Anti-405 toll group launches online salvo against WSDOT

Published 3:30 pm Thursday, December 31, 2015

A community group opposed to the newly instituted Express Toll Lanes on Interstate 405 claims they were vindicated by a blog post from Washington State Department of Transportation, and are using the post as supposed proof the toll lanes were ill-advised.

Stop405Tolls.org cites a Nov. 18 post penned by the department’s toll spokesman Ethan Bergerson on WSDOT’s Blog in which traffic data is explored. WSDOT has since updated its data and claim the traffic rates are right on schedule.

The resulting information revealed that particularly on the weekends, traffic times have actually increased since the opening of the lanes in September.

“What drivers have been telling us is true – weekend congestion has increased since the I-405 express toll lanes opened,” Bergerson writes. “Based on data from October 3- November 8, travel times between Bellevue and Lynnwood are generally up to 5 minutes longer throughout the weekend, with up to a 10 minute increase northbound on Saturdays.”

WSDOT claims four major reasons are to blame for the increased times: Construction, sporting events, higher rainfall and a lack of people using the Express Toll Lanes.

Although through October only 36 percent of drivers using the Express Toll Lanes were in high occupancy vehicle mode, Bergerson said that number grew to 48 percent in November and 50 percent in the first half of December.

“It’s still lower than last year, but we are seeing the traffic volume increase in the express lanes,” he said.

David Hablewitz, one of seven members of Stop405Tolls’ leadership team, wrote a response to Bergerson’s post, claiming those excuses weren’t going to cut it.

In his estimation, construction impact on traffic would be eased if general purpose lanes could be shifted to the Express Toll Lanes when some lanes are closed. WSDOT has been mixed in its approach to the issue ‑ at times allowing drivers to shift lanes to avoid construction or accidents, and other times charging a huge premium rate to use the lanes to get around a wreck in the toll lanes.

Bergerson responded to this point.

“Our goal is always to keep traffic moving and maintain reliable options for drivers,” he wrote in an email. “Our policy is to open the I-405 express toll lanes to all traffic when it’s necessary to keep to traffic moving if construction or traffic incidents require us to close one or more lanes. We consider the time of day, location, and how many lanes are being closed in order to estimate the impact on other lanes. If we predict that it will cause significant congestion in the regular lanes, we open the express toll lanes to all traffic for free. Whenever possible, we also do our best to schedule construction at times that will have the lowest impact on traffic and reliability.”

As for weather, Bergerson cited weather history reports to show that there was three times as much precipitation this year over 2014 during the same six-weekend period.

This also didn’t pass muster for Hablewitz.

“Yes, we have had rain. But this is nothing new,” he writes. “Yet the congestion we are seeing now is worse than other wet weekends and the congestion happens even when the skies are clear and the pavement is dry! Who can ever remember a 5 mile stop-and-stop traffic backup on I-405 on the weekend due to rain?!”

Stop405Tolls currently has a petition to repeal the tolling between Lynnwood and Bellevue with more than 27,000 signatures, and Hablewitz didn’t mince words when it comes to his disdain for the Express Toll Lanes.

The people understand that building and maintaining roads is not free. But we also know that tolling is a terribly inefficient and ineffective method to collect revenue and a stupid way to provide “congestion management,” he writes.  “The People see the lack of leadership, expertise and vision that is proposing such absurd solutions.”

WSDOT claims the lanes will work once drivers adapt.

“We’ve always said that it takes 6 months to a year for drivers to adjust to the changes,” Bergerson writes. “And this is especially true for weekend drivers who may travel or carpool on I-405 less frequently and have had fewer trips then daily commuters to adjust to the changes.”