Dear WSDOT,

Revive I-5 is well underway for the foreseeable future. For the many thousands of commuters who drive South from North of Seattle into town everyday, we BEG you, WSDOT -- please open the express lanes for a few hours in the morning to ease the massive traffic backup. 

Under normal conditions, the express lanes are open and heading south from 5am to 11am during the morning commute. During the afternoon commute, the lanes are reversed, and heading north from 11am - 11pm. This is because the state recognizes that the greatest flow of traffic deserves to have the extra lanes available to prevent and alleviate backup. 

Why would this sensible practice change during the road work? The answer we've gotten from WSDOT -- “It’s not as easy as flipping a switch to switch them, and so we found that it operates better if we maintain a consistent system rather than take them out of service in order to do the flip the switch back and forth,” Julie Meredith, head of WSDOT, recently told KIRO Newsradio. 

It's quite literally as easy as "flipping a switch." This is already done, twice daily! We understand that there may be disagreements about the best course forward, but why not try it for a few weeks and see how it goes? It certainly can't be any worse than it is now...which is horrible.

All the best!

Everyman