SDOT doing something about ill-timed drawbridge openings

Every time a Seattle bridge opens, another frustrated driver pulls out his or her hair.

Bridge openings, even for a short duration, can back up hundreds of vehicles on the road during peak hours to accommodate boats traveling through Seattle’s canals.

“If you have two openings an hour, there’s 2,600 cars that get backed up and that cascades thought the whole system,” said Seattle Transportation Director Scott Kubly.

“Right now, how it works, is if you have a sail boat pull up, the bridge goes up,” he said. “You can have another sailboat pull up five minutes later, and the bridge would have to reopen.”

Related: King County considers expanding ferries across Lake Washington

Though bridges remain closed to boat traffic, and open to cars for two hours during morning and afternoon commutes, the Seattle Department of Transportation is finding it’s not enough. Seattle is experiencing growing traffic volumes.

“With an average bridge opening lasting five minutes, hundreds of cars back up each time,” information posted on SDOT’s blog reads. “Buses run behind schedule, emergency vehicles at times are delayed, commuters take longer to get to work or back home …”

For example, the Fremont Bridge opened 655 times in June. That equates to 22 times a day. Kubly says that can’t happen anymore.

Related: Drivers wasted 63 hours stuck in Seattle traffic last year

That’s why SDOT is considering a petition to the U.S. Coast Guard to expand the hours that the bridges are down and dedicated to car traffic.

“What we are trying to do is get the bridge openings scheduled, so that people know when to pull their boat up to get through the bridge and people can plan their car trip accordingly,” Kubly said.

“So it’s opening a couple times an hour what we are saying, ‘Let’s open it one time an hour, get everybody through at one time, so the rest of that hour that bridge can operate normally.'”

The idea includes the operation of the Ballard, Fremont, and the University bridge, which are regulated by the Coast Guard, but owned and operated by SDOT. The Washington State Department of Transportation owns and operates the Montlake Bridge.

“We’re still going to open on request for commercial ships, but for pleasure craft, it will be scheduled,” Kubly said.

It’s the pleasure craft that seem to be causing most of the headaches. KIRO Radio traffic reporter Chris Sullivan told Tom and Curley he was stuck at the Fremont Bridge for about 45 minutes, waiting for individual sailboats to pass.

Tom Tangney and John Curley &#8212 amazingly &#8212 agreed that commercial vessels should have priority. However, pleasure craft should be on a more strict schedule.

“Pleasure boats should have a certain window they have to use, otherwise they can’t go through,” Curley suggested. “If they don’t make it they have to wait.”

What about West Seattle’s Spokane Street Bridge? Sullivan said SDOT isn’t going near it because watercraft are too dependent on tides.

“Those guys gotta go when they can go,” he explained.

The blog post doesn’t address the issues the City of Seattle has had with traffic congestion due to crashes. However, the consideration of keeping bridges closed more often comes during a time when city leaders are trying to figure out best practices for improving traffic flow and avoiding complete shutdowns caused by vehicle collisions. That has included having an outside engineering firm complete a study that resulted in a 63-page report to help keep traffic moving.

Part of what causes Seattle’s horrendous traffic congestion &#8212 which, by the way, is the seventh worst in the country &#8212 is the geography of the city. With the Puget Sound on one side, Lake Washington on the other and waterways cutting through bustling areas, the city is at a disadvantage. No matter how clear the roads are, traffic bottlenecks at the heavily used bridges, even if they don’t open for marine traffic.

So keeping Seattle’s bridges closed more could be beneficial. SDOT would like to propose a one-year trial period, according to the blog. However, before it does that, SDOT is asking for feedback through September.

If the Coast Guard approves the expanded closures, it could at least help Seattle drivers keep their sanity. Now if only something could be done for how they drive.