Rantz: Washington Dept. of Transportation is choosing not to offer you I-5 traffic relief

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is refusing to offer basic, common-sense relief to drivers stuck in gridlock thanks to I-5 northbound construction.

With only two northbound lanes open on the Ship Canal Bridge, WSDOT made the decision to dedicate the I-5 express lanes solely to northbound traffic. That left southbound commuters — who normally rely on the express lanes — to pile onto the already congested I-5 south. The result? Predictable chaos. On Tuesday morning, backups stretched nearly 11 miles into Snohomish County.

There’s an obvious fix: revert the express lanes to their pre-construction schedule. But WSDOT won’t budge — even though their decision has made a miserable situation worse.

Traffic doesn’t need to be this bad on I-5

WSDOT’s position? “People will adapt to this,” according to a spokesperson.

“We see it all the time. Whenever we’re doing road work, they just need to kind of experience it a little bit sometimes, and then they get used to it. They make changes in their behavior, and that just helps keep traffic moving,” WSDOT spokesperson Tom Pearce explained to KIRO Newsradio.

Except, people can’t adapt when there’s nowhere else to go.

Two hours from Lake Stevens to downtown Seattle? Nearly an hour just to get from Northgate to Eastlake — a drive that should take ten minutes, max.

There are significantly more north-end commuters coming into downtown Seattle than there are drivers from south of the Ship Canal Bridge headed north past it. Just ask yourself: how many people commute from Federal Way to North Seattle or Shoreline, versus from Everett or Monroe or Sultan to downtown?

Giving northbound drivers the express lanes in the morning doesn’t make sense. The worst backups have always been into downtown Seattle, not into Shoreline or Lynnwood.

WSDOT’s plan makes no sense

Like most of WSDOT’s decisions, this one ignores the reality of the daily commute. They don’t think about the actual driving experience — they think about ideology. Their primary goal is either to push you out of your car and onto a bus or light rail, or to charge you for the privilege of using the roads via tolls.

We have a solution that could provide real relief for southbound I-5 commuters — and likely wouldn’t create major issues for northbound drivers. But WSDOT won’t consider it.

Why? Because they simply don’t care.

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