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Old 10-01-2013, 12:21 PM
 
2,173 posts, read 4,411,487 times
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http://www.tomtom.com/lib/doc/conges...ual-NAM-mi.pdf

The only places worse according to this list are LA, SF, and Honolulu. I'm surprised Boston and Atlanta are not on this list. San Jose is #5 and DC is #6 (I'm taking out Vancouver and Toronto b/c they are not U.S.)

So it's not just my imagination, Seattle's traffic is truly horrific. Traffic is so bad it's seriously got me thinking of moving even though I love the city. You just can't really freely move around and across the city and go to restaurants, events, shop, hike, ski without really frustrating congestion constantly. It just really affects your peace of mind and enjoyment of life.
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Old 10-01-2013, 12:40 PM
 
110 posts, read 202,261 times
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It took 22 mins to get from 16th and John to Westlake and Denny yesterday on the bus around 2pm, which is a distance of only 1.3 miles and wasn't even during rush hour. The congestion around the city is horrendous. There are just few heavily traveled arteries with side streets that to lead dead ends, traffic calming devices, t junctions, and other obstacles that make taking side streets impractical. Too much road construction and too many people making impossible to make left turns causing backups.

I could have walked the route in nearly the same amount of time, but walking along or near Denny is extremely unpleasant with the noise and fumes of heavy traffic. The poor transit infrastructure that is neither accommodating to pedestrians, drivers, cyclists nor people taking public transit is maddening and a reason I am defecting from Seattle shortly.

Last edited by ladderoflocus; 10-01-2013 at 12:51 PM..
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Old 10-01-2013, 12:58 PM
 
2,173 posts, read 4,411,487 times
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Actually if you back out Honolulu because it's not on the mainland you could say Seattle has the 3rd worst traffic & congestion on the mainland U.S. So it's right up there with SF and LA. Seattle has so many cool events, shopping, restaurants, theaters, hiking trails, etc...but when you factor in the pure pain of getting to these places to enjoy them, it really detracts from it all.
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Old 10-01-2013, 08:44 PM
 
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,585 posts, read 81,225,683 times
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Having lived in SF and spent a lot of time in LA I will say that they are ahead of Seattle only because there are a total of more cars stuck in the traffic jams there than Seattle. When we have 2-3 lanes of clogged traffic, they may have 6-8 because their roads are a lot wider and there are more people.
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Old 10-02-2013, 08:48 AM
 
2,173 posts, read 4,411,487 times
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It's amazing that Seattle traffic is worse then all these other mostly bigger cities like Boston, NYC, DC, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Diego, Phoenix, etc....
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Old 10-02-2013, 09:47 AM
 
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San Diego has no significant traffic. It is the most (but not 100%) perfect place to live in many aspects.
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Old 10-02-2013, 10:21 AM
 
Location: Bothell, Washington
2,811 posts, read 5,628,692 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ctr88 View Post
It's amazing that Seattle traffic is worse then all these other mostly bigger cities like Boston, NYC, DC, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Diego, Phoenix, etc....
I think it's because most of those other cities have updated their road/highway infrastructure to accommodate the growing population to handle the number of cars- whereas here it seems nothing like that has been done, we are using highways and roads that were designed for probably half of the population we have now.
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Old 10-02-2013, 10:42 AM
 
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Seems Seattle's sound and waterways with limited bridges creates natural traffic bottlenecks?
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Old 10-02-2013, 12:24 PM
 
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,585 posts, read 81,225,683 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bloom View Post
Seems Seattle's sound and waterways with limited bridges creates natural traffic bottlenecks?
More likely the fact that so many freeways change from 4 lanes to 3 or 3 to 2, and were not widened when the thousands of new homes were built in the 1980s.
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Old 10-02-2013, 12:46 PM
 
1,600 posts, read 939,856 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bloom View Post
San Diego has no significant traffic. It is the most (but not 100%) perfect place to live in many aspects.
Amen to this. I lived in Seattle for 5.5 years and just moved to San Diego about 3 months ago. The traffic here in San Diego is WAY better than Seattle was by a long shot...Seattle traffic on freeways and side streets drove me batty.
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