The public's reward for paying gas taxes and tolls toward a new Highway 520 floating bridge — besides not having to worry about the current one sinking — was supposed to be the chance to add quick-moving lanes for transit and carpools.
But despite the presence of two high-occupancy-vehicle lanes on the new six-lane bridge, commuters would still hit bottlenecks where Interstate 5 meets 520. That's because the state's plan for bus and carpool lanes is designed for commuters who live on the Eastside and work in downtown Seattle.
So if you live on the west side of Lake Washington and work on the Eastside, your bus ride or carpool to reach the $4.65 billion bridge will be just as slow as today. Same goes if you live on the Eastside and need to take I-5 north to work after you cross the bridge.
That's because the state's plan to unclog transit traffic at the interchange rests mainly with a single reversible ramp that serves only a traditional Eastside-to-downtown route. The ramp would take buses and three-person carpools from the bridge's new HOV lanes and guide them directly into I-5's express lanes in the morning. In the afternoon, northbound I-5 express-lane transit drivers would take the same ramp back to the 520 HOV lanes.
But that's it.
If you live in Northgate, Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace or Edmonds, your bus or carpool won't reach 520 until after you slog through general traffic on I-5 and drive single-file through the existing left-side exit, just like today.
The new ramp also won't help commuters who live in Belltown, South Lake Union or Queen Anne and head to the Eastside, perhaps to work at Microsoft. They won't enjoy direct access to the new transit corridor via Mercer Street, because the I-5 express lanes are pointing south at that time.
These limitations have been ignored for years, despite traffic from Seattle residents heading east that matches or exceeds that of Eastsiders coming into Seattle.
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