#sdot — Public Fediverse posts

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson celebrates new Denny Way bus reliability project to improve Route 8
https://kingcountymetro.blog/2026/04/22/seattle-mayor-katie-wilson-celebrates-new-denny-way-bus-reliability-project-to-improve-route-8/
#KingCountyMetro #Projects #DennyWay #Seattle #Route8 #News #SDOT

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson celebrates new Denny Way bus reliability project to improve Route 8
https://kingcountymetro.blog/2026/04/22/seattle-mayor-katie-wilson-celebrates-new-denny-way-bus-reliability-project-to-improve-route-8/
#KingCountyMetro #Projects #DennyWay #Seattle #Route8 #News #SDOT

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson celebrates new Denny Way bus reliability project to improve Route 8
https://kingcountymetro.blog/2026/04/22/seattle-mayor-katie-wilson-celebrates-new-denny-way-bus-reliability-project-to-improve-route-8/
#KingCountyMetro #Projects #DennyWay #Seattle #Route8 #News #SDOT

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson celebrates new Denny Way bus reliability project to improve Route 8
https://kingcountymetro.blog/2026/04/22/seattle-mayor-katie-wilson-celebrates-new-denny-way-bus-reliability-project-to-improve-route-8/
#KingCountyMetro #Projects #DennyWay #Seattle #Route8 #News #SDOT

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson celebrates new Denny Way bus reliability project to improve Route 8
https://kingcountymetro.blog/2026/04/22/seattle-mayor-katie-wilson-celebrates-new-denny-way-bus-reliability-project-to-improve-route-8/
#KingCountyMetro #Projects #DennyWay #Seattle #Route8 #News #SDOT

Seattle chooses first 3 ‘Low-Pollution Neighborhoods’ to pilot | LEVY DOLLARS AT WORK

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://sdotblog.seattle.gov/2026/03/18/first-low-pollution-neighborhoods/

Seattle chooses first 3 ‘Low-Pollution Neighborhoods’ to pilot | LEVY DOLLARS AT WORK

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://sdotblog.seattle.gov/2026/03/18/first-low-pollution-neighborhoods/

Seattle chooses first 3 ‘Low-Pollution Neighborhoods’ to pilot | LEVY DOLLARS AT WORK

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://sdotblog.seattle.gov/2026/03/18/first-low-pollution-neighborhoods/

Seattle chooses first 3 ‘Low-Pollution Neighborhoods’ to pilot | LEVY DOLLARS AT WORK

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://sdotblog.seattle.gov/2026/03/18/first-low-pollution-neighborhoods/

Seattle chooses first 3 ‘Low-Pollution Neighborhoods’ to pilot | LEVY DOLLARS AT WORK

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://sdotblog.seattle.gov/2026/03/18/first-low-pollution-neighborhoods/

#حرس #الثورة: دمرنا بالكامل مركز #سدوت #ميخا للاتصالات #الفضائية جنوب #تل #أبيب
#IRGC: We completely destroyed the #Sdot #Micha #satellite #communications center south of #Tel #Aviv

#حرس #الثورة: دمرنا بالكامل مركز #سدوت #ميخا للاتصالات #الفضائية جنوب #تل #أبيب
#IRGC: We completely destroyed the #Sdot #Micha #satellite #communications center south of #Tel #Aviv

Countdown to construction: Major ‘Revive I-5’ repairs starting for Ship Canal Bridge
https://kingcountymetro.blog/2026/01/06/countdown-to-construction-major-revive-i-5-repairs-starting-for-ship-canal-bridge/
#KingCountyMetro #Construction #ReviveI-5 #Projects #WSDOT #News #SDOT

Seattle is the first test city for a new bike lane barrier made of recycled tires

The pitch is great: Let’s take a car culture waste product that would otherwise be burned and instead turn it into a barrier to protect the lives of people biking. That’s the concept behind Pretred’s new Paceline barriers, which were designed with bike lanes in mind initially in response to Seattle’s trouble acquiring enough pre-cast concrete barriers for SDOT’s ongoing “even better bike lanes” project. The company used the SDOT order as the impetus to invest in the design and tooling to create these Paceline barriers, which are now for sale to any place that wants them.

