Entrances to HOV and express lanes tough to decipher
"I have lived here for 12 years," Nelson says, "and don't use the express lanes because I haven't figured them out. Does WSDOT offer a special decoder ring?"
Specifically, complains Nelson, the entrance for Interstate 5 at Fifth Avenue and Cherry Street does not tell motorists what freeway it is or the direction of travel. The high-occupancy-vehicle lane entrance at Fourth Avenue South and Interstate 90, as well as the one at Bellevue Way Southeast and I-90 in Bellevue, does not indicate the freeway name or direction of travel.
Matt Beaulieu, DOT's northwest region traffic engineer, agrees there is a problem with the signing at those ramps and that they can be improved. There are no plans to replace the signs, but when they are replaced, DOT wants ones that eliminate confusion.
"The first thing to consider is that you can't treat entrances to the express lanes like any other entrance to a regular freeway," Beaulieu said. "It helps to remember that each set of express lanes was designed with specific groups of commuters in mind. From outside of Seattle, any express-lane entrance will bring you into Seattle, and from within Seattle, the ramps for I-5 will bring you north and the I-90 ramps will bring you east."
On Nelson's specific questions, Beaulieu said the entrance to the express lanes at Fifth Avenue and Cherry Street is for northbound traffic only. As for the one at Fourth Avenue South and I-90, the entrance is actually at Fifth Avenue South and Airport Way South and is the only entrance to the I-90 express lanes from city streets.
John Ray, from Lake Forest Park, writes that the northbound exit from I-5 to Northeast 175th Street in Shoreline has been changed and cars are no longer allowed to turn east onto 175th when the light is red.
"Who made this change and what was the basis for it?" asks Ray. "This was a very poor decision. It is extremely frustrating to have to wait to turn right when most of the time there is no eastbound traffic coming."
Also, said Ray, the southbound I-5 entrance from westbound Northeast 175th Street was changed.
The left-turn yield sign that previously allowed motorists to turn left onto the freeway has been removed. "Now we must sit and wait forever until the light finally turns green," Ray said.
Brian Nielsen, DOT's construction-project engineer, said the state last year widened Northeast 175th Street under the freeway, better managing traffic flow entering and leaving the freeway as well as the east-west traffic on Northeast 175th. He said free right turns on red are no longer permitted coming off the freeway because of sight-distance problems.
He said 175th runs at an angle underneath I-5 and people wanting to turn right cannot see far enough back to safely make a right turn. An oncoming vehicle at full speed would not have enough reaction time to avoid hitting them.
Westbound on Northeast 175th, the light to southbound I-5 has been changed to a green arrow instead of a yield-on-green light. Nielsen said several factors went into this change: increased traffic volume, more accidents, and it was becoming an east-west bottleneck.
The green arrow was installed to stop people from pulling into the intersection. There are two through lanes eastbound, and those at the light can't see both sets of cars.
Got questions about the area roadways? Drop us a line.
Bumper Crop
Car thefts are continuing to rise in Washington state. According to a National Insurance Crime Bureau report, 39,370 vehicles were stolen in the state in 2002, a 5 percent increase from 2001.
The report found 108 vehicles were stolen each day last year, one every 13 minutes. More vehicles were stolen in November than in any other month, 3,695.
Nationwide, Seattle ranks ninth in vehicle thefts. Almost all of the top-10 cities are in or near ports or near the Canadian or Mexican border. (The top cities for car theft are Phoenix and Miami.)
The most popular targets in Washington state? The Honda Civic, followed by the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Toyota pickup and Acura Integra.
If you need more evidence of Washington's tanking economy, look at the latest statistics put out by the Allied Van Lines moving company. It found that in 2002, more of its Washington state customers moved out of the state than in: 3,427 of the 6,614 total shipments were outbound, or 52 percent leaving to 48 percent coming.
That's a change from the previous year, when 55 percent of relocations were into the state, the 12th-highest in the country.
According to Allied, this is the first year since 1990 that it had more outbound than inbound business in the state.
To contact Bumper to Bumper, e-mail us at bumper@seattletimes.com or call Susan Gilmore at 206-464-2054.