Central Puget Sound State Route 520 - Commute times
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Commute times for the SR 520 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 SR 520 between Seattle and Redmond, and Redmond and Bellevue.
The average peak commute times indicates 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 SR 520 corridor is served by transit buses and HOV lanes.
Sources: WSDOT Transportation Safety and Systems Analysis Division, WSDOT TRACFLOW (https://tracflow.wsdot.wa.gov/), Community Transit, King Country Metro and Sound Transit.
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, travel times in most locations on SR 520 worsened compared to 2021 due to the ongoing recovery of traffic volume in the wake of COVID-19.
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 to 2019, travel times on the most congested commutes on the SR 520 corridor improved; while travel times on less congested commutes mostly held steady. This is likely due to the opening of the HOV lanes on the new SR 520 floating bridge on Lake Washington in April 2016.
Traffic on this corridor is heavily influenced by congestion on the major north/south routes: I-5 and I-405. If these routes are congested, traffic will back up onto SR 520, resulting in increased travel times.
The SR 520 Evergreen Point Floating Bridge portion was tolled in both directions from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. in all five years. Tolling on the SR 520 bridge was implemented to fund the new floating bridge, which opened with an HOV lane in each direction in spring 2016. For detailed information on the tolling of the SR 520 floating bridge, see SR 520 Bridge Tolling | WSDOT (wa.gov)
Annual highlights
In 2022, the travel times on SR 520 slightly worsened compared to 2021. The 13-mile trip from Redmond to Seattle in the GP lanes on SR 520 during the peak evening commute took an average of 26 minutes—up five minutes from 2021 and 12 minutes more than the posted speed limit. The reliable travel time for this trip was 44 minutes—up 14 minutes from 30 minutes in 2021.
The average travel time for the same commute in the HOV lane was 23 minutes (with a reliable travel time of 34 minutes) in 2022, up one minute from 22 minutes (with a reliable travel time of 31 minutes) in 2021.
In 2021, travel times on SR 520 were similar to 2020. The 13-mile trip from Redmond to Seattle in the GP lanes on SR 520 during the peak evening commute took an average of 21 minutes—up one minute from 2020 and seven minutes more than the posted speed limit. The reliable travel time for this trip was 30 minutes—down 9 minutes from 39 minutes in 2020.
The average travel time for the same commute in the HOV lane was 22 minutes (with a reliable travel time of 31 minutes) in 2021, up five minutes from 17 minutes (with a reliable travel time of 22 minutes) in 2020.
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 the previous year. The 13-mile trip from Redmond to Seattle in the GP lanes on SR 520 during the peak evening commute took an average of 20 minutes—down 13 minutes from 2019 and 7 minutes more than at the posted speed limit. The reliable travel time for this trip was 39 minutes—down 13 minutes from 2019.
The average travel time for the same commute in the HOV lane was 17 minutes (with a reliable travel time of 22 minutes) in 2020, down six minutes from 23 minutes (with a reliable travel time of 29 minutes) in 2019.
In 2019, the 13-mile trip from Redmond to Seattle in the GP lanes on SR 520 during the peak evening commute took an average of 33 minutes—up one minute from 2018, and more than double the 13 minutes it would have taken to travel the same route at the posted speed limit. The reliable travel time for this trip was 52 minutes—up two minutes from 2018.
The average travel time for the same commute in the HOV lane was 23 minutes (with a reliable travel time of 29 minutes) in 2019, down one minute from 25 minutes (with a reliable travel time of 34 minutes) in 2018.
The average transit travel time for the evening commute from Redmond to Seattle was 54 minutes, and the reliable transit travel time was 65 minutes.
In 2018, the 13-mile trip from Redmond to Seattle in the GP lanes on SR 520 during the peak evening commute took an average of 32 minutes—the same as in 2017, but still more than double the 13 minutes it would have taken to travel the same route at the posted speed limit. The reliable travel time for this trip was 50 minutes in both 2017 and 2016.
The average travel time for the same commute in the HOV lane was 25 minutes (with a reliable travel time of 34 minutes) in 2018, up one minute from 24 minutes (with a reliable travel time of 32 minutes) in 2017. Transit travel times were not collected for 2018 due to a pause in publication.