If you are one of the thousands of people who commute along the clogged highways and streets in the Puget Sound region, staying home and out of the car just might sound like the best holiday ever. Adding holiday traffic to what are essentially permanent chokepoints is a recipe for sitting in your vehicle for a long time. (The area has eight of the country’s most congested corridors, including I-5 and I-405.)
On the other hand, if you happen to be one of the millions of people who will travel this weekend, (the AAA says 34 million Americans could hit the road nationwide) transporation experts say you’ll have the best luck travelling if you have left home already. (Say, on Wednesday.) And speaking of the Puget Sound region, it’s not just the roadways that will be filled to the brim, but all the ferries as well. The Washington state Department of Transportation website warns, “Ferry frenzy expected for holiday weekend.” More than 435,000 travelers and tourists are expected to hop aboard a ferry during the Memorial Day weekend, according to the agency.
Peak ferry travel times on most routes are expected to be westbound yesterday and today, (May 26-27) and eastbound Monday, May 30.
WSDOT advises:
- If possible, walk on to reduce or eliminate wait times. Passenger capacity is far greater than vehicle capacity on all of WSF’s ferries.
- Make a vehicle reservation to the San Juan Islands, Sidney, B.C., and Port Townsend/Coupeville.
- Check the terminal conditions website.
- Sign up for ferry travel alerts.
- Keep an eye on Twitter for ferry alerts on travel conditions.
- Review the summer sailing schedule and best times to travel.
- While the busiest route is Seattle/Bainbridge Island — expected to carry 111,000 passengers during the holiday weekend — another 77,000 passengers will travel the Edmonds/Kingston route, and 74,000 will come aboard in Mukilteo or Clinton.
- In anticipation of the extra traffic, WSDOT is suspending most state highway construction work. An exception is the Vantage Bridge on I-90, where eastbound drivers will experience delays due to around-the-clock single-lane closures.
- WSDOT advises drivers to use the department’s traffic volume charts to help time their travel on key routes throughout the weekend. Drivers also can:
- Check out WSDOT’s mobile app, social media sites — such as Twitter and Facebook — and online tools for traffic information and ferry schedules to “know before you go.”
- Program your vehicle radio to 530 AM and 1610 AM for highway advisory radio alerts.
- Call 511 for real-time traffic information.
It goes without saying that if you are going to travel this weekend, patience is required, and having a “Plan B,” and/or a great deal of flexibility is smart. And if things don’t go as planned, or if they were never planned, just remember to call it an “adventure.”
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