Seattle, Washington, United States
Seattle/Lake Washington Corridor Urban Partnership Agreement: National Evaluation Report
Summary Information
In 2006, the U.S. DOT initiated the UPA (Urban Partnership Agreement) program to demonstrate congestion reduction through strategies consisting of combinations of the 4Ts: Tolling, Transit, Telecommuting/TDM, and Technology. The Seattle/LWC UPA projects focused on reducing traffic congestion on SR 520 between I-405 and I-5, a heavily-traveled, east-west commuter route across Lake Washington. The lake separates Seattle from the eastern suburbs (including Bellevue and Redmond). These strategies included tolling all lanes of the SR 520 bridge, adding bus service in the SR 520 corridor, implementing active traffic management systems, and real-time traveler information signs on highways and at transit stops and stations. The suite of projects had a combined benefit-to-cost ratio of 1.76 due to travel time savings and reduced emissions.
Findings
A key driver of adding tolls to the existing SR 520 bridge was to generate revenue for a replacement bridge. The SR 520 tolls generated $54,879,495 in 2012 during the 2012 post-deployment period.