Pretred Sales Manager Matt Dunn told Seattle Bike Blog that the Paceline barriers are now “the only U.S.-made bike lane barrier that is more significant than a curb and less significant than a full wall.” The project was personal for Dunn, who was hit by a car while riding his bike. “I wish these barriers would have been there when that happened,” he said, noting, “We’re all cyclists in this office.”

Dunn credited Cascade Bicycle Club Executive Director Lee Lambert with connecting SDOT and Pretred. The department had purchased as many of the precast concrete barriers as were available, but it still wasn’t enough. If Pretred can produce a barrier that is competitive with concrete, that would be a win for all North American cities because it would mean more supply and more competition in the market. Concrete creation also requires a lot of energy and is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Burning tires also releases a lot of greenhouse gasses. Pretred sells itself as a more environmentally-friendly option both for creating barriers and for recycling tires. The company started in 2020 selling what they call Colorado barriers, which can be used either in place of a Jersey barrier or as a base to support weight.

When fully rebuilding a road engineers can include curbs and barriers from the start, such as the new bike lanes along the waterfront. We cannot wait for full roadway rebuild projects to build out our city’s bike network, so we need tools for medium-term bike lane installs for the time between now and the street’s next major repaving project. Sometimes referred to as “Toronto barriers” for some reason, pre-cast concrete barriers are an excellent option for creating a significant barrier on an existing road surface. The Toronto-style barriers are shorter and skinnier than a highway-style Jersey barrier but provide significantly more deterrence than plastic reflective posts. Cities like Seattle need a barrier that protects bike lanes from motor vehicles without making streets look and feel like highways, and this is a tricky balance. DOTs would also like to avoid the need for constant maintenance.

The new tire-based barriers are a different take on the concept. The come in segments two feet long that link together. The 80-pound segments are lighter than concrete, making them easier to install and to move by hand if necessary, but this also means they are easier for motor vehicles to displace. They lie somewhere between a parking stop and a Toronto barrier, which could be the sweet spot cities are looking for if they can prove durable and effective under the strains of city streets. The material cost is about $24 per foot plus additional costs for the end treatments of each connected segment, Dunn said. Agencies can install posts on the blocks for either signage or additional reflectors, though SDOT did not do so as part of this project. Some reflective plastic posts might not be a bad idea, especially on curves and end points where strikes are more likely, though each block does have front and rear reflectors.

When struck, the tire barrier segments may get gouged but hopefully will be less likely to fully crack and fail. If they do fail, crews should be able to use regular work vehicles and tools to replace the damaged segments more quickly and easily. Concrete barriers are so heavy that they require a forklift or similar piece of machinery to move and install, which could lead to longer waits for repairs as we saw with the bike lane on the Airport Way bridge near Georgetown recently. The barrier was struck (and did its job!), but a section was left sticking into the bike lane for a while before crews could repair it.

The tire-based barriers may not leave as much damage on any vehicles that strike it, but they also should not be as difficult to repair. We don’t need to imagine what this would look like because the test segment has already experienced its first major strike. I went down to Campus Parkway to check it out and found a section under the bridge that clearly got hit by something significant. Not sure if it was a car, truck or bus, though the level of damage makes me think it could have been something more on the bigger side. Bolts were bent and multiple barriers seemed to split at the bolt-mounting point. One barrier section was totally destroyed and was sitting on the roadside. In all, five or six of the segments were damaged. But because of their size and weight, they were not left blocking the bike lane in the meantime, which is nice.

Environmental benefits and concerns

The U.S. wears out a hell of a lot of tires, which are notoriously difficult to dispose of. When burned, they produce a relatively low amount of heat for a long time. That’s why tire fires can last so long. They also release a lot of nasty stuff into the air.

