So state transportation officials were disappointed that the opening of the new auxiliary lane on northbound I-5 between 41st Street and U.S. 2 did little to help traffic south of Broadway.
It was, however, entirely predictable.
The main cause of the backups on northbound I-5 in the afternoon is the fact that four lanes of traffic are reduced to three at Broadway. But because Department of Transportation personnel who were involved in the decision making don’t commute through Everett every day (and they apparently didn’t seek input from those of us who do), they apparently didn’t know what the problem really was!
The DOT should’ve extended the fourth lane on I-5 all the way to U.S. 2, where some one-third of all traffic on I-5 exits the freeway, instead of at Broadway. Only a much smaller percentage of traffic exits at Broadway – and a good portion of that are cars trying to shortcut through Everett to get to U.S. 2. The DOT even acknowledges that the volumes are there – on southbound I-5 a new fourth lane will begin at U.S. 2. If the volumes are there to justify that southbound, that certainly should justify the fourth lane going all the way to U.S. 2 northbound. The DOT even had shown computer-generated pictures of the I-5 project showing four general purpose lanes on I-5 northbound continuing all the way to U.S. 2. Most recently they used these graphics at an open house earlier this year – and again in a Puget Sound Regional Council newsletter this past spring. Extending the fourth lane all the way to U.S. 2 is so logical even DOT personnel don’t notice the mistaken view!
DOT’s response about why the fourth lane can’t be extended all the way to U.S. 2 is that they are concerned about the difficulty people would have merging onto northbound I-5 from 41st Street. So the end result is that to make it a little easier for thousands of cars coming onto I-5 northbound at 41st Street, tens of thousands of cars still have to sit in a backup that moves slower than 20 mph south of Broadway. The perfect has become the enemy of the good! (But that seems to be DOT policy. Because they are concerned that an occasional accident on the trestle wouldn’t have an emergency lane to get into, every day tens of thousands of commuters are stuck funneling down to two lanes, but I digress.)
Additionally, DOT personnel have responded that they didn’t consider the number of cars that exit I-5 at Broadway to cut over to U.S. 2, and they didn’t consider how many cars getting on I-5 northbound at 41st are cutting through Everett (i.e., from Boeing via Mukilteo Boulevard) to avoid northbound I-5 from Highway 526. Had they considered these numbers, it would only show how much more volume is actually going from Highway 526 to U.S. 2. Paradoxically, if the DOT has improved I-5 between 41st and U.S. 2, but not significantly between Highway 526 and Broadway, that will just increase the incentive for workers in southwest Everett to cut through Everett streets (which I’m pretty sure is not what Everett officials hoped for!)
The saddest news of all is that the DOT has no plans and is apparently unwilling to consider re-striping I-5 to extend that fourth lane through to U.S. 2 if the new lane between 41st and U.S. 2 doesn’t solve the backup. (And given the DOT officials’ disappointment, as stated in a recent Herald article, the problem apparently hasn’t been solved.) So we’ll have spent, what, tens of millions of dollars to increase average speeds on this section of freeway from 13 mph to 19 mph? What a waste.
Scott Bader is a former chair of the City of Everett’s Transporation Advisory Commission.
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