It used to be only five minutes to drive through downtown Redmond, but now it pushes 15 to 20 minutes. I am writing to address the continuous construction happening in downtown Redmond for the past few years. It brings up many safety issues and has been going on for way too long.

The construction has decreased the number of lanes through downtown Redmond, which increases traffic at all times of the day, especially during rush hour. Rush hour in this area has always been bad, but since there are only one to two lanes going through, it causes issues for merging and increases the chance of accidents occurring during this time.

For teen drivers like me, this situation causes a large amount of stress when driving through this area. Many of us do not have the amount of experience needed to merge and drive through this much traffic, and when there are so many locations such as practice fields, restaurants and shopping malls that we attend on a frequent basis, it is not something we are able to avoid passing through.

Even now that Redmond Way and Cleveland Street are both now two-way streets, there are more projects such as the Downtown Park and the construction in the north end that will keep the constant construction going, and make locals lives more stressful than they need to be.

Regan Hines

Sammamish