Traffic Q&A: Why I-5 has legal bicyclists and weekend traffic jams
Question 1: Every day, as I am commuting during rush-hour traffic, I often see bicyclists riding on Interstate 5 between Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Olympia. Are bicyclists allowed to ride on the freeway? If so, where can I find information on where they can ride and not ride? I am more concerned about the safety of the bicyclists because a car could hit them. — Ty R., Olympia
Question 2: Why is I-5 always so choked between Olympia and JBLM on weekends? It’s the weekend part that makes no sense to me. — Sean R., Puyallup
Answer: We’re handling both of these together because both questions cover the same stretch of asphalt. Unfortunately, one isn’t the answer to the other; I-5 doesn’t (always) crawl along because of a perpetual stream of bicyclists, even if their presence is sometimes a factor.
Although your correspondent previously endured a daily Tacoma-to-Olympia work commute, we never encountered this phenomenon in the wild, so we pressed Ty for details. He responded that the bicyclists appear to be commuters traveling solo, not racers assembling a clandestine and poorly-timed Tour de Nisqually peloton. He usually sees one or two cyclists on the shoulder of the freeway during the traditional evening 4-6 p.m. commuting hours, although he recently spotted a couple of soldiers biking out of the base gate at Exit 119 at 7 a.m.
“It sort of backs up traffic for the drivers in the right lane” who slow down to be cautious, Ty wrote.
The good news is that these folks are behaving quite legally, and in doing so they’re reducing their carbon footprints, saving gas money and getting more exercise than Joe Commuter over in the left lane. Washington is one of about a dozen western states that exercises its federally-granted prerogative to allow bicycles to use the freeway just like both our neighboring states. You can learn about other states’ laws from the League of American Bicyclists.
It does get confusing here: Bikes are only freeway-legal on specific parts of Washington’s interstates, though the Washington Department of Transportation’s web page on the topic only indicates the areas where they are not allowed. The freeway between the outer reaches of Tacoma and Olympia is pedal-friendly from Exit 124 down to Exit 109, which would get the soldiers Ty saw to within a third of a mile of Olympia’s easternmost city limit on I-5 under full legality.
Whether that’s the safest way to commute is a different question. State Patrol spokesman Trooper Guy Gill said there hasn’t been a fatal or otherwise serious accident involving an I-5 bicyclist in recent memory, which he largely attributes to the daily commuters who take the route being safety-conscious.
“That being said, I would advise bicyclists to consider other commuting options,” he added. “Believe me when I say it’s scary enough being on the side of I-5 having emergency lights and a patrol car protecting you.”
As to the clogged weekend traffic, we posed a follow-up query here as well, and no, Sean isn’t getting jammed up by weekend freeway bicyclists. According to the Department of Transportation, the crowd of fellow drivers vexing him these last few months was weekend travelers headed to and from summer destinations, many of them getaways to or from Seattle.
“Since the freeway approaches or reaches capacity during those times, even a minor fender-bender or a disabled vehicle can have lasting impacts on traffic,” WSDOT spokesman Doug Adamson wrote in an email.
Adamson said the addition of a new lane in each direction to I-5 around JBLM is expected to improve the situation — in a few years. In the meantime, the highways are built to monitor and help with congestion several ways, he said. Those ramp meters that regulate how many cars join the road do kick on anytime the highway’s congested, even on weekends. And traffic conditions can be checked online before you start out.
If you find the driving is truly abysmal and you don’t mind the aroma of exhaust, there’s always the option to make it a bike trip.
This story was originally published September 27, 2015 at 1:36 PM with the headline "Traffic Q&A: Why I-5 has legal bicyclists and weekend traffic jams."