News

Thanksgiving 2012: Best times to travel

SEATTLE — The Washington State Department of Transportation has released information developed by traffic analysts about the best times to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Analysts looked at how many cars were on the road on past Thanksgiving weekends and created graphs starting on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and ending  the following Sunday.

WSDOT estimated best travel times for:

State highways across Washington will see typical heavy holiday weekend traffic. Longer-than-typical wait times at ferry docks and Canadian border crossings  are also expected most of the holiday weekend, WSDOT said.

To keep traffic moving, WSDOT and its contractors suspend most state highway construction work from Wednesday before Thanksgiving until the following Monday.

Fore those staying in town, the DOT reminds drivers that:
  • I-5 and I-90 express lanes will operate on weekend schedule Thanksgiving Day.
  • Heavy traffic is expected the morning of Friday, Nov. 23, at I-5 exits to downtown Seattle, when people make their way to the annual Macy's Holiday Parade.
  • The Seattle Marathon will close ramps on I-5 and SR 520 along with the I-5 and I-90 express lanes on Sunday, Nov. 25.
  • Backups are expected in the Tacoma Narrows Bridge manual toll lanes Thanksgiving evening between 5 and 10 p.m.

For more information on how to navigate holiday traffic, see WSDOT's Thanksgiving news release.