SPOKANE, Wash. — In our ongoing Boomtown series, we’re tracking the latest growth and trends around the Inland Northwest. We are diving into Spokane’s traffic volume to see if the city’s roads are really busier than ever.
The question of whether traffic in Spokane is increasing is a simple one, but it is one with many layers to the answer. KREM 2 hit the street to talk to residents of Spokane and ask them if they feel like there are more cars on the road. Some of the responses varied:
- "Yeah, way too many."
- "Seems like it stopped for a while during COVID, but it’s definitely picking up again."
- "Honestly, I think it’s still average."
- "We’re growing like crazy. I was born and raised here, and there’s definitely more traffic."
To get a better look at the traffic trends, we turned to several sources: the Washington State Department of Transportation East (WSDOT), the City of Spokane, and the Spokane Regional Transportation Council (SRTC).
According to WSDOT’s Ryan Overton, traffic on I-90 has increased by about two to seven percent compared to 2019. Some hot spots have seen particularly noticeable growth:
- Near the Thor/Freya exit along the Spokane and Spokane Valley line, traffic has jumped from 130,000 to 136,000 vehicles per day.
- Near Sunset Hill, traffic has risen about seven percent, going from nearly 90,000 cars to nearly 100,000 vehicles per day.
Much of this growth is linked to development and growth in nearby areas like Airway Heights, Cheney, and Medical Lake, which have all seen new businesses and housing.
However, city-operated roads haven’t seen the same increase. According to David Fletcher from SRTC, the pandemic skewed traffic patterns as more people began working from home. Although freeway traffic has increased, the city roads remain relatively steady for now.
The City of Spokane’s traffic flow map is a helpful resource to see which city roads experience the most traffic, with arterials like Division, Monroe, Market, and Northwest Blvd among the busiest.