January 22, 2025, 2:04 p. m. | Updated: 4:41 p. m.
Traffic in the Seattle region. (Photo: Julia Dallas, Mynormwest)
(Photo: Julia Dallas, MyNorthwest)
BY JULIA DALLAS
Inrix, a company that studies traffic, has tracked knowledge about the effect on Amazon’s five-day work mandate on traffic in the Seattle region.
According to INRIX charts released last week, Friday morning traffic (from 7 a. m. to nine a. m. ) has worse than pre-fight grades in every domain the company has pursued, with the exception of Mon.
Inrix tested the speed degrees of January 2019, December 2024, January 2024 and January 2027. The trips followed were the 40five (I-40Five) to the north to Bellevue, I-40Five South Lynnwood in Bellevue, State Route (SR) Five20 West Overlake in Seattle, Interstate 90 (I-90) in Eastgate in Seattle, Interstate Five Five. (I-Five) South Everett in Seattle, I-Five North Tacoma in Seattle and Ballard Street Streetarray
Expect traffic: Amazon workers in Washington are starting to return to the full-time office
In every area, except SR 520 west Overlake to Seattle, traffic slowed on Fridays in January 2025, compared to January 2019. Looking at this year compared to last year, the most significant traffic jump on Fridays was seen on the I-405 north Renton to Bellevue and I-5 north Tacoma to Seattle commutes.
On Tuesdays they also experienced a building in the 2019 to 2025 traffic. However, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays were the opposite, most trips noticed less traffic on the days of the week in January 2025, compared to January 2019Array
“The return of tens of thousands of Amazon workers commuting downtown Seattle and Bellevue have created educational effects that were temporarily felt,” Inrix wrote on its website. “Consequently, the roads connecting the suburbs to the urban centers have experienced significant congestion, times doubling in some cases. “
To see the graph, the stop on the Inrix website.
According to the company, times have more than 15 to 20%, safe back streets that report even longer delays. He added the greater tension of traffic in infrastructure, roads and local roads that have an adaptation of problems.
In September 2024, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced that workers commute to the workplace five days a week instead of the last 3 days according to the week. He noted that exceptions come if a worker’s child is sick, if they have a space emergency, if they’re on the road seeing consumers or partners, or if they want a day to finish coding in a more remote environment.
Jassy said “having the right culture” is imperative for the company and having employees back five days a week will strengthen that culture. He believes the new policy will lead to more innovation and collaboration.
“Additional source of income for everyone:” Business owners are extremely cheerful, while Amazon staff returns full
While workers’ rights advocates and some interns, corporate retaliation opposed the office, others, such as profiteers, celebrate the resurgence of foot traffic.
Coffee workers, catering truck owners and more — all of South Lake Union’s business offices — told Kiro NewsRadio earlier this month that they had seen a higher number of other people walking on sidewalks than any Monday in recent memory.
INRIX is hopeful Amazon will be able to collaborate with city officials to balance the strained infrastructure with a revitalized downtown.
Contributing: Sam Campbell, KIRO Newsradio
Julia Dallas is a content editor at Mynorthwest. You can read her here. Follow Julia in X here and email her here.