Seattle Traffic

Danny Westneat has noticed that traffic in Seattle appears to be getting worse:

People who study the psychology of commuting theorize that once daily travel times reach an upper limit, people start to break. Other than a few hardy super-commuters, most people will move, change jobs or begin loudly agitating for political change rather than keep up with the self-torture.

Is Seattle about to break? Feels like it. If so, would we finally try to do something about the traffic?

Surely no one is surprised.

The good news will be if, yes, people are about to break and start moving or changing jobs.

Will agitation for political change will lead to improvements? Unlikely, but possible.

But not if the change he is advocating is limited to changing the car pool lane restrictions from two to three occupants. That is little more than a small bandaid on a massively broken system of which the transportation system is just one of the consequences.

Rather, fundamental structural changes are required and there will be no easy fix.