It's just as likely many people will view a couple of days worth of light volume on I-5 as a signal to go back to their old commuting habits, and the predicted gridlock will begin to evince itself by the end of the week.

next week, erica will prove that just because she didn't need anesthesia for her deductive reasoning lobotomy, all surgical patients should go without.

I figured this would be a Y2K-type issue.

We can get by without the damn viaduct. People adjust.

Sure: how about Tacoma? Wouldn't that be a better way to get out of West Seattle, if you just started working in Tacoma? 'Cause, you know, the rest of us are getting sick of hearing about it.

It's just that I'm with #16.

It's August, a lot of people are on vacation and like many of the comments above state we'll have to wait and see what happens over the next 19 days. A lot of people are willing to make significant adjustments for a week or two. A decade or two are a different matter.

As for the ECB/Moon/Savage Parkway along our working waterfront, I'm still opposed unless it connects into the Battery Street Tunnel. People do adjust to conditions but I don't see the logic in making people absolutely miserable for decades because you, Erica and others want a park along a working waterfront.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003834452_websounder13m.html

it's not that hard!!

So what if people "come back" tomorrow? Then it will suck, and people won't come back on Wednesday again.

Now, if there's a major event in Seattle like a sports game happening, that will be the last true test left. Otherwise, I'll really proud of greater Seattle right now. :)

Also, it's been less than one workday. People switched over to Marginal Way and Airport Way, clogged those avenues up, and given the relative calm on I-5 is now becoming common knowledge, let's see if drivers migrate back onto the narrowed highway, and if that will affect matters.

Also, there is a Mariners game at 7 pm tonight, and tomorrow and through the rest of the week, and that traffic hasn't come in yet.

So let's not call it a roaring success just yet.

Sorry if I like to talk about the lack of transportation infrastructure for Seattle's largest neighborhood. Especially when contractors are allowed to build 4 townhomes in backyards now.

To insist on better public transport in one neighborhood should implicitly imply public transport is improved in all neighborhoods.

But hey, I'll keep my dollars in the Westside or down south. I've got no problem with that.

Besides, this shows why we *need* the Viaduct, or some other redundant north/south link. How are the buses getting into Seattle without I-5? The Viaduct! What happens if we have to close I-5 and the Viaduct isn't there?

People stayed home. EOD. They can't stay home forever.

Earth to Judah:

If you're tired of hearing about West Seattle, *you* move to Tacoma.

And it would have cost less than 1/10th what we're going to waste on the Viaduct rebuild.

BTW Dan, are you opposed to the new viaduct over the ship canal that is part of the 10 lane 520?

These ideas work until they stop working; the problem is that we have no idea where we are on the curve. Maybe the viaduct is pointless, maybe it's crucial, but we'd have no way of knowing before we removed it. The responses to temporary closures sure have not been promising though.

Ha!

zzxy: Denser areas with fewer roads and more rapid transit can and do have populations where more than half the people don't own cars. Right now the average rate of car ownership in the city of Seattle runs to something like 16%. We've got plenty of curve left to cover.

The top 10 include the metropolitan areas included New York City (with 42 percent of residents with no car), Jersey City (30 percent), Waterbury, Conn. (16 percent), New Orleans(14 percent), Philadelphia (13 percent), Newark (12 percent), San Francisco (12 percent), Chicago (11 percent) and Los Angeles (11 percent).

http://www.bikesatwork.com/carfree/carfree-census-database.html