Index shows Seattle with 4th worst traffic in U.S. (Vancouver: house, school)

[ladderoflocus]

Seattle has few heavily traveled throughfares with few alternate routes. I also think Seattle's confusing road layout causes drivers to drive overly cautiously and make sudden stops and left turns. Plus the few bridges lead to choke points that lead to heavy congestion. whereas places like San Diego and city of San Francisco (surface streets) is on a large grid with many alternate routes.

[benleis]

Originally Posted by ladderoflocus

Seattle has few heavily traveled throughfares with few alternate routes. I also think Seattle's confusing road layout causes drivers to drive overly cautiously and make sudden stops and left turns. Plus the few bridges lead to choke points that lead to heavy congestion. whereas places like San Diego and city of San Francisco (surface streets) is on a large grid with many alternate routes.

Of course the same original traffic ranking from tomtom showed San Francisco as having worse traffic than Seattle. So the theory that their grid works better doesn't work that well.

I'm a bit skeptical of this single data point since the tomtom rankings have shifted this year and other measures of congestion give different rankings. The inrix ones at INRIX put Seattle at #8 which seems a little closer to the reality I've experienced. (I've always found the NYC and Chicago traffic much worse than here).

Also traffic is bad here but perception of it definitely depends on what arteries you commonly use and in what direction. Certain routes are much worse than others and if you have to commute on them a lot you're obviously going to perceive more problems i.e. perhaps 167 or 520.

Ben

[thatguy950]

Lived in LA, it's definitely worse, lived (and will live again soon) in Honolulu and while the downtown traffic may be a bit worse, the overall traffic there is NO WHERE near as bad as Seattle. Here we have bad downtown traffic, sure, but you can't escape it in the surrounding areas, it can be completely jammed in Everett, Arlington, Mill Creek, Issaquah, Renton, Tacoma, Seattle, etc. all at the same time. I have sat in plenty of 30 mile back-ups here as I did in LA, but never in Honolulu where it's mostly constrained to the city and areas relatively close. I always laugh at my family there when they complain about traffic, drivers in Seattle and LA have it so much worse. I guess there it's more densely-packed, the rest of the cities on the list have much lengthier backups, the worse there seems like going from Ewa to town, an hour or so in bad traffic, whereas going from Everett to Seattle can easily take 2 hours on a bad day...and LA, oh boy.

[Ira500]

Originally Posted by ctr88

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 take these stats with a grain of salt. I doubt that Seattle's traffic is worse than Washington DC's. Still it's really bad and it doesn't matter whether it takes an hour to drive eight miles or an hour and a half.
I guess that's also a downside to a healthy economy. There are tricks to lessen the pain. Like find the best surface street alternatives. Or schedule hiking trips for the least likely time for bad traffic.
I've found that I-5 just keeps getting worse as time passes. Maybe it's just because I'm on it a lot, but it seems to suck at any time of day. Going north at 8AM or 2 PM or 8 PM, it just can't be predicted, and after the viaduct comes down and replaced with a tunnel and a toll, that should only make I-5 worse.
I still love Seattle after all these years despite the godawful traffic,, and satellite radio helps a lot, but sitting in traffic just seems to rot one's brain.

[ladderoflocus]

There seems to be continual construction all over the place that leads to jams. when will the construction let up? From 2002 to the present , construction has plagued the city.

[aaronkc]

whoever did this study musta been on crack...
wat bout nyc, atl, dc, chicago, etc? i drove in seattle and traffic is nothing like in nyc/nj
this is kinda like people sayin seattle is the most expensive city behind nyc and sf, dumb as hell

seems to me people in seattle are spoiled and outta touch with reality, they have it good and dont realize it, complaining about petty bs, soo fragile
the only legit complaint is the rainy overcast weather

[Bimmerfanboy]

I am not the least-bit surprised.
Seattle's metro population is growing but the highway and main roads have not expanded to accommodate the incoming residents. There are too many geographical constraints. For example, I-405 south of Bellevue is only 2-3 lanes when it needs to be a couple more than that. However there's a lake on one side and a cliff on the other.

Also, the overwhelming majority of main roads are only ~2 lanes, sometimes even one. In other metros with fewer geographical limitations, main roads are usually 3-4 lanes. For example, the quickest way to get from Issaquah to Redmond is not by freeway but by a 1 lane road (Lake Sammamish Pkwy).

[aaronkc]

there are geographical constraints in many cities...

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by ladderoflocus

There seems to be continual construction all over the place that leads to jams. when will the construction let up? From 2002 to the present , construction has plagued the city.

It goes back farther than that, seems the 405 S-Curves were under construction from 1995-2007. Some of that may be SDOT issues but some is also due to the weather. It's annoying to always have construction delays in summer when we are all traveling but then it's the only time it's not raining.

Originally Posted by Seatown1

I am not the least-bit surprised.
Seattle's metro population is growing but the highway and main roads have not expanded to accommodate the incoming residents. There are too many geographical constraints. For example, I-405 south of Bellevue is only 2-3 lanes when it needs to be a couple more than that. However there's a lake on one side and a cliff on the other.

Also, the overwhelming majority of main roads are only ~2 lanes, sometimes even one. In other metros with fewer geographical limitations, main roads are usually 3-4 lanes. For example, the quickest way to get from Issaquah to Redmond is not by freeway but by a 1 lane road (Lake Sammamish Pkwy).

Even that was a lot better when the speed limit was 45, at 35 you feel like you are crawling along.

[notoriouskelly]

My first trip thru Seattle was at 10 pm and I said to myself "This has got to suck during rush hour".
Turns out it ain't just during rush hour

Hills and curves always cause slowdowns which turn into jams so I think that's a big part of the problem.