 minutes
- 7 p.m. weekday – 7 minutes
That’s much better than the two seconds of improved time reported in 2016, after two years of construction and $74 million in upgrades. But it remains just as bad when Seattle was discussing the Mercer Mess in 1977.
