Top traffic nightmares in Thurston County range from merging madness to roundabouts

Almost nothing can flare tempers and raise blood pressure quite like traffic.

And as the late comedian George Carlin once quipped, “Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?”

Prompted by a resident’s request to educate the public about the proper way to merge into one lane, The Olympian recently asked readers to share their biggest gripes about driving in Thurston County.

Readers had no shortage of responses, which ranged from impossible left turns and clogged freeway ramps to deep potholes, poorly placed signs and aggressive lead-foots.

The most passionate complaints focused on the merging problems on southbound U.S. Highway 101 in the Steamboat Island area, the traffic congestion in the Hawks Prairie area, and the roundabouts scattered across the county. In this story, The Olympian takes a closer look at two of these issues, as well as an upcoming project in Thurston County that could set a statewide template for solving a common traffic problem.

Zipper merge blues

Sometimes it’s better for drivers to be rude.

One example in Thurston County is the spot where southbound U.S. 101 shrinks from two lanes to one lane at the state Route 8 underpass.

During morning rush hour, traffic typically backs up in the left lane, but the right lane stays clear because of signs that indicate the lane is ending.

This causes drivers to scramble into the congested left lane. Drivers who pass in the empty right lane, however, often irritate those who are inching along in the left lane.

Some say a “zipper merge” can help eliminate this frustrating scenario and increase traffic flow. With this technique, drivers fill both lanes and take turns moving ahead at the point where both lanes become one lane, similar to the way the teeth of a zipper fit together.

Drivers may be reluctant to travel up the right lane and merge at the last moment because it comes across as cutting in line — but that’s exactly what drivers are supposed to do, transportation officials say.

“If everybody used both lanes, nobody would look rude,” said Claudia Bingham Baker, spokeswoman for the Washington State Department of Transportation. “The sense of frustration around merging is not unique to this location.”

Mark Messinger, who has lived on the Steamboat Peninsula for 16 years, wants signs that tell drivers to use the zipper merge at the Route 8 underpass just south of Steamboat Island Road.

He said some hostile drivers will straddle the center line to block other vehicles from passing on the right. Some vehicles will slow down in an effort to join the left lane, while other drivers zoom past on the right shoulder.

For his morning commute, Messinger said he prefers to steer clear of road rage.

“I’ve seen logging trucks take umbrage to people driving in the right lane,” he said. “I usually don’t like to get into fights with people.”

Messinger isn’t alone in his concerns about safety and congestion in that area. In a January blog post, the Griffin Neighborhood Association called for signs that notify drivers to use a zipper merge at the underpass.

Construction crews have installed temporary signs at sites around the state that urge motorists to use both lanes and take turns at the merge point during backups.

But after conducting traffic counts at the Route 8 underpass, WSDOT officials determined that congestion is limited to peak commuting times on weekday mornings — from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. — and that permanent zipper merge signs are not necessary, Baker said.

Steve Kim, traffic engineer for WSDOT, said the state has no official system or setup for zipper merges, such as signs. Kim also said it’s difficult to enforce proper zipper merging, identify violations or determine fault in an accident because “it’s hard to assign right away who was there first.”

In other words, when it comes to zipper merges at the Route 8 underpass or any similar point during peak commuting times, drivers are on their own.

“For the rest of the day, drivers just move to left when possible,” he said. “Merging problems don’t exist 24 hours a day.”

Do the roundabout

Roundabouts cannot eliminate collisions, but love them or hate them, these circular traffic junctions have been proved to reduce injuries from collisions.

In 2004, Olympia opened its first two roundabouts at the west end of the downtown bridges at Fourth and Fifth avenues. The roundabouts connect the roads to West Bay Drive, Olympic Way and Harrison Avenue.

The area had been reconfigured after the 2001 Nisqually earthquake closed the Fourth Avenue bridge. The previous year, when there were traffic lights at the intersection, nine accidents were reported, with seven resulting in injuries, according to The Olympian’s archives.

Since 2010, the roundabout at the Fourth Avenue bridge has seen 105 collisions total — including one non-injury collision so far in 2017, according to collision data from WSDOT.

That’s an average of about 13 a year. Out of all those collisions, 27 have resulted in injuries, for an average of about 3 per year. In that time, the highest number of injury collisions reported in one year was seven in 2011, with one considered a “minor injury” and six classified as “possible injury.”

WSDOT reports that roundabouts reduce overall collisions by 37 percent, reduce injury collisions by 75 percent, reduce fatal crashes by 90 percent and reduce pedestrian collisions by 40 percent. These reductions are attributed to lower speeds in the roundabout while almost eliminating the possibility of a T-bone collision or head-on crash, which are more likely to cause injuries.

