For weeks now, local TV and radio reports have raised the flags and rung the alarm bells about the impending commuter doom that is about to befall Puget Sound. According to King 5, the gridlock begins at 10PM! That's right, I-5 will undergo some construction, which will restrict the number of northbound lanes. This will carry on for 19 days, and is predicted to snarl traffic, cause people to inconsolably weep as they're stuck in traffic, and turn our fair region into an imitation of a parking lot.
With so much hooplah about this closure, I have to think: is this more bark than bite? Perhaps it will be, given the attention it's been given. After all, if lots of people hear about it, get scared, and figure out alternate ways to get around, total demand on the road falls, hopefully within acceptable ranges. To put it another way, if the throughput is reduced by half on the road, but then half the normal commuters take alternate routes or don't drive at all (because they've been driven to that out of fear of being stuck for days out on the interstate), it may not be as bad as predicted.
I'm sure that's part of the plan, namely getting fewer people to use the narrower road. The rest is just predictions and assumptions. I'm sure there'll be times when traffic is worse. But I also think it's been way too hyped up. Chalk it up to another thing that the news media can easily report on, that affects everyone, but ultimately may not be that big of a deal.
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