There have been many attempts to find other creative and profitable uses for tire waste, including using tire crumbs as part of an artificial athletic or playground surface. The EPA, CDC and CPSC have been studying the possible health impacts of these surfaces, though there don’t seem to be any clear conclusions yet (though we know it’s bad for kids to eat them). Tires contain a lot of harmful chemicals, researchers just don’t know the extent that using tires in play surfaces might lead to harmful exposure. Meanwhile, researchers at UW have identified a tire chemical — 6PPD-quinone — that is likely a major cause coho salmon population decline. The chemical gets into waterways through wear and tear from cars and trucks driving on roadways.

I asked Dunn if these tire-based barriers might contribute to the problem of tire chemicals in waterways, and he said the blocks are designed to keep tire chemicals contained within them. However, as with any tire those elements could be released if they are broken or crushed. The blocks are made of about 90% tire “crumb,” then Pretred uses polyurethane to encapsulate it and hold it together. When they are just sitting there getting rained on, they are designed not to release tire chemicals into the runoff, he said.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

Seattle is the first test city for a new bike lane barrier made of recycled tires

The pitch is great: Let’s take a car culture waste product that would otherwise be burned and instead turn it into a barrier to protect the lives of people biking. That’s the concept behind Pretred’s new Paceline barriers, which were designed with bike lanes in mind initially in response to Seattle’s trouble acquiring enough pre-cast concrete barriers for SDOT’s ongoing “even better bike lanes” project. The company used the SDOT order as the impetus to invest in the design and tooling to create these Paceline barriers, which are now for sale to any place that wants them.

Pretred Sales Manager Matt Dunn told Seattle Bike Blog that the Paceline barriers are now “the only U.S.-made bike lane barrier that is more significant than a curb and less significant than a full wall.” The project was personal for Dunn, who was hit by a car while riding his bike. “I wish these barriers would have been there when that happened,” he said, noting, “We’re all cyclists in this office.”

Dunn credited Cascade Bicycle Club Executive Director Lee Lambert with connecting SDOT and Pretred. The department had purchased as many of the precast concrete barriers as were available, but it still wasn’t enough. If Pretred can produce a barrier that is competitive with concrete, that would be a win for all North American cities because it would mean more supply and more competition in the market. Concrete creation also requires a lot of energy and is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Burning tires also releases a lot of greenhouse gasses. Pretred sells itself as a more environmentally-friendly option both for creating barriers and for recycling tires. The company started in 2020 selling what they call Colorado barriers, which can be used either in place of a Jersey barrier or as a base to support weight.

When fully rebuilding a road engineers can include curbs and barriers from the start, such as the new bike lanes along the waterfront. We cannot wait for full roadway rebuild projects to build out our city’s bike network, so we need tools for medium-term bike lane installs for the time between now and the street’s next major repaving project. Sometimes referred to as “Toronto barriers” for some reason, pre-cast concrete barriers are an excellent option for creating a significant barrier on an existing road surface. The Toronto-style barriers are shorter and skinnier than a highway-style Jersey barrier but provide significantly more deterrence than plastic reflective posts. Cities like Seattle need a barrier that protects bike lanes from motor vehicles without making streets look and feel like highways, and this is a tricky balance. DOTs would also like to avoid the need for constant maintenance.

The new tire-based barriers are a different take on the concept. The come in segments two feet long that link together. The 80-pound segments are lighter than concrete, making them easier to install and to move by hand if necessary, but this also means they are easier for motor vehicles to displace. They lie somewhere between a parking stop and a Toronto barrier, which could be the sweet spot cities are looking for if they can prove durable and effective under the strains of city streets. The material cost is about $24 per foot plus additional costs for the end treatments of each connected segment, Dunn said. Agencies can install posts on the blocks for either signage or additional reflectors, though SDOT did not do so as part of this project. Some reflective plastic posts might not be a bad idea, especially on curves and end points where strikes are more likely, though each block does have front and rear reflectors.

