Modeled travel behavior changes in metropolitan Seattle, WA, USA in response to introduction of bridge tolls and other alternatives

Modeled Travel Behavior Changes in Metropolitan Seattle, WA, USA In Response to Introduction of Bridge Tolls and Other Alternatives Major water bodies predominate in the Seattle metropolitan region, including Lake Washington, which separates the City of Seattle from eastside cities including Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond. Two principal multi-lane highways cross Lake Washington east-west on floating bridges, linking Seattle and the eastside communities. The State Route 520 Bridge is under design for replacement and tolls will be introduced to provide financing for the new infrastructure. The subject of the study is a travel demand modeling analysis conducted by staff of the City of Bellevue, WA, USA subsequent to the City's development of an updated model with a transit patronage forecasting capability. Cross-lake travel was an important consideration in validating the model, and results offer insights into the effects of planned policy changes on cross-lake travel behavior, including shifts from Single Occupant Vehicles to Carpooling, to Bus and Light Rail Transit (LRT), and from the tolled SR 520 to the parallel non-tolled Interstate-90 facility. The results suggest significant trip diversion to the parallel non-tolled alternative freeway, but also improved travel efficiencies, with increases in car pooling and transit ridership. In addition, the analysis identified a positive transit ridership effect from establishing five feeder bus routes to serve planned new LRT stations in Bellevue. Since the featured modeling work was completed, funding has been secured and implementation has progressed on both the bridge replacement and LRT extension projects based on separate, but comparable regional forecasting tools. The presentation will cover the modeling results, demonstrating the effect of tolling vs. other alternatives. [Featuring results from the Bellevue-Kirkland-Redmond EMME/2 model, prepared by City of Bellevue, WA, USA.] Co-authors: Jinxiang Ren, PE, Judith Clark and Kris Liljeblad, AICP, PTP