User talk:Compdude/Draft:Washington highways
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Some notes on your routes:
- WA-970 does cut the corner on the Seattle-Wenatchee route, but I don't know how much Seattle-Wenatchee traffic it actually gets.
- The usual Spokane-Sandpoint route is via I-90/US-195, possibly cutting the corner on ID-53. Going via US-2 takes about 20 minutes longer.
- US-395 out of Spokane is a locally important route, not a regionally-important one. Traffic volumes drop off rapidly as you head north (18,000 vehicles/day approaching Deer Park, 8300/day approaching Colville, 4800/day crossing the Columbia River bridge, 2200/day just north of the bridge), and only about 250 vehicles a day cross the border with Canada, putting it ahead of only the Danville crossing as "least used".
--Carnildo (talk) 18:32, 12 May 2021 (UTC)
- Just saw your post now. Here are my responses:
- WA 970 is the typical route to get from Seattle to Wenatchee, and is signed as such. It saves about 20-25 minutes versus continuing on I-90 down to US 97. My family has visited Wenatchee from Seattle many times over the years, and that is the usual route that we'd always take to get there.
- For US 2 between Spokane and Sandpoint, my motivation for making this trunk is so that all of US 2 in WA would be trunk, since it is the non-freeway east-west route across Washington. If you're coming from north Spokane, US 2 would be the fastest way to get to Sandpoint.
- As for US 395, yeah, I wasn't really sure about making this trunk. However, Trail, BC as well as Castlegar, BC just north, seem to be a more important regional centers in that part of BC than Grand Forks, so maybe perhaps it would be better to make WA 25 be trunk up to the Canadian border. Thoughts?
- --Compdude (talk) 22:20, 6 September 2021 (UTC)
- Calling US-2 a trunk road as the northernmost of the cross-country routes is reasonable; calling it "trunk" as the main Spokane-to-Sandpoint route isn't.
- I wouldn't call any of the border crossings north of Spokane "major". Of the four, WA-25 is the busiest, but according to the 2018 traffic data, that's still only 400 cars a day. For comparision, US-97 is 1400 cars/day, and west of the Cascades, I-5 sees 13000 cars/day.
- --Carnildo (talk) 09:11, 10 September 2021 (UTC)
VigilantPenguin's additional trunk route suggestions
After thoroughly reviewing the list of Trunk routes I agree with all the currently listed ones and additionally I think the following should be added:
| From | To | Trunk routing | My justification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friday Harbor, WA | Sedro-Woolley, WA | WA 20 Spur / WA 20 | Connects Anacortes Ferries, serves San Juan County; Note: WA 20 would continue as Trunk East of Sedro-Woolley if not for the winter closure |
| Coupeville, WA / Oak Harbor, WA | Seattle, WA | WA 20 / WA 525 / I-5 | Serves population centers on Whidbey Island |
| Coupeville, WA / Oak Harbor, WA | Port Angeles, WA | WA 20 / US 101 | Covers route that serves Port Townsend/Jefferson County |
| Coupeville, WA / Oak Harbor, WA | Bremerton, WA | WA 20 / WA 19 / WA 104 / WA 3 / WA 303 | Upgrades WA 19 and WA 303 to Trunk |
| Seattle, WA | Port Angeles, WA | WA 305 / WA 3 / WA 104 / US 101 | Via Seattle/Bainbridge Island Ferry - Covers major ferry route |
| Seattle, WA | Port Angeles, WA | I-5 / WA 104 / US 101 | Via Edmonds/Kingston Ferry - Covers major ferry route and Edmonds connection |
| Seattle, WA | Bremerton, WA | WA 304 | Seattle/Bremerton ferry route |
| Seattle, WA | Pullman, WA | I-90 / WA 26 / US 195 | Route between the two major state universities, adds east/west trunk route for Othello |
| Wenatchee, WA | Republic, WA | US 97 / WA 20 | Connects Republic to trunk network to the West |
| Republic, WA | Spokane, WA | WA 20 / US 395 | Connects Republic to trunk network to the East, adds trunk route for Colville |
Also, I believe the inclusion of the following as Important regional centers is warranted due to their lack of a more prominent city in their immediate vicinity and are not covered by existing or proposed trunk routing:
- Colville (largest city & county seat of Stevens County)
- Coupeville (county seat of Island County) or Oak Harbor (largest city in Island County)
- Friday Harbor (largest city & county seat of San Juan County)
- Othello (largest city in Adams County)
- Port Angeles (largest city & county seat of Clallam County, is called out in the Trunk Routing but not listed as regional center)
- Port Townsend (largest city & county seat of Jefferson County)
- Pullman (largest city in Whitman County)
- Republic (largest city & county seat of Ferry County)
- Wenatchee (largest city & county seat of Chelan County, is called out in the Trunk Routing but not listed as regional center)
I also considered for inclusion as an Important regional center but rejected:
- Cathlamet (largest city & county seat of Wahkiakum County, but it's pretty close to Longview/Kelso)
- Republic is tiny (1000 people), and Ferry County as a whole is smaller than the smallest regional center on the current list (Sandpoint, which I don't think should be included either). WA-20 sees fewer than a thousand cars per day, less than even the quietest section of any of the other proposed trunk routes.
- Colville is also small, at about 5000 people. It's sort of a regional center, but not even close to the scale of something like Coeur d'Alene or Lewiston/Clarkston.
- Othello is about the size of Sandpoint. In isolation, it might be a regional center, but Moses Lake is just half an hour to the north, while the Tri-Cities are 45 minutes to the south.