City of Lynnwood, police prepared for Chick-fil-A traffic
May 6, 2015, 4:21 PM | Updated: May 7, 2015, 8:29 am
(MyNorthwest photo)
(MyNorthwest photo)
Lynnwood said it’s not going to get stuck with a Chick-fil-A traffic jam like the one that’s persisted in Bellevue for a month.
The Lynnwood location opens Thursday morning.
The new Chick-fil-A is on one of Lynnwood’s busiest streets — 196th just east of I-5 — which already backs up consistently as drivers head to Whole Foods, Lowe’s, the Alderwood Mall and Best Buy.
Related: Bellevue tackles Chick-fil-A traffic congestion
Lynnwood Police Sergeant David Harris said they’ve got a good traffic management plan.
“We’re kind of looking forward to this, to be honest with you, because my guys in my unit look at it as a challenge,” he said.
What makes this spot a little different than the Bellevue location is that there are two ways in, but both are then funneled into one entrance in the Lowe’s parking lot.
“You can’t anticipate every scenario,” Sergeant Harris said. “We’ve tried to take into account pedestrian safety. We’ve tried to look at the other openings. Lessons learned, if you will, and tried to apply those to here.”
Sgt. Harris said all traffic into Chick-fil-A will use both lanes of 30th Place NW, the street just east of the restaurant. That whole street will be used for in-bound traffic only.
“The far right lane is going to be for drive-thru only,” he said. “The lane to the left is going to be for Lowe’s and parking.”
But if the plan doesn’t work, Lynnwood traffic engineer Paul Coffelt will be ready to tweak signal timing, in real time, to help manage traffic.
“I’ll be able to see what’s happening with the congestion and the traffic flow and try to hold the green and make things flow as smooth as possible,” he said.
Coffelt said the city is prepared.
“We’re not strangers to congestion,” he said. “We just try to find the patterns and make adjustments to the signal timing as best we can. When things start to fall apart, then we’ve got the officers out to try and help people get to where they need to go.”
Like the Bellevue location, Chick-fil-A is covering the costs of police overtime to handle traffic and other impacts of this launch.
In previous Chick-fil-A launches, it has taken traffic up to five months to return to normal. They’re one month and counting in Bellevue. We’ll see what happens in Lynnwood.
