The times they are a-changin’.
This post seems to be older than 15 years—a long time on the internet. It might be outdated.
The Blue Angles are in town for Seafair. In preparation for tomorrow and Sunday’s air show, they have two days of practice over Lake Washington.
Unfortunately, their performance zone violates FAA flight regulations and so they have to obtain a waiver so they perform their crazy cool acrobatics.
What is also unfortunate is that this waiver forces the closure of the I-90 floating bridge for about two to three hours from Thursday to Sunday.
Even more unfortunate is that this continues to backup traffic into my commute back home home. That, however, is not the point of this posting. This is:
What if I have a medical emergency and I need to get to Harborview Medical Center or Children’s Hospital?
The center roadway of I-90 is reserved for this purpose. Contact 911 and Washington State Patrol will escort you to the hospital.
Having to go up I-405, across at SR-520 (which also has less capacity), and then down I-5 to Harbor View Medical Center can take up to 50 minutes with traffic (according to Google Maps). Being able to go straight across I-90 takes up to 15 minutes with traffic (again, Google Maps). That’s a pretty significant delta time*.
And no, they won’t let you cross if you just need to go pee. Even if you need to go real bad.
*Boeing^ lingo for difference in time.
^Yes, I realize that Boeing is probably not the only company in the universe that uses that phrase. It’s just been used a lot lately, so that’s where I’m attributing it this time.