If you’ve ever driven near Amazon’s South Lake Union headquarters during rush hour, it’s likely you’ve seen one of Amazon’s traffic flaggers who help the company’s employees leave the parking garage.
Turns out that the flaggers Amazon has been using recently are illegal.
That’s according to the Seattle Department of Transportation, which sought the opinion of a Seattle City Attorney who deemed Amazon’s traffic handlers illegal.
The Seattle Times notes that Amazon previously used off-duty police or parking enforcement officers who stopped oncoming traffic to help its employees leave quickly from the company’s parking garage. But recently, Amazon has been using private flaggers from Star Protection due to a lack of off-duty police — this, it turns out, is not allowed because SDOT says non-police flaggers don’t have proper training to manage traffic flows.
Amazon’s problem with traffic speaks to the company’s crazy growth over the past few years, and it will likely only get worse with the construction of several new buildings in South Lake Union.
