Seattle to Portland o Thanksgiving - drive time? (Olympia, Snohomish: to live in, moving)

[robind]

Hi all,

We'll be heading from Seattle to Portland on Thanksgiving. We keep hearing nightmare stories about the long line of cars that we may be sitting in.

Anybody done this? What's a good time to leave?

Wednesday night, Thursday morning or Thursday afternoon?

Thanks!

[lifes2short]

Done that many times. Yes, traffic on this route gets quite heavy on holidays. As far as how long it will take, a lot depends on from exactly where in Seattle to where in Portland. We used to live in Snohomish and would drive down to Gresham, and it would take us 3 1/2 hours nonholiday traffic. With holiday traffic, it normally was around 4 hours, or just a tad more. Wednesday afternoon will be heavy, but if you can leave very early on Thursday, that would be better.

[kmfseattle]

WSDOT - 2007 News - WSDOT Driver Tips for Thanksgiving Holidays

the Washington State Department of Transportation keeps records of highway traffic levels during most holiday weekends - The 'I-5 South of Olympia' section should be helpful for you, shows traffic levels at any given hour based on previous years.

[malarkey]

We drive to the Oregon Coast every Thanksgiving~ and we always leave on Wednesday, during the day, the earlier the better. While the map that kmfseattle posted shows heavy volumes between 10am-2pm, and the same or slightly higher after 3pm, we've always experienced way WORSE traffic if we wait till late Wednesday afternoon to take off. Driving on Thanksgiving will be better, especially if you can wait till the afternoon to leave.

[kmfseattle]

The map backs that up -



Looks heaviest 3pm-9pm on Wednesday. Looks also like it's best to return on Sunday, average Saturday traffic appears to be extremely heavy on Northbound most of the day.

[lifes2short]

That is a cool graph, thanks! I am headed up to Seattle on Friday, but thankfully in the afternoon when it shouldn't be too bad.

[robind]

Love the graph and that website.

Thanks all.

[cobolt]

I think it was the THanksgiving before last---I was driving across town and on one of the I-5 overpasses. There were non-stop headlights in both directions of I-5 and no one was moving. This was sometime in the afternoon. I was floored. I truly never saw anything like that before! Weds afternoon gets pretty hairy. I'd say Weds morning is the best.

[argo69]

Back when I used to drive the Sea-Pdx holiday route...it would take anywhere from 3-5 hours, depending on freeway traffic and accidents. Now I take the Amtrak and it takes 3.5 hours...no more, no less.