Vancouver region Interstate 5 - Delay
On this page:
Measures of delay on the I-5 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: Source: 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, annual person miles traveled continued to increase compared to 2021, due to the ongoing recovery of traffic volume in the wake of COVID-19, but is still significantly below 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-5 in the Vancouver region experienced more delay in 2019 than in 2018.
Annual highlights
In 2022, travelers on I-5 in the Vancouver area experienced 21,500 hours of vehicle delay. This was considerably higher than 6,000 hours of delay in 2021.
In 2022, the most intense vehicle delay on the I-5 corridor occurred southbound near the Oregon border. The southbound delay increased considerably compared to 2021. Northbound delays for 2022 were slightly up compared to 2021 occurring between SR 14 and SR 500.
In 2021, travelers on I-5 in the Vancouver area experienced 6,000 hours of vehicle delay, up about 110% from 2,800 hours in 2020.
In 2021, the most intense northbound vehicle delay on the I-5 corridor occurred between SR 14 and SR 500. The northbound delay increased by roughly 1083% compared to 2020. Southbound delays for 2020 and 2021 were similar with the most intense delays occuring near the Oregon border.
In 2020, due to the statewide response to COVID-19 there was a significant decrease in delay compared to the previous years. Travelers on I-5 in the Vancouver area experienced 2,800 hours of vehicle delay, down 97% from 104,000 hours in 2019.
In 2019, travelers on I-5 in the Vancouver area experienced 104,000 hours of vehicle delay up 12.8% from 93,000 hours in 2018.
In 2019, the most intense northbound vehicle delay on the I-5 corridor occurred between SR 14 and SR 500. The northbound delay increased by roughly 66% compared to 2018, while the southbound delay was similar to that in 2018.
In 2018, travelers on I-5 in the Vancouver area experienced 93,000 hours of vehicle delay, down 21% from 117,000 hours in 2017.
In 2018, the most intense vehicle delay on the I-5 corridor occurred between SR 14 and SR 500. The northbound delay increased by roughly 91% compared to 2017, while the southbound delay decreased by 18% compared to 2017.