Amazon workers are back. And so is the traffic.
Data from transportation analytics provider Inrix shows average commute speeds dropping by as much as 35% on routes in and out of Seattle since Amazon’s return-to-office mandate went into effect earlier this month.
SR 520, which connects Bellevue and the Eastside to Seattle via bridge, had an average speed of 42 MPH going into the city before Amazon’s policy kicked in. The 2-week average starting May 1 dropped to 30 MPH.
The parallel route on Interstate 90 saw a similar drop going into Seattle, from 45 MPH to 29 MPH.
Speeds on Interstate 5, going both north and south, also dropped.
Many factors change traffic patterns. But Amazon is the region’s largest employer, and more than 55,000 corporate workers coming back to the office at least three days per week surely has some effect on commute times.
Data from the ground also shows the impact of Amazon’s mandate. Last week downtown Seattle averaged 78,430 daily worker visits, the highest since the start of the pandemic, according to the Downtown Seattle Association. It’s a milestone, but still a far cry from the 157,000 workers who came downtown on average in 2019.
The increased activity is good news for the restaurants, bars, doggy daycares, and other small businesses around Amazon’s headquarters.
But not everyone is happy about the new policy. A group called Amazon Remote Advocacy is involved in a planned walkout on May 31 at the Seattle headquarters. The group wants Amazon to embrace remote and flexible work.
Thousands of corporate and tech employees previously joined an internal Slack channel to protest Amazon’s return to office policy.
The move to implement the policy came after Amazon previously said in October 2021 that it was leaving back-to-office decisions up to individual team leaders. Amazon altered course when it announced the return-to-office plans in February of this year.
Other tech employers in downtown Seattle including Redfin are rolling out their own back-to-office mandates.
Hat tip to KIRO Radio’s Chris Sullivan for first citing Inrix data.