When struck, the tire barrier segments may get gouged but hopefully will be less likely to fully crack and fail. If they do fail, crews should be able to use regular work vehicles and tools to replace the damaged segments more quickly and easily. Concrete barriers are so heavy that they require a forklift or similar piece of machinery to move and install, which could lead to longer waits for repairs as we saw with the bike lane on the Airport Way bridge near Georgetown recently. The barrier was struck (and did its job!), but a section was left sticking into the bike lane for a while before crews could repair it.

The tire-based barriers may not leave as much damage on any vehicles that strike it, but they also should not be as difficult to repair. We don’t need to imagine what this would look like because the test segment has already experienced its first major strike. I went down to Campus Parkway to check it out and found a section under the bridge that clearly got hit by something significant. Not sure if it was a car, truck or bus, though the level of damage makes me think it could have been something more on the bigger side. Bolts were bent and multiple barriers seemed to split at the bolt-mounting point. One barrier section was totally destroyed and was sitting on the roadside. In all, five or six of the segments were damaged. But because of their size and weight, they were not left blocking the bike lane in the meantime, which is nice.

Environmental benefits and concerns

The U.S. wears out a hell of a lot of tires, which are notoriously difficult to dispose of. When burned, they produce a relatively low amount of heat for a long time. That’s why tire fires can last so long. They also release a lot of nasty stuff into the air.

There have been many attempts to find other creative and profitable uses for tire waste, including using tire crumbs as part of an artificial athletic or playground surface. The EPA, CDC and CPSC have been studying the possible health impacts of these surfaces, though there don’t seem to be any clear conclusions yet (though we know it’s bad for kids to eat them). Tires contain a lot of harmful chemicals, researchers just don’t know the extent that using tires in play surfaces might lead to harmful exposure. Meanwhile, researchers at UW have identified a tire chemical — 6PPD-quinone — that is likely a major cause coho salmon population decline. The chemical gets into waterways through wear and tear from cars and trucks driving on roadways.

I asked Dunn if these tire-based barriers might contribute to the problem of tire chemicals in waterways, and he said the blocks are designed to keep tire chemicals contained within them. However, as with any tire those elements could be released if they are broken or crushed. The blocks are made of about 90% tire “crumb,” then Pretred uses polyurethane to encapsulate it and hold it together. When they are just sitting there getting rained on, they are designed not to release tire chemicals into the runoff, he said.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

Seattle is the first test city for a new bike lane barrier made of recycled tires

The pitch is great: Let’s take a car culture waste product that would otherwise be burned and instead turn it into a barrier to protect the lives of people biking. That’s the concept behind Pretred’s new Paceline barriers, which were designed with bike lanes in mind initially in response to Seattle’s trouble acquiring enough pre-cast concrete barriers for SDOT’s ongoing “even better bike lanes” project. The company used the SDOT order as the impetus to invest in the design and tooling to create these Paceline barriers, which are now for sale to any place that wants them.

Pretred Sales Manager Matt Dunn told Seattle Bike Blog that the Paceline barriers are now “the only U.S.-made bike lane barrier that is more significant than a curb and less significant than a full wall.” The project was personal for Dunn, who was hit by a car while riding his bike. “I wish these barriers would have been there when that happened,” he said, noting, “We’re all cyclists in this office.”

Dunn credited Cascade Bicycle Club Executive Director Lee Lambert with connecting SDOT and Pretred. The department had purchased as many of the precast concrete barriers as were available, but it still wasn’t enough. If Pretred can produce a barrier that is competitive with concrete, that would be a win for all North American cities because it would mean more supply and more competition in the market. Concrete creation also requires a lot of energy and is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Burning tires also releases a lot of greenhouse gasses. Pretred sells itself as a more environmentally-friendly option both for creating barriers and for recycling tires. The company started in 2020 selling what they call Colorado barriers, which can be used either in place of a Jersey barrier or as a base to support weight.

