Highway congestion in the Seattle area overall was up 22 percent in 2016.
That's according to the latest WSDOT report on the state of our roads network. That network is challenged — as are we all — with the consequences of Seattle’s jobs and population explosion.
The latest snapshot captures 2014 to 2016. Half of all the congestion delay was on I-5. It got 29 percent worse in the two-year period, costing us 4.8 million hours of collective wasted time.
In the Seattle area, the most jobs are being created in the core around Amazon and downtown.
But you have to be able to get there. And for people who live in Pierce and Snohomish counties, more of these jobs are moving beyond reach because of congestion. It is harder to get to Seattle from these places and harder to get back. And while people are still doing these killer commutes, it's getting harder.
According to the state, people near joint Base Lewis-McChord and people living north of Everett are being hammered the hardest by long commutes.
Some commuters do have it all, though. People who live in downtown Bellevue have 1.3 million jobs within half an hour’s drive.
