SEATTLE — Expect a longer commute beginning next year if you drive to work. Amazon employees will soon be required to return to the office five days a week, putting thousands more cars on the roads.
"If you drive around here, you know that the traffic is really, really gnarly," said Joe Fedota.
There are many words that drivers use to describe traffic in western Washington.
"Congested, chaotic," said Fedota.
"Gridlock is the best way I can describe it because there's going to be a lot more traffic and you're going to have to sit in traffic for more than you want to," said Cathy Johnson.
Amazon said it has about 55,000 employees at its Seattle campus and an additional 10,000 in Bellevue and the eastside. Employees have already been coming into the office at least three times a week since last May. But now the corporate giant is tacking on two more days.
"I'm really curious to see what happens,” said Ryan Avery, the deputy director of the Washington State Transportation Center at the University of Washington. “But I think it will be challenging for traffic."
He believes this will add to the already busy roads and highways around the sound, especially during rush hour on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
"Wider peaks for the rush hour,” said Avery. “We used to be bad for three hours, now it's bad for five. Sometimes it's bad all day."
Avery said this new Amazon policy comes at a bad time. The East Link light rail station over Lake Washington set to connect the eastside to Seattle will still be under construction. There will also be Revive I-5 projects underway as more commuters hit the roads in spring.
"As we move toward April and May when they (WSDOT) start looking at those two lane closures at I-5, we may have a lot of backed up traffic, a lot of congestion, a lot of pain for commuters," said Avery.
As they brace for what's to come. "I think it's going to cause a lot more stress and a lot more problems," said Johnson.