Commuters see an increase in traffic since Amazon employees returned to the office

The first week of May has seen more cars on the roads. Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood has also seen a spike in not just cars, but foot traffic as well, and all signs point to Amazon workers returning to the office.

“Before the pandemic, we were here all the time and then everything got shut down,” said Don Lucha’s food truck employee Mark Rindero.

Rindero said the food truck didn’t start to park in South Lake Union again until January 2023. Now, some of their biggest customers are back, three days a week.

“I’d probably say medium as far as it’s growing, but it still has a ways to go from what it was,” Rindero said. “We’re just glad to see everyone back.”

Signs of the return can be seen everywhere. Amazon employees returned to their offices three days a week. That began May 1. The Downtown Seattle Association said they believe Amazon will be the first domino, and more employers will return to office as well. The most recent numbers from DSA show March saw 75,760 average daily workers. It’s the highest since before the pandemic.

“I had some business meetings and my wife works here with Amazon so I thought I would give her company and thought we would grab lunch together,” said Sarang Fegde, who KIRO 7 caught on the way back from that impromptu lunch date.

It’s not just the lunch rush that’s impacting people who live nearby.

“I see a lot of traffic as well. It gets backed up from around 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. as well,” said Siddhardh Joshi. Fellow Amazon employee, Michal Lin, added, “Even though it’s only like two miles it took close to 20 minutes to get here.”

Those who drive in from east of Seattle may have also noticed a dramatic difference in travel time.

“A pretty significant increase in traffic congestion across the bridges, so 520 and I-90. Specifically in the morning commute,” said Inrix’s Transportation Analyst Bob Pishue. “The drive was honestly a little bit more annoying than I thought it’d be,” said Lin.

While the east-west morning commute has seen more cars on the road, Pishue said the north-south commute hasn’t seen much of a change.

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