Commutes to Bellevue now worse than those to Seattle

Looking for the worst commute in the entire Puget Sound region? Then get a job in downtown Bellevue and buy a house in Tukwila, Seattle or Everett.

A new state study released this week says trips to and from downtown Bellevue now are generally worse than commutes to and from downtown Seattle.

In fact, the state Department of Transportation's report says, the two worst afternoon freeway commutes in the region both originate in Bellevue: the voyage south down Interstate 405 to Tukwila, and the haul west across Highway 520 to Seattle.

Evening congestion on southbound 405 lasted an average of 5 hours, 35 minutes in 2005, longer than anywhere else.

The evening commute across Lake Washington via Interstate 90 takes longer for those headed west than those headed east: 26 minutes on average from Bellevue to Seattle, just 18 minutes the other direction.

But even if you don't work in Bellevue, the trend isn't good. The report says congestion got worse almost everywhere in the region between 2003 and 2005. Average rush-hour travel times increased on 33 of the 34 major commuter routes in King and southern Snohomish counties.

"Wherever you are, you've got a problem," said state Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald. "It is not happy news."

"What's really going on"

The new Congestion Report is based on information from under-pavement detectors that count cars and measure traffic speed. It's considered a milestone in the state DOT's push to measure traffic more accurately and usefully.

MacDonald has been critical of other studies that rely not on such measurements but on assumptions based on total daily traffic volumes and total miles of concrete.

The new report "begins to do what we have said we wanted to do, which is to tell people what is really going on," he said.

The state will use the report to help figure out where best to combat congestion in the region.

The study found that in the morning, northbound Highway 167 between Auburn and Renton was congested for 85 more minutes in 2005 than in 2003. At night, southbound I-5 between Everett and Seattle was congested for 30 minutes in 2003 — and 2 hours, 50 minutes in 2005.

In the morning, the average commute from Everett to Bellevue takes four minutes longer than the trip from Everett to Seattle — even though the distances are nearly identical.

A freeway is considered congested if average speeds drop below 40 mph.

While congestion increased all over the region, the report found that it generally got worse on commuter routes in and out of Bellevue than it did on the same routes in and out of Seattle. For commuters driving home from jobs in Seattle, average travel times increased between 6 and 17 percent. But for people leaving Bellevue at night, the increases ranged from 11 to 28 percent.

"I'm not surprised," said Leslie Lloyd, president of the Bellevue Downtown Association. "I see it out my window every day."

Lloyd said the report should focus attention on the need to expand and improve I-405. More than $1.45 billion from the two recent state gas-tax increases has been earmarked for I-405 projects, but that's less than a third of the money the state says the freeway needs.

The report also says traffic has become more unpredictable. In 2003, for instance, a morning commuter from SeaTac to Seattle could expect to get to work in 29 minutes 95 percent of the time. By 2005, that time had climbed to 38 minutes.

High-occupancy-vehicle lanes carried a third of all freeway commuters at monitored locations in 2005, the report says. But it also says that six of the region's HOV lanes were so congested during evening peak hours that average speeds dropped below 45 mph.

While Bellevue may have the worst commutes, MacDonald said the problems the report documents are regional. The document "does not direct that you should invest in 405 at the expense of I-5," he said.

Chokepoints need fixing and lanes need to be added to help unclog the freeways, MacDonald said. However, he added, such big increases in congestion in just two years, coupled with huge price tags and long timelines for new highway projects, show that "we're not going to build our way out of congestion."

"We're going to have to think of some other ways to make traffic move."

Ramp meters and improved accident response have helped, he said, but those measures alone can't counteract the effects of a growing population and expanding economy.

Tolls that rise and fall with demand could help, MacDonald said, but they remain politically risky.

Eric Pryne: 206-464-2231 or epryne@seattletimes.com