520 Bridge Spending Should Pursue Congestion Relief 

Seattle-Washington Policy Center, the state's premier public policy, independent research organization, and its new Center for Transportation Policy, commented today on the Evergreen Point 520 Bridge replacement proposals being considered by the Governor.  

Relieving traffic congestion should be the overarching goal of whatever option is chosen for replacing the 520 floating bridge. The favored six-lane option will have little impact on reducing delay for commuters. 

The six-lane plan calls for two general-purpose lanes in each direction and a total reconfiguration of the Montlake interchange. The span across the lake will also include two High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, one for each direction of travel.

With the six-lane option, there is no increase in general purpose lanes compared to what is currently there today. As a result, the only influence on congestion would be the addition of the HOV lanes and the improvements to the Montlake interchange.

While the interchange expansion is a good start, it fails to address the bottlenecks at either end of the bridge or the mid-span chokepoints across the lake. There is simply not enough road capacity.

The addition of the HOV lanes will likely help public transportation by dedicating a lane for moving buses across the bridge span. Yet, as we have seen with other HOV lane projects, traffic congestion and delay will continue to rise.

"Transportation planners and decision makers should make congestion relief the objective and take this opportunity to fix one of the most notorious bottlenecks in the Puget Sound area,"� says Michael Ennis, director of the Center for Transportation Policy. "Ignoring the goal of congestion relief does nothing more than buy $4.3 billion dollars worth, and 50 more years of congestion. This means the same bottlenecks that exist today will continue to exist after replacing the bridge."

The public has had the opportunity to comment on replacement proposals, and that comment period is drawing to a close.  WPC's Center for Transportation Policy urges policymakers to examine the option that actually reduces congestion and not compromise on the plans that merely slow it down. The basis of state transportation policy should be returning freedom of movement to Washington citizens.