Seattle Press on Line - Save the I-90 Shoulder from Traffic Engineers!

Small Ideas For Seattle

Save the I-90 Shoulder from Traffic Engineers!

By Dick Falkenbury

Apr 19, 2000 -- Every study that I've ever seen says that 60 percent of all traffic congestion is caused by breakdowns and accidents. Put another way, if all the cars, buses and trucks worked perfectly, we would see half of the congestion go away. Think about the last few traffic reports you've heard: they talk about "an accident under the Convention Center" and "a stalled, blocking vehicle on the 520 bridge."

The 520 floating bridge was built without shoulders presuming that the 50,000 cars would get across without ever breaking down or getting into an accident.

Now some geniuses at the state Department of Tranportation (DOT) and Sound Transit want to make I-90 the same traffic-choked mistake. There are plans to take the shoulder and turn it into another lane.

They think that this will speed up the buses--it won't. Now, when there is an accident or a car breaks down, there is somewhere to put the vehicle(s) out of the flow of traffic. If DOT re-stripes and takes the shoulder, there will be no place to put cars. Traffic will back up and snarl, buses will be even more late and DOT's response will be to suggest building yet another bridge.

They just don't get it.

We've already seen what taking the shoulder of a bridge for buses does; we recently did exactly the same thing on the West Seattle Bridge. Result? Traffic is worse than ever. And buses are no faster.

(DOT, Metro and Sound Transit will show you statistics that say everything is fine; but if buses were running any better, they would update the schedules, but they haven't. That's because there has been no improvement and in fact, the situation is a mess.) The most important lane of traffic for the smooth operation of traffic just might be the shoulder.

This "fix" for the I-90 is not only short-sighted, it might be blind to the facts. There is no simple solution, and this "simple solution" will only make matters worse.

Talk to Dick at falkenbury@aol.com.

Reader Comments

Discuss this article in the forums!

No comments yet!