Central Puget Sound Interstate 90 - Commute times


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Commute times for the I-90 corridor in the central Puget Sound region.

Commute times

This page displays average (mean) and reliable (95th percentile) morning and evening peak commute times for weekday trips on I-90 between Seattle and Issaquah, and Issaquah and Bellevue. The average peak commute times indicate how long it took, on average, to make that trip during the worst part of the morning (or evening) commute in a given year. The reliable peak commute time shows how much time someone traveling during the worst part of the morning or evening commute would have to allow for their trip in order to arrive at their destination on time on 19 out of 20 days. For details on the methodology used to calculate commute times, see WSDOT's Handbook for Corridor Capacity Evaluation (PDF 5.9MB)

Highway capacity constraints vary based on the presence of managed lanes and multimodal travel options; the I-90 corridor is served by transit buses and HOV lanes.

Sources: WSDOT Transportation Safety and Systems Analysis Division and WSDOT TRACFLOW (https://tracflow.wsdot.wa.gov/)
Note: Transit travel time data was not collected for 2018 due to a pause in publication while WSDOT conducted an engagement process to inform the redesign of this dashboard. Commute times are rounded to the nearest minute.


Multi-year trends

In 2022, commute times continued to increase, due to the ongoing recovery of traffic volume in the wake of COVID-19. However, commute times in 2022 were still better than the pre-pandemic levels.

In 2020, due to the statewide response to COVID-19 there was a significant decrease in commute times on both GP and HOV lanes compared to previous years. 

From 2018 through 2019, the central Puget Sound region experienced substantial economic growth and increases in employment, which resulted in more commuters. During this time, rapidly increasing housing prices caused many Washingtonians in this region to move further from their workplaces to find affordable housing; many of these people commute on I-90.

Annual highlights

In 2022, commute times slightly worsened compared to 2021, but were still better than the pre-pandemic levels. The 9-mile trip from Issaquah to Bellevue in the GP lanes on I-90 during the peak morning commute took an average of 12 minutes—three minutes more than the nine minutes it would have taken to travel the same route at the posted speed limit, and 4 minutes below the reliable travel time of 16 minutes. The average travel time for the same commute in the HOV lane was 11 minutes (with a reliable travel time of 13 minutes).

In 2021, commute times in some commte routes slightly worsened compared to 2020, due to the recovery on traffic volume, but were still better than the prepandemic levels. The 9-mile trip from Issaquah to Bellevue in the GP lanes on I-90 during the peak morning commute took an average of 11 minutes—two minutes more than the nine minutes it would have taken to travel the same route at the posted speed limit, and 4 minutes below the reliable travel time of 15 minutes. The average travel time for the same commute in the HOV lane was 11 minutes (with a reliable travel time of 13 minutes).

In 2020, due to the statewide response to COVID-19 there was significant decrease in commute times on both GP and HOV lanes compared to previous years. The 10-mile trip from Issaquah to Bellevue in the GP lanes on I-90 during the peak morning commute took an average of 11 minutes—two minutes more than the nine minutes it would have taken to travel the same route at the posted speed limit, and 8 minutes below the reliable travel time of 19 minutes. The average travel time for the same commute in the HOV lane was 11 minutes (with a reliable travel time of 14 minutes).

In 2019, the 10-mile trip from Issaquah to Bellevue in the GP lanes on I-90 during the peak morning commute took an average of 18 minutes—more than two times than the nine minutes it would have taken to travel the same route at the posted speed limit, and 9 minutes below the reliable travel time of 27 minutes. In contrast, the average travel time for the same commute in the HOV lane was 13 minutes (with a reliable travel time of 15 minutes). The average travel time to make this trip by transit was 39 minutes, with a reliable travel time of 51 minutes.

In 2018, the 10-mile trip from Issaquah to Bellevue in the GP lanes on I-90 during the peak morning commute took an average of 17 minutes—eight minutes more time than the nine minutes it would have taken to travel the same route at the posted speed limit, and seven minutes below the reliable travel time of 24 minutes. In contrast, the average travel time for the same commute in the HOV lane was 13 minutes (with a reliable travel time of 15 minutes).

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