When fully rebuilding a road engineers can include curbs and barriers from the start, such as the new bike lanes along the waterfront. We cannot wait for full roadway rebuild projects to build out our city’s bike network, so we need tools for medium-term bike lane installs for the time between now and the street’s next major repaving project. Sometimes referred to as “Toronto barriers” for some reason, pre-cast concrete barriers are an excellent option for creating a significant barrier on an existing road surface. The Toronto-style barriers are shorter and skinnier than a highway-style Jersey barrier but provide significantly more deterrence than plastic reflective posts. Cities like Seattle need a barrier that protects bike lanes from motor vehicles without making streets look and feel like highways, and this is a tricky balance. DOTs would also like to avoid the need for constant maintenance.

The new tire-based barriers are a different take on the concept. The come in segments two feet long that link together. The 80-pound segments are lighter than concrete, making them easier to install and to move by hand if necessary, but this also means they are easier for motor vehicles to displace. They lie somewhere between a parking stop and a Toronto barrier, which could be the sweet spot cities are looking for if they can prove durable and effective under the strains of city streets. The material cost is about $24 per foot plus additional costs for the end treatments of each connected segment, Dunn said. Agencies can install posts on the blocks for either signage or additional reflectors, though SDOT did not do so as part of this project. Some reflective plastic posts might not be a bad idea, especially on curves and end points where strikes are more likely, though each block does have front and rear reflectors.

When struck, the tire barrier segments may get gouged but hopefully will be less likely to fully crack and fail. If they do fail, crews should be able to use regular work vehicles and tools to replace the damaged segments more quickly and easily. Concrete barriers are so heavy that they require a forklift or similar piece of machinery to move and install, which could lead to longer waits for repairs as we saw with the bike lane on the Airport Way bridge near Georgetown recently. The barrier was struck (and did its job!), but a section was left sticking into the bike lane for a while before crews could repair it.

The tire-based barriers may not leave as much damage on any vehicles that strike it, but they also should not be as difficult to repair. We don’t need to imagine what this would look like because the test segment has already experienced its first major strike. I went down to Campus Parkway to check it out and found a section under the bridge that clearly got hit by something significant. Not sure if it was a car, truck or bus, though the level of damage makes me think it could have been something more on the bigger side. Bolts were bent and multiple barriers seemed to split at the bolt-mounting point. One barrier section was totally destroyed and was sitting on the roadside. In all, five or six of the segments were damaged. But because of their size and weight, they were not left blocking the bike lane in the meantime, which is nice.

Environmental benefits and concerns

The U.S. wears out a hell of a lot of tires, which are notoriously difficult to dispose of. When burned, they produce a relatively low amount of heat for a long time. That’s why tire fires can last so long. They also release a lot of nasty stuff into the air.

There have been many attempts to find other creative and profitable uses for tire waste, including using tire crumbs as part of an artificial athletic or playground surface. The EPA, CDC and CPSC have been studying the possible health impacts of these surfaces, though there don’t seem to be any clear conclusions yet (though we know it’s bad for kids to eat them). Tires contain a lot of harmful chemicals, researchers just don’t know the extent that using tires in play surfaces might lead to harmful exposure. Meanwhile, researchers at UW have identified a tire chemical — 6PPD-quinone — that is likely a major cause coho salmon population decline. The chemical gets into waterways through wear and tear from cars and trucks driving on roadways.

I asked Dunn if these tire-based barriers might contribute to the problem of tire chemicals in waterways, and he said the blocks are designed to keep tire chemicals contained within them. However, as with any tire those elements could be released if they are broken or crushed. The blocks are made of about 90% tire “crumb,” then Pretred uses polyurethane to encapsulate it and hold it together. When they are just sitting there getting rained on, they are designed not to release tire chemicals into the runoff, he said.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

Under Mayor Harrell’s leadership, bike, walk and bus improvements that required years of outreach can be removed without any notice

When neighbors asked the city to make Lake Washington Boulevard safer for people walking and biking, the city kicked off a half-decade public outreach process that stalled out once Bruce Harrell became mayor before concluding with a lackluster plan to add some speed humps and a couple stop signs. Then without any outreach at all, Seattle Parks this summer announced they were cancelling the rest of the speed humps and stop signs after building just a handful of them.

