Some steered clear

It’s too early to come to any conclusions about the Interstate 90 viaduct project. But a few lessons were evident as its first day progressed.

People in Spokane pay attention.

Transportation officials said traffic would have been much worse on the freeway had drivers not heeded advice to use alternate routes.

But they could pay more attention downtown.

North-south traffic was impeded because motorists on east-west streets like Third Avenue blocked intersections. Also, drivers can’t go into auto-pilot downtown now because lanes have been altered on some streets, adding turn lanes or changing placement.

City streets were more congested than the freeway.

With the exception of two collisions on the freeway Monday, I-90 traffic moved very smoothly because more drivers took city streets.

Third Avenue was especially crowded in the afternoon. At 5 p.m. it took more than 15 minutes to drive less than a mile between Monroe and Browne streets.

Any little thing can cause a serious back-up.

There isn’t much room for error on the freeway downtown now. Any fender-bender, car that runs out of gas or flat tire is going to cause a traffic jam. That was made clear by the midmorning wreck just west of downtown on Sunset Hill.

Predictability is underrated.

It may take longer, but that trip on Sprague Avenue or Trent is much more predictable than the trip on the freeway, where an accident can really gum up the works.

The afternoon commute was worse than the morning drive.

Add shoppers, moviegoers and more to the commuter mix and you have a lot more traffic in the evening than in the morning. Add hot weather and a day at work to that, and you have more irritation.

Try the road less traveled.

While cars jammed onto Third Avenue, Fifth Avenue was largely open. And drivers who made their way down Riverside to get onto Division and then to the eastbound freeway via Spokane Falls Boulevard and the Hamilton interchange ran into little congestion.