Kingston ferry queue is getting an upgrade to eliminate the ‘crawl’

A new automated traffic management system should help keep Kingston clear of idling ferry traffic, but it also means locals will have to get in line, too.

The Washington Department of Transportation debuted its new automated system over the weekend. Riders have the whole month of May to get used to it before it goes live on June 1.

Here’s how it works. When in operation — which will be from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day from May to October and then 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends during the off-season — drivers will see flashing lights at the Barber Cutoff Road, which is more than a mile west of the toll booth.

You must get into the ferry queue there and then grab a ticket from the automated kiosk near Lindvog Road and wait. There will be a traffic signal there to let you know when you can proceed to the toll booth. You can’t move, even if the cars in front of you do, until the light turns green.

“When those automatic sensors recognize that there’s space available, the light up where the ticketing booth is will turn green, and folks can proceed down to the booth where they pay their fare and get into the ferry holding lines,” Kurt Workman, the communications manager for major construction at the Washington State Ferries, said.

Kingston residents will have to get in line like everyone else

Once the system is live on June 1, everyone will need a ticket to pass through the toll booth.

“If folks arrive at the booth without a ticket, then they’re going to be turned back and have to go back to the end of the line and wait in line until they get a ticket and come up to the booth,” Workman said. “That’s going to be the enforcement mechanism on that.”

And that includes the nearly 2,700 residents of Kingston. They will have to drive out of town and get a ticket like everyone else.

“If you live down there, and it’s during one of the times when it’s operational, yep, you will need to go back and grab a ticket and jump in the line and wait for the queue,” Workman said.

This will be inconvenient, but WSDOT believes this system will eliminate most line-cutting and have major benefits to downtown Kingston.

“We understand that that is an inconvenience, but hopefully the trade-offs of better access through town, not so many people idling in their town, better access to the businesses, hopefully all those things are a trade-off that is a positive for everyone,” Workman said.

Ticketing machines ran out of tickets during first test weekend

There will be a learning curve.

There was even a little hiccup during the first test weekend.

“This weekend, everything went smoothly, except the ticketing machines actually ran out of tickets,” Workman said. “What we had was an employee went up and was handing out paper tickets, just like the old system used to be.”

The toll booth operators will also be handing out information to drivers without tickets, but again, the system goes live June 1. People with medical priority passes won’t have to go through the system. Nothing will be changing for them. Same for bicyclists and motorcycles.

The Edmonds-Kingston ferry route is the second busiest in the system, carrying nearly 4 million passengers every year.

Chris Sullivan is a traffic reporter for KIRO Newsradio. Read more of his stories here. Follow KIRO Newsradio traffic on X.

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