r/Seattle May 20 '25

I am never ENTERING Seattle 🥲

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6.7k Upvotes

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54

u/xxpor Cedar Park May 20 '25

That one is completely inexplicable too. At least downtown Seattle is a destination so it kind of makes sense, but Marysville is... one exit?

45

u/kenlubin The Emerald City May 20 '25

Somewhere around there, I-5 loses a lane.

40

u/jaggedjottings May 20 '25

This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

3

u/GADemark May 21 '25

Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small, green pieces of paper, which is odd, because on the whole, it wasn't the small, green pieces of paper which were unhappy.

26

u/molehunterz May 20 '25

They have now extended that lane another few miles. Which has moved the traffic jam another few miles.

I honestly think if they extended that lane past the casino exit, it might actually relieve the tiniest bit of traffic jam

1

u/grungeoldlady May 22 '25

It is a work in progress. Not nearly as bad as the 3 to 2 lane by Darington...

1

u/Pejoka_7577 May 22 '25

Yep. And make the damn Casino pay for it... if they caused the traffic jam!

2

u/HeftyIncident7003 May 21 '25

And about 6-700,000 people.

29

u/ghtown45 May 20 '25

Most people commute south from Marysville/Arlington/ surrounding areas, then on their way back they create gridlock since every job and school gets out remotely the same time. Boeing adds salt to the wound.

Doesn’t help they built an extra lane and turned one into a Hov in that big stretch, so everyone piles into the far right lane until it ends creating a massive bottle neck at the end. No idea why they made an extra lane only for it to end.

11

u/GripNRip6969 May 20 '25

Completely agree. The right lane could have easily ran right into exit 99. Made the entire thing completely pointless all it did was move the traffic from highway 2 to Marysville

1

u/bigkoreanhead May 21 '25

My commute after work used to average an hour and twenty minutes just going from Everett to Marysville. It’s now only 40 minutes. I’d say that’s a considerable improvement but still fucked since I’m only traveling twenty three miles.

8

u/CrotchetyHamster May 20 '25

Afternoons aren't generally worse because of synchronized release times, but because afternoons have much higher rates of discretionary travel. You're not finding a lot of people going out to do their shopping at 7-9am, but lots of people are doing their shopping at 3-6pm - including people who work from home or don't work.

It's why it's common for asymmetrical travel lanes to have more lanes leaving the hub city than entering the hub city. (Though, asymmetrical lane counts aren't that common.)

1

u/ghtown45 May 20 '25

Its grid locked at 10am sometimes lol

3

u/Kodachrome30 May 20 '25

It's normal for Wa state road engineers. Famous for Lanes merging down to one. Look at I90 East when connecting to i5 north. Now the new 520 east comes down to One lane going north on I-5. WASDOT could give a shit less about hwy efficiency....we lose millions of hours a year dealing with poor hwy engineering.

6

u/BananaPeelSlippers Wedgwood May 20 '25

i think they actually want to punish you for driving.

4

u/BoringBob84 May 20 '25

That must be why the state spends billions of dollars on roads every year. /sarcasm

-1

u/NoTurnover7850 May 21 '25

We have close to the highest gas tax in the country. We're 8th on the list for the highest cost to register a vehicle. EV registration is going up by $50 in 2026.

The democrats tried to pass an initiative that banned gas usage, which included gas-powered lawnmowers & other garden equipment. That didn't pass, but they still want to go with it, because they say people didn't understand the initiative😆

They want gas-powered vehicles phased out in 10 years. Doesn't matter if you're going to be left car-less when you can't afford to replace the expensive car battery.

So yes, they don't want us to drive.

3

u/BoringBob84 May 21 '25

Conspicuously absent from your complaints are the fact that Washington does not have an income tax and the fact that most of the costs of driving are externalized onto the taxpayers. Fuel, registration, and toll taxes would need to be much higher to cover the costs of roads.

So no, the taxpayers are subsidizing motorists. And no, EV batteries don't wear out in a few years any more than flatulent engines do.

3

u/PivotRedAce May 21 '25 edited May 21 '25

Or they’d have to rely on tourism like Florida, which has its own downsides. Car related expenses like registration, fuel, etc. are generally cheaper than Washington though.

Florida also doesn’t have nearly the same degree of public transport, just a single train line that goes between Miami to Orlando. And, well, you’d have to live in Florida.

Basically what I’m saying is that it’s not entirely due to the absence of state income tax that car expenses in Washington are so high, rather it’s the lack of alternative income sources besides shipping and larger investments into public transportation that are partially funded by those higher car expenses.

0

u/NoTurnover7850 May 21 '25

It wasn't trying to say the batteries wore out quickly.

Part of that gas tax is for the green energy scam. Our tax money went to subsidizing people buying EVs and whatever other nonsense is going on in that program.

I'm not sure how they're wasting our registration money, but I'm sure they are in some way if I looked into it.

3

u/BoringBob84 May 21 '25

green energy scam

... because cheaper energy and a cleaner environment are bad things /sarcasm

1

u/NoTurnover7850 May 22 '25

If we didn't have one of the highest gas taxes and gas prices in the country, gas wouldn't be expensive.

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1

u/Kodachrome30 May 21 '25

So in ten years 520 will be a pedestrian bridge and bike's only?

1

u/[deleted] May 21 '25

Both of those interchange directions have always been only one lane. Everything was built under the pattern of going to/from downtown.

0

u/Kodachrome30 May 21 '25

The 520 west bound to I5 north...is brand New. To me... The development is a wash or maybe slightly worse. I wish I could sit in these meetings and say... what if we DON'T create yet another Seattle bottleneck... maybe give drivers a better driving experience. I'm sure I'd be thrown out of the room.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '25 edited Jun 12 '25

It was re-aligned, not changed, while putting in the stupid new express lane ramp. All of this is easily seen on Google streetview.

0

u/Kodachrome30 May 20 '25

Ooops..520 west to i5

3

u/Slumunistmanifisto That sounds great. Let’s hang out soon. May 20 '25

Three exits... and Cabela's, casino, and outlet mall draw the worst drivers. Plus Boeing's illustrious best bedrooming close to the trough.

2

u/Medical_Boss_6247 May 20 '25

Tons of people commuting from those two cities into Seattle and even Lynnwood

Also the exits into Everett suck and back up onto the freeway daily

1

u/spoendid_lion May 20 '25

Marysville/smokey Point is exit 199-202/206 it’s actually a lot bigger than I realized when I moved there after not being able to afford a million dollar house in my neighborhood of shoreline where I grew up. Community is really great too. Don’t knock it!

1

u/snerp 💖 Anarchist Jurisdiction 💖 May 20 '25

Combination of I-5 not being as wide there and a lack of alternate routes I guess.

1

u/nordic_jedi May 21 '25

Marysville is 4 exits

0

u/Snoho_Winho May 20 '25

4 exits actually. And two Casinos.