Gridlock avoided

Narrator Says:

It was an event many were anticipating, but no one was looking forward to.

Washington State DOT began closing a varying number of lanes on northbound I-5 from Spokane Street to I-90 beginning Friday, August 10th.

Monday, August 13th marked the first full commute with those lanes closed.

In the lead up to the closure, King County Metro coordinated with several agencies to encourage the use of its services as alternatives to driving during the scheduled 19-day closure.

And on day one, it was a little crowded.

Commuter Says:

Yes, standing room only.

Commuter Says:

The bus was a little bit more crowded than normal, so I take that bus normally from the airport to downtown Seattle, and there were a lot more people on it, and it took a different route this time, it was pretty fast though, the bus way, was really nice, because the buses can just go along the regular traffic route and they don't get slowed up so it only took 25 min. or so from the airport. (Reporter: So overall it wasn't too big an inconvenience?) No it didn't affect us at all.

Narrator Says:

But commuters were using Metro services as an alternative, and commute times were similar to, if not the same as normal.

Commuter Says:

First day of the commute was pretty easy, it was a new route for the driver and for us, they ended up taking the 599 instead of I-5, you know, blew everyone away, it was nice to see something different as well, it was an extra 5-10 min. but it was fine, it definitely beat sitting in the I-5 closure. Yeah I looked online at the online traffic update and the map looked pretty wide open, so I think a lot of people avoided getting down here in the mess on the first day.

Narrator Says:

On top of the extra bus ridership, the Metro Water Taxi carried a huge part of the commuter load that morning. The taxi saw its ridership increase as much as 6 times on some runs. And riders say this closure has been an opportunity for the Water Taxi to get the exposure as a great alternative to driving a car.

Commuter Says:

Yeah, which I think is a tremendous thing, I really hope this ridership continues, there's no way to know if it will or not, but I think people realize the definite benefit, and ease of getting over there, that's going to catch on.

Narrator Says:

The Water Taxi averages about 30 passengers per trip on an average weekday. On August 13th, it saw three trips exceed 100 passengers topping out at 191 by mid-morning, which is a record for the Water Taxi.

Commuter Says:

Yeah we're regular commuters, we normally take the 8:50 but we came early b/c we knew it was going to be busy and late because there were going to be so many people.

Narrator Says:

King County Metro continued its re-routed service during the closures, and the State Department of Transportation estimated that total traffic volume during the closures was about half of the normal volume on that stretch of I-5.