Seattle experienced the third largest traffic drop in the nation amid stay-at-home virus order

Normally busy downtown streets are virtually empty at rush hour due to the novel coronavirus outbreak. Click through the gallery to see before and after pictures of Seattle during the COVID-19 pandemic. Normally busy downtown streets are virtually empty at rush hour due to the novel coronavirus outbreak. Click through the gallery to see before and after pictures of Seattle during the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images Photo: John Moore/Getty Images Image 1 of / 81 Caption Close Seattle experienced the third largest traffic drop in the nation amid stay-at-home virus order 1 / 81 Back to Gallery

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Washington's stay-at-home order has been in effect for over three weeks now, and recent data on dramatic traffic declines in Seattle indicates that people are following the guidelines and restricting travel to only essential activities.

A new study using data from the Kirkland-based traffic monitoring organization INRIX reported that since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, traffic in Seattle dropped 53%, the third largest drop of any major metropolitan area in the country. Twenty-nine percent of that drop in traffic happened before Gov. Jay Inslee issued a "Stay Home, Stay Healthy" order.

San Francisco narrowly beat Seattle with a 54% decrease in traffic, and Detroit saw the nation's largest drop: 62%.

In conjunction with that study, the Washington State Department of Transportation provided insight into what major roads were seeing a decline in traffic volume. The department found that traffic on Interstate 5 through Everett and SODO was down 43% and 46% respectively compared to February levels.

While less cars on I-5 certainly shows the limited travel in and out of Seattle, other roads in the region are experiencing even bigger drops in traffic.

"This decline was more noticeable along I-405 in Bellevue where volumes were down 55 percent and in Renton, traffic decreased by 48 percent," wrote WSDOT in an April 16 release. "The floating bridges also saw declines with traffic volumes falling on SR 520 by 76 percent and I-90 by 60 percent, still compared to data collected in February."

Public transportation in the city has also been limited. This week, King County Metro announced that it will operate with approximately 42% fewer buses, 36% fewer transit operators and 27% fewer service trips than typical weekday service. Ridership has dropped a whopping 70% during the pandemic when compared to a year ago.

"Adjusting our weekend and weekday service allows us to continue to operate a reliable network of service for essential travel needs – for food, medicine, and work – while responding to decreased ridership demands and to the overall availability of Metro’s workforce," said King County Metro General Manager Rob Gannon.

To keep transit safe and clean for essential workers, the department is asking people to only ride transit if absolutely necessary and wear a face covering if they do.

Even though the roads are empty, construction and other maintenance projects have been halted as a result of stay-at-home orders for workers. Less money from fuel taxes and tolls have also put the projects on hold.

According to the Associated Press, Washington suspended work on 92 of its 100 active highway projects including major ones in Seattle and Spokane and vital improvements to an avalanche-prone I-90 pass in the Cascade Mountains.

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