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Everett drivers need to do a much better job handling the detours and lane shifts around the closure of the northbound 529 bridge over the Snohomish River.

I told you this was going to be a huge deal last month when the northbound span closed for four months of rehab. And one month in, it’s worse than I expected. Not the delays. Those were expected. It’s what drivers are doing in the north end of Everett which is out of line.

Everett Traffic Engineer Corey Hert told me it feels like drivers are just making up their own rules.

“We anticipated some congestion and some unintended consequences, but we’ve seen a lot of driver behavior that we’re struggling with right now,” he said.

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What exactly does Hert mean by that?

“Drivers driving around ‘Do Not Enter’ signs, ‘Road Closed’ signs and taking U-Turns where they’re clearly signed not to just to gain every advantage they can,” Hert said.听 “We would like to encourage drivers to stay on the signed detour routes, stay on Broadway whenever they can and stay out of the neighborhoods.”

I cannot believe some of the garbage I saw from drivers in just an hour there earlier this week. Standing right at the zipper merge, which most drivers seem to be handling well, at Broadway Avenue and 7th Street, I saw driver after driver making illegal U-Turns, turning into businesses and parking lots. I made a two-and-a-half-minute video of just that.

Where am I taking for Thursday 鈦︹仼 ? Enjoy 2 minutes of illegal U-Turns to find out.

鈥� Chris Sullivan (@NEWSGUYSULLY)

It was unbelievable.

The message is simple. If you’re used to using State Route 529 (SR 529) to avoid Interstate 5 (I-5), now is not the time to do it.

“Drivers are tempted to duck into Everett and cut through,” Hert said. “Maybe they’ve done it before. They’re used to doing it, but then they run into all the congestion in north Everett. They’ll use just about any means necessary to get where they want to go.”

The afternoons are the worst, by far, especially Friday afternoon. Hert said the backup on Broadway Avenue, which is SR 529, can stretch for more than a mile, blocking access to a hospital and other local businesses. It can add 60 to 90 minutes to a commute from Everett to Marysville, and that’s when drivers start rolling through the residential neighborhoods.

“Last Friday, most of the streets from 16th Street N. in Everett were just stopped,” Hert said.

People couldn’t get out of their driveways. People couldn’t pull out of their parking spots. All the drivers clogging the neighborhoods in North Everett basically trapped people in their homes.

“This Friday, we’re trying to get a couple of officers up here to do some enforcement on some key points, like right here at 7th Street and Broadway Avenue where we’ve got people making illegal U-Turns and turning onto side streets and making immediate U-Turns just to cut in line,” Hert said.

Drivers need to do a much better job. This kind of situation isn’t manageable if drivers are selfish behind the wheel. The detours are set up in specific ways. The traffic signals are timed to that setup. You will actually save time by sticking on Broadway Avenue, zipper merging and staying out of the neighborhoods.

But the best idea, Hert said, is to stick with I-5.

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“When drivers think about dipping into Everett to cut through and get to Marysville, they might consider I-5 instead,” Hert said. “It’s going to be less travel time for most drivers that are trying to go north. Everett used to be a convenient way for a lot of people to cut through. They’ve gotten used to it, but with the construction north of us that’s just not the case.”

The 7th Street Pub actually put up barriers and ‘no through traffic’ signs in their parking lot. Drivers simply moved them out of the way.

Those barriers are now hooked together.

We have three more months of this. We need to do better.

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