New light on SR 520 off-ramp to blame for driver confusion, traffic delays

A new traffic light in Seattle’s Montlake neighborhood is causing long backups on SR 520.

The Washington State Department of Transportation installed the light on Monday at the westbound SR 520 off-ramp to Montlake. But the exiting eastbound drivers are met with a long line of traffic on Montlake, backing up traffic to I-5.

Tell us about what slows you down

Jeff Bechthold, a frustrated driver and the Sports Information Director at the University of Washington, told KIRO Radio, “You should look into this new Montlake/520 configuration. Perhaps there’s still more left to do, but it is a mess right now.”

Before WSDOT added the light, traffic simply merged onto Montlake with a free right turn.

“The traffic signal improves the merge point for drivers exiting westbound 520 and turning northbound on Montlake,” explained Suanne Pelley, spokesperson with WSDOT.

“It’s pretty expected that when there’s a traffic change like this, it takes people awhile to adjust to it,” Pelley said. “We’re also closely monitoring the traffic to see what parts of the system need to be adjusted.”

Engineers are taking traffic counts and actively tweaking the signal timing to make sure more cars can get through.

Related: 520 floating bridge closed over weekend for inspection

However, traffic in the area is only going to get worse when UW students return to campus next month. Pelley said the issues should be ironed out by then.

“We know there are some issues,” she said. “People are out in the field tracking it and thinking about options to improve it. We do expect that over the next couple of weeks, both driver behaviors and some adjustments to signal timing should improve conditions again.”