It really doesn't matter if there are 50 lanes going each way across Lake Washington... until you FIX the mess at I-5 and I-405 you're going nowhere fast. What possible difference could more lanes make... when you can't merge properly... and go north or south on the freeways at either end?

My FIX would be to spend far less -- and identify the traffic disasters this states marvelous engineers have designed. Lets look at the HOV lanes that cause those drivers to have to stall to cross three lanes of traffic to go from one freeway to the other... Or how about the many CHICANE lanes that have us trying to cross over each other as the same lane is trying to get on with one trying to get off.... How about doing a flyover from 520 at I-5 so you don't have people trying to cross 4 lanes of traffic to get off at Mercer... And lets not forget the HOV lane that is SOUTHBOUND on I-405 that suddenly goes NORTHBOUND to I-5.... Yeah that one works for me....

I think there wouldn't be so much traffic is people weren't so blind about how cool the exurbs really are. You don't need to "live in Seattle" to have a cool lifestyle. I live on Kent East Hill and I think it's as fascinating as any neighborhood in the Puget Sound. There is a nice urbanesque core, a state of the art mall, music, parks, bike routes...and the same can be said of Bellevue, Issaquah, Redmond. People need to have the mindset to see just how fun these exurbian centers are and move closer to their work. Or even, as I do, try to make them even more fun by bringing that Seattle spirit around town!