The traffic in King County Washington is getting horrific

[futurefields]

man, something needs to be done

 

[Daaavo]

Wait until the tunnel is finished, then you're really going to enjoy it!

 

[etrigan420]

Something has needed to be done with Seattle traffic for decades.

 

[nForce2]

Something has needed to be done with Seattle traffic for decades.

Yep. :\

http://www.king5.com/story/news/loc...le-freeway-construction-legislature/24686207/

 

[pete6032]

The problem is when you improve traffic flow you just incentivize people to move further away because the commute times lessen. Then eventually after people start commuting from further out, it puts more traffic back on the road and you find yourself back at square one where the freeway is again totally jammed and people start complaining about it again. It's an equilibrium problem, not a size of road problem.

 

[BoomerD]

Something has needed to be done with Seattle traffic for decades.

No shit. I dread going to that side of the sound. Kitsap traffic is bad enough...

 

[Argo]

Something has needed to be done with Seattle traffic for decades.

It'll get worse before it gets better, IMO. Lots of new office square footage coming up in SLU in the next 2 years, yet we are still stuck with a couple of highway ramps that are already bottlenecked.

Don't see how they can make highway situation better either, no room for new exits, and layout of highways is sub ideal. Doubling down on mass transit might be the only way out.

 

[Thump553]

Bring Chris Christie to town.

 

[Blanky]

Won't get better until everyone has a self-driving car, or at least a large number of people. That will affect traffic flow profoundly.

 

[mmntech]

Neighbouring Vancouver is even worse. Seattle is only as congested as Toronto.

Part of the problem is we're still building cities here like we did in the 1950s. Large sprawling suburbs with a single downtown core. There's very little edonomic development taking place in outlying areas, so everyone works in one centralized location. Cities are usually expensive, so people can't afford to live where they work. Toss that in with inadequate transit service for suburban areas, and you've got tons of congestion on the highways.

For in town traffic, it's largely the same issue. Suburban areas are not walk or bike friendly. You have to own a car to be able to go anywhere because shopping and entertainment is not within walking distances of most peoples homes.

Unfortunately, municipal planners rarely put infrastructure first when building new subdivisions. Developers don't care.

A lot of it can be solved by designing new communities with jobs in mind first, and then building them as compact, self contained units. Like a mini English village that's part of a larger whole.

 

[Murloc]

Neighbouring Vancouver is even worse. Seattle is only as congested as Toronto.

Part of the problem is we're still building cities here like we did in the 1950s. Large sprawling suburbs with a single downtown core. There's very little edonomic development taking place in outlying areas, so everyone works in one centralized location. Cities are usually expensive, so people can't afford to live where they work. Toss that in with inadequate transit service for suburban areas, and you've got tons of congestion on the highways.

For in town traffic, it's largely the same issue. Suburban areas are not walk or bike friendly. You have to own a car to be able to go anywhere because shopping and entertainment is not within walking distances of most peoples homes.

Unfortunately, municipal planners rarely put infrastructure first when building new subdivisions. Developers don't care.

A lot of it can be solved by designing new communities with jobs in mind first, and then building them as compact, self contained units. Like a mini English village that's part of a larger whole.

that requires political initiative, meaning better zoning. But try banning residential construction on land where it was permitted before and the owners get angry.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

It makes it easier when you have a job that will pay you hourly while you are stuck in the traffic.