Despite return-to-office mandates from some Seattle companies such as Amazon and Redfin, vehicle traffic to downtown has not increased through May of this year and falls far short of pre-COVID levels. That’s the finding of a new “Return to Office” report released Wednesday by transportation analytics provider Inrix.
The report focuses on 20 metro areas across the U.S., examining how travel patterns are impacting downtowns. The data reveals that 18 out of 20 of those regions still sit below their pre-pandemic level of vehicular trips.
“While COVID-19’s impact on travel spanned across all regions and modes, the sharpest drop in trips has been around downtowns, challenging business owners, employers, and public officials on a mission to get people downtown again,” the report noted.
Some key findings:
- Seattle, the fifth-most employment-dense downtown, still sits 27% below its 2019 levels of traffic. San Francisco is the lowest at -41%.
- Seattle, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco have shown some of the least trip growth this year despite return-to-office plans taking hold at some companies.
- Seattle transit ridership is way down, lagging pre-COVID 2019 levels by 35% at the end of 2022.
Telecommuting replaced car commuting early in the pandemic in 2020, and more than three years later a return to once-normal work habits is nowhere in sight for most U.S. cities.
The Wall Street Journal reported in May that the return to office stalled as companies settled into hybrid work plans. The report called out technology firms for remaining the most permissive for letting employees work from home, resulting in low return-to-office rates in cities such as Seattle, San Francisco, and San Jose, Calif.
When Amazon called corporate and tech workers back to its Seattle headquarters buildings at least three days a week starting in May, many employees protested and some even walked out on May 31.
Two weeks ago, the Downtown Seattle Association released its latest monthly figures for worker traffic, with the percentage of returning workers (compared to 2019 levels) climbing 4% month-over-month in June, from 50% to 54%.
The lack of increased traffic streaming into downtown lines up with what a survey conducted by the Seattle Metro Chamber of Commerce found earlier this year.
The Chamber reported that a hybrid work model is the most popular option among employers in downtown Seattle, and most companies are seeing employees in the office three or more days per week.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and city leaders have praised employers like Amazon for forcing workers back in the office in a bid to revitalize downtown.
In June, the Mayor’s Office officially rolled out his “Downtown Activation Plan,” providing more details on a series of initiatives aimed at helping the city’s urban core bounce back from the pandemic. The overall purpose of the plan is to “stabilize and transform downtown into a place where residents, workers, and visitors want to spend time.”
Harrell and City planning officials have also sought to potentially convert some of the city’s downtown office space into housing and other commercial uses.
Editor’s note: The Inrix report does not include Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, where some of Amazon’s headquarters buildings are located. It does factor in the Belltown area, which includes several Amazon locations. A previous Inrix report cited 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. “Amazon’s return to the office had a significant impact on the highway speeds but limited impact to trips downtown,” said Inrix spokesperson Mark Burfeind.
Previously:
- Amazon is asking some employees to move closer to the office
- Downtown dreams: Leaders share 10 ideas to make Seattle’s core more vibrant
- Seattle leaders make plea for workers to return downtown and help address ‘remote work affliction’
- ‘Get back in there’: T-Mobile CEO exhorts tech industry leaders to return to the office
