Vancouver region Interstate 205 - Delay
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Measures of delay on the I-205 corridor in the Vancouver area
Travel delay
Travel delay is the amount of extra time spent at speeds below a given threshold—such as the posted speed limit or the maximum throughput speed on a highway. WSDOT uses maximum throughput speed (85% of posted speed limit) as its threshold for calculating delay, which it measures in either annual hours of delay per vehicle or annual hours of delay per person. For details on methodology to calculate travel delay, see WSDOT's Handbook for Corridor Capacity Evaluation (PDF 5.9MB).
Heat maps
The heat maps below show vehicle hours of delay by time of day (measured in 5-minute intervals) and milepost. The darker the shading in a particular spot on the heat map, the more hours of delay occurred at that time and place. Shading is standardized across all the corridors to allow for comparison.
There is a separate heat map for each direction of travel. The northbound graph below is read from the bottom to the top, while the corresponding southbound graph is read from the top to the bottom. For additional details on how to read heat maps, see
Handbook for Corridor Capacity Evaluation (PDF 5.9MB).
Sources: WSDOT Multimodal Planning Division and WSDOT Transportation Safety & Systems Analysis Division and WSDOT TRACFLOW (https://tracflow.wsdot.wa.gov/)
Note: Source data collection devices have been update in 2017. Delay = Hours of travel delay
Multi-year trends
In 2022, delay continued to increase compared to 2021, due to the ongoing recovery of traffic volume in the wake of COVID-19. However, delay was still lower than the pre-pandemic level.
In 2020, due to the statewide response to COVID-19, there was a significant decrease in delay compared to previous years.
Travelers on I-205 northbound in the Vancouver region experienced substantially less delay in 2019 than in 2018.
Annual highlights
In 2022, vehicle delay on I-205 in the Vancouver region showed mixed results. Travelers experienced increased delay southbound during the morning commute but northbound showed less delay during the evening in the section between SR14 and the SR500 interchange.
In 2021, vehicle delay on I-205 in the Vancouver region increased and occurred in the same locations as 2020. Travelers experienced southbound delay during the morning commute and northbound delay during the evening commute in the vicinity of the I-205/SR 500 interchange. Although the delay experienced was less than pre-pandemic, it was significantly (569%) more than 2020.
In 2020, due to the statewide response to COVID-19, there was a significant decrease in delay compared to previous years. Vehicle delay on I-205 in the Vancouver region occurred in similar locations as in 2019, but there was a lot less of it. The morning southbound and evening northbound commute around the I-205/SR 500 Interchange saw delays; however, in 2020, they were 93% less than in 2019.
In 2019, vehicle delay on I-205 in the Vancouver region occurred in the same locations as in 2018, but there was slightly more of it. As in 2018, the most intense vehicle delay on the I-205 corridor occurred from the I-205 Glenn Jackson Bridge to Northeast Padden Parkway. The northbound delay in the evening was more severe than in the southbound commute in the morning: the northbound delay in the evening decreased by roughly 50% compared to 2018, while the southbound delay in the morning was similar to that in 2018.
In 2018, vehicle delay on I-205 in the Vancouver region occurred in the same locations as in 2017. As in 2017, the most intense vehicle delay on the I-205 corridor occurred from the I-205 Glenn Jackson Bridge to Northeast Padden Parkway. The delay in the northbound direction in the evening was more severe than in the southbound direction in the morning: the northbound delay in the evening increased by roughly 50% compared to 2017, while the southbound delay in the morning decreased by roughly 50% compared to 2017.