Chokepoints Resolutions: Sully’s 2025 wish list for all WA drivers

We all make resolutions this time of year. Eat better. Go to the gym. Cut back on alcohol. Get more sleep, blah, blah, blah. Most of us end up breaking them within a few days.

I hope that’s not the case for my Chokepoints resolutions.

More patience when driving

Coming off record years of traffic deaths in Washington, I hope local drivers will be more patient behind the wheel in 2025. Don’t automatically assume that the person who cut you off did it on purpose. Imagine that the drivers in those other cars are members of your family. If you wouldn’t make that dangerous pass with your mom in the other vehicle, why would you do it to anyone?

Let’s try to lower the temperature behind the wheel.

More Chokepoints: National Weather Service issues winter storm watch over the passes

Embrace the zipper merge

I hope that drivers continue to get better at merging and zipper merging. Stop cutting people off and preventing them from merging. You don’t own the pavement in front or behind you. We all have to do a better job of being less selfish while driving. This benefits everyone.

2025 is going to be a brutal year for Interstate 5 (I-5) commuters. Revive I-5 will take two northbound lanes of the Ship Canal Bridge for nine months this year. That is going to put a lot of people on side roads and neighborhood streets to avoid it.

Treat those streets like your neighborhood streets. Don’t do what we saw drivers in Everett doing earlier this year when State Route 529 (SR 529) was reduced to one lane in each direction. Don’t block driveways. Don’t trap residents in their neighborhoods. And don’t drive into active construction zones like we’ve seen on Mukilteo Boulevard for the Edgewater Bridge repairs. Follow the signs. Plan ahead and leave more time.

More on Everett road closures: Note to Everett drivers, stop being so selfish

Time for WA to adequately fund transportation

My last ask might be too much, but I’m going to hope for it anyway. Please, please, please, Washington Legislature, fund our state’s priorities first.

Lawmakers underfund regular maintenance and preservation by approximately a billion dollars a year. It’s time to make this right. Fund the necessities. Don’t just try to fill the void with more taxes that Washington residents can’t afford. For once, I hope the legislature looks at cutting spending so it can fund our roads, bridges and ferries properly.

But like most resolutions, I don’t see these lasting.

Check out more of Chris’ Chokepoints here. You can also follow Chris on X. Head here to follow KIRO Newsradio Traffic’s profile on X.

Follow @https://twitter.com/newsguysully