Thinking about moving to Seattle? Wondering what the traffic is like around here? Before you look at homes on the internet, I strongly suggest you study the Transportation Layout of the Seattle Area.
Often where you live, involves which side of “the bridge” you work on. This Seattle Area Traffic map gives you an excellent broad overview of how you get to and from. Study the “black traffic clog points” on that map for a two week period at various times each day during that two week period. That will give you a pretty good idea of normal traffic patterns, except for the few times each year when the bridge is closed.
Take a long hard look at Lake Washington. It’s HUGE and worthy of due consideration as to how you are planning to get over or around it.
My perspective centers more around the 520 bridge, and around the north side of Lake Washington, with occasional travel over the 1-90 bridge. Locals always refer to this bridge as “The 520 Bridge”, but if you are looking for info on it, you will find it under “Evergreen Point Floating Bridge” in wikipedia, even though the name was officially changed to “The Governor Albert D. Rosselini Bridge-Evergreen Point” in 1988.
Sometimes people will simply say “the 520”, but more often they will say that when referring to the part of that road that is on The Eastside, vs the floating bridge portion of that “road” going over Lake Washington.
One of the reasons I decided to write on this today, is because I was reading updates to the Pontoon Construction Project posted on The Washington State Department of Transportation website. On a good day, travelling back and forth across the 520 Bridge is not a huge deal. On a bad day (when the bridge is closed or partially blocked by a stalled vehicle) one would have been wise to consider the alternative travel options, when deciding where to buy a home.
My general advice is to buy a home on the side of the bridge where you work, unless there is a really good reason not to do that. Very often my first question of someone who calls me about buying a home here in the Seattle Area, especially if they are moving here for a new job, is “Where are you going to be working?”
Ardell,
Some good points, though your posting seems to assume a commute via car. I’d add that if possible living within walking or biking distance of work is an excellent idea in general. Then you don’t really need to deal with traffic much at all.
Mass transit in Seattle can be a good option as well. The metro/bus system isn’t bad, and light rail is starting to go online. In West Seattle you even have the option of taking the water taxi from downtown (including year round starting I believe in January of 2010).
While not always completely accurate, I’d also recommend doing things like checking the “Walk Score” of areas people are considering:
http://www.walkscore.com/
The more people start to take these types of issues into account when looking for a place to live, the happier I think they’ll tend to be.
Thanks,
Gene
Thank you Gene. Feel free to add as much info as you like. I usually don’t get into the other issues until after we do “which side of Lake Washington” 🙂
A lot of my clients on the Eastside ride bikes to work. Some day I’d like them to outline their bike routes, that would be interesting.
I am more conscious of what I call “in and out” streets than “walkscore”. For families with children, I don’t like streets that come in from a main arterial and have just a few houses, with no where for children to go except out to the busy road.
Where I live in Kirkland, the City site has lots of good walk maps for just about every neighborhood, and even has easy, moderate and harder walk routes for exercise purposes.
I nice website which allows you to easily map and share you bike routes is:
link text
Hi Ardell,
I do lots of commute time to and from classes all over the greater Puget Sound area. I love living in South Snohomish County because it doesn’t matter where I need to go, there’s always an alternative route if the main routes are backed up, and a commuter can go around the top of Lake Washington and get to either Seattle or the eastside. There’s even alternatives to the alternatives!
Thanks Jillayne,
We have never been “stuck” either. Kim knows lots of backroads and when the bridge is not a good option, around the Lake and down Lake City Way works fine.
Mercer Island is the best way to hedge the where to live bet. I discovered this long ago in my architectural practice requiring me to be everywhere/anywhere at any time. Here’s a Google “knol” I’ve just written on the subject (Click) http://tinyurl.com/nkfsmp
Thanks Cam,
I’m wondering if the new 520 bridge plan has a bike route on it? Anyone know?
I stumbled upon this site while researching where to live if we relocate to Seattle area. I would love to be within walking or biking distance to the office, but I can’t afford it! Or rather, I can if I want to move into a much smaller, older home, with almost no lawn and neighbors nearly on top of me. Of course, I understand that housing options may be different in person than they appear online and when I have a professional realtor helping me. But so far, I am finding that I like the homes and lots a bit further out (the ones I like close-in are in the $BAZILLION range!).
Since I am only doing online looking around right now, I am relying on google maps and street-view, bing.com birds-eye view and posts like this one by R.E. professionals to check out neighborhoods.
I am so glad to be directed to this map so that I can see the traffic flow every day from the different neighborhoods in and around the area. I have relocated several times and this is the first time that I was made aware of this kind of thing. Even if we don’t move to Seattle, I will definitely look for a similar traffic monitoring map for anywhere else I may move!
I stumbled upon this site while researching where to live if we relocate to Seattle area. I would love to be within walking or biking distance to the office, but I can’t afford it! Or rather, I can if I want to move into a much smaller, older home, with almost no lawn and neighbors nearly on top of me. Of course, I understand that housing options may be different in person than they appear online and when I have a professional realtor helping me. But so far, I am finding that I like the homes and lots a bit further out (the ones I like close-in are in the $BAZILLION range!).
Since I am only doing online looking around right now, I am relying on google maps and street-view, bing.com birds-eye view and posts like this one by R.E. professionals to check out neighborhoods.
I am so glad to be directed to this map so that I can see the traffic flow every day from the different neighborhoods in and around the area. I have relocated several times and this is the first time that I was made aware of this kind of thing. Even if we don’t move to Seattle, I will definitely look for a similar traffic monitoring map for anywhere else I may move!
“I am so glad to be directed to this map…”
Thank you! Appreciate the positive feedback, and glad you found it to be helpful.
“I am so glad to be directed to this map…”
Thank you! Appreciate the positive feedback, and glad you found it to be helpful.
80% of the time I have found I90 to be better than 520 when crossing from the Eastside to Seattle. You need to consider all the Microsoft traffic traveling on 520 from Redmond and also 520 only has two lane with no shoulders if a car breaks down.
I heard that there is talk to start tolling I90 and 520. Anyone know any more info on that?
Excellent guide to traffic in Seattle. Should be helpful to lots of people. 🙂