In a roundabout, drivers don’t need to wait through traffic lights, nor do they need to speed up to avoid a red light at an intersection.

But while WSDOT reports that roundabouts are designed to be safer for pedestrians than traditional intersections, not all pedestrians would agree.

Olympia resident Thomas Carver said the roundabouts at Fourth and Fifth avenues make his heart race — and that drivers plow through the roundabouts with little regard to pedestrians and bicycles in the crosswalks.

“If I’m walking down the hill along Harrison and want to cross West Bay, I can’t tell you how many times the drivers on West Bay never look to the right to see me,” he told The Olympian. “When it’s dark, it becomes even more dangerous.”

According to an informal survey of Olympian readers, a common complaint is that drivers don’t follow the basic navigation rules of roundabouts: Slow down and yield to other vehicles in the circle. Don’t stop in the roundabout. Don’t try to pass large trucks or trailers while in the roundabout.

A future roundabout may solve some traffic problems at another frustrating location identified by Olympian readers: The intersection of Carpenter Road and Mullen Road, just outside the southeast edge of Lacey.

WSDOT data show that collisions are not as much of an issue at the Carpenter-Mullen intersection — just three noninjury collisions were reported in 2016, and no collisions have been reported this year. However, traffic has been an issue with nearly 10,000 vehicles passing through the intersection daily, according to Thurston County.

Construction of a roundabout at the intersection is expected to begin in late 2018 or early 2019 and last about two years, according to Matt Unzelman, senior civil engineer with Thurston County.

The roundabout is the centerpiece of a $6 million construction project to improve the nearly 1-mile stretch of Mullen Road that runs from Carpenter Road into Lacey city limits. The project will add bike lanes, sidewalks and street lights on both sides of the road, while left-turn lanes will be added at Rumac Street and Glen Terra Drive.

However, the improvements do not include the train trestle that passes over Mullen about a half-mile east of the intersection, Unzelman said. The trestle is owned by BNSF Railway and is frequently struck by trucks because of its 12-foot clearance. Unzelman confirmed that BNSF has no plans to address the site at this time.

In any case, the future construction project is expected to increase safety along Mullen Road for drivers as well as pedestrians, especially for students walking to and from nearby Timberline High School and Lakes and Woodland elementary schools.

As reader Kelli Campos noted on The Olympian’s Facebook page: “I think it’s really unsafe for the students — especially in the dark winter months.”

Diamonds: A driver’s best friend?

Hawks Prairie is one of the fastest-growing areas in Thurston County in terms of housing, commercial developments — and traffic.

The heart of Hawks Prairie is at Interstate 5 and Marvin Road/state Route 510, where the average daily traffic volume has steadily increased each year. The latest data from WSDOT show that at least 34,000 vehicles use this interchange in a 24-hour period, and that daily traffic on I-5 through this area increased by about 4,000 vehicles per day between 2014 and 2015.

However, relief is on the horizon — or at least on the opposite side of the road.

Plans are underway to build the state’s first “diverging diamond interchange,” also known as a DDI, at I-5 and Marvin Road. This concept requires vehicles to temporarily cross over to the left side of the road on the freeway overpass, allowing through-traffic and left turns to occur at the same time.

Unlike a traditional interchange, there are no separate left-turn signal phases with the DDI, and drivers don’t make left turns against oncoming traffic.

The DDI is designed to ease freeway access, improve traffic flow in the interchange, shorten wait times at traffic signals, and reduce collisions by as much as half, according to WSDOT.

Project engineer Kim Mueller said the state is modeling the Hawks Prairie project after the nation’s first DDI, which opened in 2009 in Springfield, Missouri. There are now 80 DDIs across the country.

So far, the concept has been touted as a success in Springfield, which now has five DDIs.

According to a 2016 report by the Springfield News-Leader, the interchanges have reduced overall crashes by 30 percent and have reduced injury crashes by 60 percent.

Construction at the Hawks Prairie interchange is expected to begin next summer and wrap up in the fall of 2020. WSDOT has reported a budget of $72 million for the project, but says the cost will likely come in around $40 million to $45 million.

The proposal comes at a time when multiple developments are moving forward in the vicinity, including an outlet mall near the Cabela’s outdoor store, a 700,000-square-foot warehouse to distribute medical supplies, a 204-unit apartment complex and more.

“The whole purpose of this job is to accommodate future growth,” WSDOT’s Baker said. “There will be significant traffic generation just from the new retail stores.”

WSDOT will launch a public education campaign when the DDI nears completion, Baker said. In the meantime, WSDOT has released a short video that explains the DDI and shows a computer-generated trip through the future interchange from a driver’s point of view.

This story was originally published March 25, 2017 at 6:04 AM with the headline "Top traffic nightmares in Thurston County range from merging madness to roundabouts."