Amazon workers slow the Seattle-area commute after returning to office

Traffic Lab is a Seattle Times project that digs into the region’s transportation issues to explore the policies and politics that determine how we get around and how billions of dollars in public money are spent.

Alexa, show me a traffic jam.

On Jan. 2, Amazon workers returned to the office, by mandate, five days a week, bringing with them longer commutes and heavier traffic, according to initial data.

While the information is new and the data sparse, the Seattle Department of Transportation, Lime and INRIX, a Kirkland-based transportation data and analytics company, all have recorded an uptick in people moving about following the policy change by the Seattle-based tech giant.

In the first full week of the policy, Jan. 6-10, SDOT observed a 5% to 9% increase in traffic compared to average weekday counts from January 2024, suggesting a “growing presence of commuters” in the South Lake Union and Denny Triangle areas, where 50,000 Amazon employees work.

Use of Lime’s shared bikes, scooters and gliders has increased by 146% in the South Lake Union area this month compared to January 2024, “and it’s very possible Amazonians are powering those numbers,” Victor Long, Lime’s senior operations manager, said in a statement. Lime did not provide the number of vehicles used.

Using information from internet-connected vehicles, a report from INRIX says commute times in the Seattle and Bellevue areas 15% to 20% as some 65,000 workers headed to Amazon offices.

In all, the anecdotes being shared online and around the office water cooler are bearing true: When Amazon workers returned to the office, the transportation system groaned.

Like many office workplaces, Amazon sent its employees work from home due to the uncertainty and contagion of COVID-19. In 2023, Amazon required its workers to return to the office three days a week. In September, Amazon said its workers would have to be back in the office five days a week, starting in the new year.

Amazon provides commuter benefits to its employees, including funded Orca cards, free shuttles and flexible subsidies that can be used for parking, rideshare, carpooling and bicycle-related spending, according to spokesperson Zoe Hoffman. It also supplies onsite bike cages and showers for people who commute by bike at many of its big city facilities.

Neither Sound Transit nor King County Metro had data readily available, and could not say how the Amazon policy had affected ridership.

In Bellevue, that city’s transportation department has not observed an increase in travel time since the new return-to-work mandate took effect, according to spokesperson Gillian Hagstrom. She said the city would continue to monitor the roads for any changes.

As noted in the INRIX report — “The Ripple Effect: Amazon’s Return to Office and Its Impact on Roadways” — the return to prepandemic norms signaled the end of the flexibility the tech workers had enjoyed for nearly five years, and cast “a spotlight on the intricate relationship between workplace decisions and urban infrastructure.”

Traffic times on arterials in some cases doubled, as the region “struggled to accommodate the sudden surge in vehicle traffic, leading to frequent bottlenecks and delays,” the INRIX report read.

In an email, SDOT spokesperson Mariam Ali said the department has been “closely monitoring the South Lake Union area and downtown Seattle” to look for impacts from the more than 50,000 Amazon employees returning to in-person work.

The city looked at traffic counts at major intersections along Mercer Street, including at Fairview Avenue North, Westlake Avenue North, Dexter Avenue North, and Elliott Avenue West and West Mercer Place.

While Monday, Jan. 6, saw almost no change in traffic counts, Thursday, Jan. 9, saw the biggest leap — a 9% jump from a weekday average of 64,710 in January 2024 to 70,730 on Jan. 9.

As Amazon workers have returned to the office, the city has also been monitoring 13 downtown Seattle intersections across Mercer, Madison and South Holgate streets. While some of the intersections saw increased traffic following the Amazon policy change, Ali said overall downtown traffic remain below prepandemic levels, with 2024 seeing 13% fewer cars than in 2019. By comparison, 2020 saw the biggest decrease compared to 2019, with a 35% drop in traffic.

As the city monitored South Lake Union and downtown Seattle, INRIX looked largely at the impact on the region’s freeways.

One road highlighted in the report — westbound Highway 520 — saw a major slowdown during the weekday morning commute compared to a month before. In December, every weekday morning but Tuesdays showed speeds above 50 mph. Tuesday mornings had average speeds in the upper 40s. In January, so far, only Mondays and Fridays have speeds above 50. Tuesdays dropped to the lower 30s, and Wednesdays and Thursdays dwelt in the 40s.

Interstate 90 between Bellevue’s Eastgate neighborhood and Seattle also saw significant slowdowns, the report says.

On that road, Tuesdays also were already slower commute days, with morning speeds averaging around 35 mph in December. This month, speeds are averaging about 15 mph.

While the data is scant, and only two weeks have passed since Amazon’s new work requirement became official, the increase in traffic tracks recent trends in the Seattle area.

Earlier this month, the INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard showed congestion in the Seattle area increased 9% from 2023 to 2024, resulting in local drivers sitting in traffic an average of 63 hours in 2024 — up from 58 hours in 2023.

The most recent traffic data from the city of Seattle — looking at 2022 data, but released in April 2024 — already showed a rebound of traffic to 86% of pre-pandemic volumes in 2019.

Lime, on the other hand, has seen record-setting ridership over the last two years across the city, and is increasing the number of its vehicles available for rent citywide.

The South Lake Union area has seen the biggest increase in trips and average daily riders, but Seattle overall had a 138% increase in total trips and a 144% increase in average daily riders this month compared to January 2024.

“We figured Seattleites would be looking to get to and from work sustainably on two wheels more and more so we’ve worked with the city to increase fleet to meet that demand,” Lime’s Long said in a statement.