During the opening week of the I-405 tolling scheme, collisions have more than doubled on the congested freeway compared to the same week in 2014. A total of 119 collisions occurred on I-405 between Canyon Park and Lynnwood, as compared to 48 collisions last year. MyNorthwest.com,
“The biggest issue related to the toll lanes seems to be the double white lines. Troopers stopped 372 cars — 222 of which illegally crossed the lines. Trooper Chris Webb says there is also some concern regarding drivers transitioning from the general purpose lanes to the toll lanes during peak travel times.
“‘My concern is that somebody is going to start … essentially from zero miles per hour to another lane going 60 to 65 miles per hour,’ he told Sullivan. ‘That’s not a good recipe. That’s going to have some huge impacts if there is a collision.’”
According to KIRO Radio’s Chris Sullivan, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has yet to review reports to discover the nature of the accidents. It’s unclear of whether or not the collusions were the “result of drivers crossing the double white lines when they weren’t supposed to, or if drivers were not slowing down soon enough to avoid rear-end collisions.”
WSDOT insists that the tolling scheme is improving travel times though accidents are up. The truth is that travel times remained near or below 2014’s weekday average. In an effort to deflect blame for what has been called a poorly planned layout, the agency points to the drivers’ learning curve as the cause of the increase in accidents.
It is never a design issue…..
The “Learning Curve” Delinquency is EMBEDDED in the Vacuum headed DOT..!
There was absolutely no reason to change 405 except for the state wanting more revenue. What was already a bad stretch of road, traffic wise, has been made 100% worse thanks to the DOT. Thanks a lot!!😡
What revenue? If I understand the revenue sharing plan, Washington keeps 30 cents and 70 cents goes to the Texas company running the show.
The WSDOT is 100% responsible for the confusion, traffic issues and accidents that have become worse because of these new lanes and procedures. Double lanes should be illegal to have on roads, they do not help when a driver needs to get off to get to an exit and there is a lot of traffic, drivers are having to stop or slow down significantly to merge into lanes of traffic that are slow moving or stopped to make an exit. But they are supposed to only merge over during a very small section of road. How is that making traffic better? The DOT did not think this one through very well!!! And for Washington State to only be earning $.30 per dollar is absolutely absurd!! You could have just added the new lanes and not charge commuters and added the new lines and guess what WSDOT???? You would have had better commute times, happier commuters and residents that actually have respect for what you are doing. But mismanaging the tax dollars of Washington state is uncalled for!!!!
WSDOT is one of many but probably the most ineffective worst run agency in WA. The agency has INCREASED our commute by 18 minutes. WSDOT’s phenomenal ability to make things worse is amazing. Time to clean house.
Washingtonians, QUIT voting damocrats. They are irresponsible, destructive, inept and they are not on your side. They are on their own side and they view you with contempt. WAKE up and take your state back.
Who is running for Governor against the whatever it is that currently occupies that position? We need someone with a brain and right soon.
I have to drive from job to job..Try getting OUT of Ballard at 7:30 in the morning..From Ballard to I-5 took me 33 minutes.. 3.5 miles and 33 minutes..The Mercer mess is worse than ever..Side streets north and South bound have a hard time getting onto Mercer..Notice the condos going in around all that? It will make it even worse..Used to be a law that a builder had to provide 7 spots for very 10 people..Some assaholic person in Government got it changed to 2 spots per 10 people..City of Seattle cares about one thing..TAXES and spending thousands of dollars painting frickin rainbows as sidewalks on Capitol hill. The “Smart” signs? another bunch of money thrown down the crapper..They are wrong most all the time and no one pays attention to them anyways..It may say 35MPH and people are dead stopped..Real “SMART” Washington..What, are you just providing work for someone who helps pay for your election campaigns? They cant get out of their own way and because of it, we cant get out of each others way
Boondoggle!
So true about the variable speed limit signs–COMPLETELY useless. Why do I need a multi-million dollar lighted sign telling me what a sea of brake lights has already made quite clear?
This is the stupidest of stupid ideas. This entire tolling scheme is horrible and 405 is a disaster. The money spent on the cameras and repainting and those horrible double white lines is completely wasted. I have never seen such a nightmare that didn’t have to be. Every crony that dreamed up and implemented this terrible idea should be voted out of office or kicked out. This is an imposition of insanity.