Can any recent transplants from Los Angeles tell me about Eastside traffic? (Seattle: how much, home)

[torporous]

I see a fair bit of complaining on this forum and elsewhere about traffic in Seattle and on the Eastside. But I live in Santa Monica, and I feel like every time I go someplace else on vacation, I'm thinking "Wow, the traffic here is amaaaazing, look at us moving" as locals whine about how long it takes to get everywhere.

I'm contemplating a move to the Eastside and hoping someone else who's lived in west LA recently can tell me...is the traffic really that bad? Or is it just bad by not-LA standards? Is there a well-defined "rush hour" that doesn't actually last most of the day? Are there alternate routes to avoid the major traffic bottlenecks? What are the worst routes, and what's the difference between the minimum and maximum times they can tend to take?

[Jalhop]

Google for "seattle traffic map" to see the traffic levels in real time. I avoid the freeways entirely during rush hours, 7-9 AM and 3-7 PM I'd say. The Lake Hills Connector is usually uncrowded. A trip along I-5 in LA on a Sunday around noon was as bad as weekday rush hours here. Weekends are usually clear sailing on the eastside.

[Hemlock140]

Being from the Bay Area with a lot of time spent in the LA area, I wouldn't call it nearly as bad here. The real problem is that it has become so much more congested in the last 20 years with growth here that people still remember how much better it was in the 1980s and complain a lot. Because there is so much business now on the eastside, with workers living in Seattle, both directions get
congested on the bridges across Lake WA. The staggered start/end times at places like Microsoft the rush hour is more like 3 hours. Even so, the only one that comes to a complete stop regularly is 405 between Bellevue and 167 in Renton, or to If at Tukwila. Most of our worst traffic is just moving real slow.
And when it is badly congested it's only 2-3 lanes, unlike LA where it can be 6-8 lanes. I have seen I5 from Burbank to LA worse at 11pm than I have ever seen it around here.

[Molli]

I am a transplant from So Cal to Utah and it cracks me up to hear Utahans complain about traffic!! I plan to relocate to Seattle but work fulltime from home so don't have to worry about rush hour traffic. I am, however, very surprised to read the post above that talks about employers like Microsoft not doing more about dumping a lot of employees into rush hour traffic. Do any of these large employers set up park and ride areas and bus their employees to/from those areas? I'm surprised with how environmentally conscious it seems that the State of WA is that they aren't pressuring these large employers to do something like that.

[Wilson502]

MS actually provides bus/shuttle services to many areas throughout the seattle Metro area and provides transit passes for employees and vendors.

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by Wilson502

MS actually provides bus/shuttle services to many areas throughout the seattle Metro area and provides transit passes for employees and vendors.

And, they have what could be almost considered their own park & ride, many commute by bicycle. There are just a lot of employees there, with about 40,000 at the Redmond campus more in Bellevue and Issaquah.

[revelated]

It is unfortunate that the traffic out here is as bad as it is. But the reality is that some of it is avoidable. People here drive slow on purpose even when it's not bad traffic. There are spots where people are just cruising along at 40 - in a 65 MPH zone. For no clear reason. That is really the cause, it's not volume.

[angelenogirl]

Grew up in Santa Monica. The traffic on the Eastside is not even close. The lists put Seattle fourth or fifth for traffic, but I've never had any real issues getting around like I did on the 405/101/10. I think the problem is that the city planners didn't really build with population growth/expansion in mind (i.e. transplants like me and you screwing everything up).

I live in Seattle and go to the Eastside all the time, which people I know here find odd. I think I'm just really used to driving.

[sll3454]

Overall there is not as much traffic (yet), but there are also not as many alternate routes. (Of course, that depends on where you want to go.) I drove down the 405 in the late morning the day after Christmas and there was hardly any slowing. I've also driven on it to go to the airport at some ridiculously early hour, and it wasn't bad. Friday afternoons (and early get-away days, like the Thursday before Labor Day), though, it may take an hour or more to drive just the lower half of the 405. The carpool lane helps a lot.

[limeyx]

Originally Posted by angelenogirl

Grew up in Santa Monica. The traffic on the Eastside is not even close. The lists put Seattle fourth or fifth for traffic, but I've never had any real issues getting around like I did on the 405/101/10. I think the problem is that the city planners didn't really build with population growth/expansion in mind (i.e. transplants like me and you screwing everything up).

I live in Seattle and go to the Eastside all the time, which people I know here find odd. I think I'm just really used to driving.

This is my experience too. Bellevue (Crossroads and downtown) can get quite congested but nothing compared to Santa Monica.

Downtown Seattle can be horrific around 5pm, but usually after 6:30-7 or so is actually not anywhere near as bad.