I-5 craps the bed on a fairly regular basis, particularly on game day at the SODO or UW stadiums (and all bets are off if there are multiple games scheduled for

I-5 craps the bed on a fairly regular basis, particularly on game day at the SODO or UW stadiums (and all bets are off if there are multiple games scheduled for one day). It may be 45 minutes to SeaTac on light rail, but it is always 45 minutes on light rail, whereas travel times on I-5 can vary widely depending on congestion, accidents, etc. Some trips are much faster. The Capitol Hill extension was wildly popular, because pre-opening the surface traffic could easily take 20-40 minutes from Capitol Hill to either downtown or UW. Now, it's five minutes to either, and the surface traffic has also adjusted accordingly somewhat since less people are congesting the roads with cars and rideshares. In general the highway network in the area is super fragile because there are only 4 major highways in the area (I-5, 520, I-405, I-90) and few parallel arterials. I suspect that East Link will also become wildly popular, as will the northern and southern extensions, because of predictable travel times. Already many people take the buses that get stuck in traffic that these light rail lines will replace. And it will also help alleviate the issues with the commuter buses, such as there not being enough bus drivers to operate the scheduled services. The light rail isn't perfect, but few things are. Modern metro construction in the US has mostly gone sideways worse than light rail systems.