Access to park-and-ride confusing
Published 4:54 pm Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Shari Sommerfeld of Lake Stevens writes: My question is about the park-and-ride lot at 164th Street SW and I-5.
Why are the left lane on- and off-ramps restricted to buses only? There are no signs until it is too late when traveling north on I-5 to know that you can’t use that exit ramp
.
Left lane access ramps at all the other park-and-ride lots in Snohomish County allow vehicles with two or more people to exit or enter the freeway.
The traffic during the commute time on the ramps at 164th is congested to say the least.
Carpoolers have to make their way across all lanes of traffic to enter the carpool lanes or leave the carpool lanes to exit. This causes more congestion for the main lanes of traffic.
This question has a two-part response. First:
Kimberly Reason, spokeswoman for Sound Transit:
Constraints at the site meant the direct-access freeway ramp had to be brought directly into the bus loop. Buses and cars together would not be able to use the turnaround safely and without congestion.
To serve the greatest number of commuters as cost-effectively as possible, priorities for direct-access ramps were established to first support express bus service, then local bus service, then carpools. Ash Way was the only such direct-access lot that could not accommodate carpools.
Drivers in carpools may use “queue jumper” lanes to bypass regular traffic on the 164th ramp just to the south of the Ash Way park-and-ride.
Bronlea Mishler, spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation, adds:
The park-and-ride at Ash Way is very close to the interchange of I-5 and I-405 at Swamp Creek. The state and the Federal Highway Administration were concerned that making the direct access ramps open to all traffic could lead to drivers of carpools or vanpools cutting across several lanes of I-5 in a short distance to reach I-405 or the direct-access ramps.
We have two signs for the Ash Way park and ride — one is an overhead sign that says “bus only,” and the other is a “restricted exit/bus only” sign right at the direct access ramp exit. We don’t plan to add more signs because we don’t want to draw attention to an exit that drivers can’t use.
Curb fix needed
Linda Anderson of Everett writes: We frequently drive from Everett to our home in the Seattle Hill Road area. We take Lowell-Larimer Road, then go up 116th Street SE. On 116th Street SE and 56th Avenue SE, Snohomish County recently added an extension of blacktop and curb out into the street. This makes the turn at that point more difficult to maneuver.
I would like to know why this was done. It may be to slow cars down but it seems to me it creates more potential for accidents as there is less room for two cars to pass.
Owen Carter, engineer for Snohomish County, responds: The curb extension was a requirement of a development to try to improve the intersection. I agree with Ms. Anderson that the extension made the turn more difficult to maneuver.
The extension is now removed and county traffic staff members are looking at potential improvements to the intersection. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
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