Yesterday, the City Council approved a bond issue that will raise $43 million in an attempt to kick off straightening out the Mercer mess [PI]. Currently, I-5 empties out onto Fairview and then to Valley, because Mercer itself is a one-way street heading in the direction of the freeway onramps. The current plan is to expand Mercer and turn it into a two-way street, narrow Valley (but, presumably, keep the stupid streetcar there), and adjust the freeway exit so that it doesn’t block up Fairview so much. A traffic study says that this won’t improve the speed of the trip through South Lake Union.

Mercer itself gets crazily backed up during rush hour, and if there’s something happening at Key Arena it’s nearly impossible to get down Valley at all. The worst part about that whole intersection is the fact that everything clogs up where Fairview splits off into Valley, because it’s impossible to get across there and go down Fairview.

So, sure, on the one hand the proposal is playing right into Vulcan’s development plans, to turn SLU into a little live/work island in the middle of the city. But on the other hand that whole area is a gigantic mess, and people have been arguing about what to do with it for more years that you can shake a very long stick at. Which is just so Seattle–arguing about something until the best possible option is also the worst. Still, it’s about time something was done, and it’s possible that moving some of the traffic off of Valley will make the stupid streetcar a little faster and therefore perhaps useful.

But then, I don’t drive–I only know how much this intersection sucks because of how often the bus gets mired in the traffic. Do any of you with cars have an opinion about this fix?