bikeseattle.org

I-5 is back open and for the most part, things were smooth sailing. The big reason for this? People used alternate forms of transportation. What is interesting about this, is it is a decent case study of what commuting traffic could be like all the time if people would just make a small effort.

There have been lots of people who are frustrated by the crammed water taxis, late busses, and standing room only commuter trains, but what if there was something a little more planned regarding alternative commuting?

What if we had a commute schedule? You know, like the watering schedule we had a few years ago when there was the water shortage scare?

Go take a look at the drought watering schedule and envision that as a commute schedule. It could be setup like that where you have a specific group you’re in and you then take a non-car mode of transportation to your work for that day.

It could even be something a bit more simple.

Start off by committing to do one non-car commute a week. Derive which day you’d do it based off of your home address number or something. On odd numbered months, odd numbered home addresses would pick a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. Even numbered homes would do a Tuesday or Thursday. On even numbered months you swap.

The idea here being you’d have primary and secondary months. A primary month would have more commute options (Mon/Wed/Fri) vs. a secondary month who would have Tu/Th options. Rotate it around to make sure everyone has the same amount.

After awhile, maybe ramp it up to two days a week.

You now have a decently regulated way of managing those over crowded commuter trains and buses, and if enough people did it, a large reduction in traffic congestion.

Anyway, something to think about perhaps. For fun, here are some snippets from articles from around the region regarding the I-5 project:

Collective panic alone can’t explain the startling statistic that graced front pages last week: Of 120,000 cars that normally use northbound I-5 daily, half simply went away. Their drivers took alternate routes, rode transit, worked from home, or didn’t take unnecessary trips. In other words, they adapted to changed circumstances.

– Closure

Like so many others, Patrick Hirayama took the bus Monday, heeding warnings that a few lane closures on Interstate 5 could cause a traffic Armageddon.

They didn’t. He got back in his car the next day.

“My wife wanted the dog dropped off at day care … and he doesn’t fit on my 10-speed,” said the computer administrator, who switched among a car, the bus and a bike for the rest for the week.

A thousand little things people did differently — took vacations, drove with a neighbor, left earlier, caught the bus to a Mariners game — made the I-5 lane closures largely painless, at least in the earlier part of the week.

It’s an interesting lesson for a region that tends to fixate on pouring concrete — building light rail or a tunnel or freeway lanes — rather than changing behavior to solve traffic problems.

…

But Balogh and others agree that there’s a big difference between what people are willing to do for two weeks and for the rest of their lives.

All this week proves is that people usually do whatever is in their best interest, said Chris Vance, former chairman of the state Republican Party.

Indeed, people seduced by pictures of nearly empty freeways increasingly returned to their cars as the week wore on, which, predictably, caused long backups Friday.

If people have a better alternative to driving on a given day, they’ll use it, Vance said. But that doesn’t mean the region should continue to neglect critical road infrastructure.
–Commuters showed they can adapt, at least briefly

“I finally decided that (freeway construction) was going to be my excuse,” said Powell, a programmer who commutes north from unincorporated King County near Renton to Amazon. com’s offices near Pioneer Square, right through the dark heart of the backup.

“It’s a bonus that the weather’s been nice here for a couple of weeks.”

This is the silver lining, the lemonade made from those lemons idling on the I-5 corridor: The use of alternative forms of transportation, at least for the short term, appears to have increased. Mass transit has more riders, preliminary Metro numbers show. Same for van pools and car pools.

–Drivers trade gas pedals for bicycle pedals

On Monday, Kathrine Browne, like thousands of people, ditched her car and journeyed to work on the bus to avoid potential traffic snarls during the partial, 19-day closure of northbound Interstate 5.

Browne, 29, takes the bus half of the time anyway.

But commuters on Monday reported late buses, ferries and water taxis, along with huge crowds, especially on Sound Transit’s Sounder train, which saw its highest ridership ever.

For Browne, it was horrible, she said. After riding from her home in Ravenna to downtown, she transferred to Metro Route 174 to her job at the Museum of Flight in Georgetown.

“It was really packed. There was no place to stand. I don’t think the bus driver could have let in another person,” she said.

–Commuters begin to return to their cars