Traffic Armageddon for Husky Graduation Weekend

When the University of Washington graduation ends on Saturday afternoon, the freshly minted graduates will exit into an unforgiving world, one where they will find it hard to gain entry, will face difficult forward movement, and be the victim of scorn and ridicule. No, it’s not the U.S. economic climate. First, it’s the Montlake Boulevard graduation day traffic jam.

The SR 520/Pacific Avenue/Montlake intersection is one of the state’s least mobile traffic corridors. On normal days, the state rates traffic mobility an “F”, meaning no traffic flow, from about 7 to 10 a.m. and 3 to 7 p.m. (earlier and later on Fridays) and it’s a “D” other times of the day. Add in an estimated 40,000 graduates, families and hangers-on, and you have a traffic nightmare that only Jean-Luc Godard could love. Or even Jean-Luc Picard for that matter--the traumatic assimilation and final capitulation is definitely Borg-esque. Resistance to that kind of traffic is futile.

SDOT has issued a traffic advisory for the UW area that lasts from noon to 6 p.m. and also announced that Montlake Boulevard will be closed from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m., so getting from say eight-tenths of the city to the University Village to buy flip flops and $8,000 patio ensembles will basically end for the day. That’s okay. Those attending the graduation will take up all the Village parking spaces anyway.

The SDOT advisory--which also notes Friday's 25th Annual Fremont 5K Run and Briefcase Relay, Saturday's Sounders game, and Sunday's SPU graduation--adds that drivers should “plan on possible delays.” Ya think? Might as well plan on catching up on that pledge to read and finish Moby Dick or finally catching up on those wacky islanders by starting with the first episode of Lost and working your up to the present. Better yet, we hear Alki Beach will be nice on Saturday.