But when a few business and property owners asked the city to allow cars to use the bus-only access point to westbound Union Street from Madison Street that was part of the extensive RapidRide G project, SDOT got to work making it happen without any public outreach at all. How will allowing car traffic affect crosswalk safety? How will the change impact safety for the eastbound bike lane? I cannot tell you because there is no project website, and SDOT has not yet responded to my requests for more details even though the project is already under construction. The only reason we even know this is happening is because someone from Central Seattle Greenways saw workers jackhammering away and asked them about it.

When Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck heard about the surprise change, she went there herself and talked to the work crews to find out what’s happening. Then she posted a video saying that she “disagrees with SDOT’s decision” and her staff is working on what to do “before this Saturday” when crews are scheduled to conduct more work.

https://bsky.app/profile/councilmember-amr.bsky.social/post/3m263tlgg2c25

The Transit Riders Union also has an online petition going to “Save our Union St bus lane!” that has 2,145 signatures as of press time. CHS also reports that TRU is planning a protest rally at the site 8 a.m. Saturday morning.

There are multiple layers of insult at work here. There’s the fact that the city would choose to allow cars to drive in what is currently a car-free access point to the Pike/Pine business district. Worse, the city is doing it without any public outreach or even any prior notification. Even worse still, the city is demonstrating a gross double-standard in which community efforts to improve our streets for walking, biking or transit are forced to slog through an endless public process while a change that benefits car drivers at the direct expense of everyone else does require any public notice at all. Worried about your kid getting killed while biking to the park? Organize a big public campaign, get your fix into the annual city budget, then engage with a public outreach consultant for one to five years and then maybe the city will fix the issue or at least do a little something that is better than nothing. Are you a property owner who wants to allow cars in the busway? Just fire off a few emails and it will happen with no process at all.

“Over the last few months, communications were restarted primarily at the request of Dunn & Hobbes, the owner of the Chophouse property, Hunters Capital, and Madrona Real Estate along with business representatives on 12th Avenue north of Madison Street,” an SDOT spokesperson told Capitol Hill Seattle. They went on to stress to CHS that the project is intended to help people driving into the heart of Capitol Hill from the Eastside and other wealthy Seattle neighborhoods. “While development in the area is meant to maximize the appeal of dense urban living, coming off the impacts of COVID and challenges of major street and sidewalk construction, representatives had specific concerns about customers who drive from the Eastside or neighborhoods like Madison Park and Madrona […] They are having a hard time getting to their destinations or are confused by the new traffic pattern.”

This is a pattern for the city under Mayor Harrell. When SDOT repaved Denny Way, there was hardly any discussion at all about adding desperately-needed bus lanes as part of the very high-budget project despite our city’s stated goals of prioritizing walking, biking and transit improvements when making transportation investments. The city was only forced to give their unconvincing reasons for excluding the bus lanes after hundreds of people clowned on them by racing (and defeating) the 8 bus while playing leap frog and line dancing and performing other silly displays of bus inefficiency on the street. As Ryan Packer at the Urbanist put it, “What’s easier than adding a bus lane in Seattle? Deleting one.” This little bus lane on Union Street is itself worth fighting for, but it is also representative of a larger recurring problem with Mayor Harrell’s SDOT that has been getting much worse since the departure of former SDOT Director Greg Spotts. Harrell is demonstrating how he will handle transportation issues in his second term when he no longer needs to convince voters to pass a major transportation levy, which is why Seattle Bike Blog has endorsed his opponent Katie Wilson.

Allowing cars through here will have a direct negative impact on biking and walking because people will now have a whole new source of car traffic to cross that wasn’t there before. There will be new conflict points and new delays. From what I have been able to discern, no bike groups were consulted about the changes or how to handle the new crossing. People heading east on Union need to transition from a one-way bike lane on the south side of the street to a two-way bike lane on the north side of the street. Before workers destroyed it this week, that transition happened near the bus lane, so people biking east only have to cross a single bus-only lane to get from the one-way lane to the two-way lane:

But by allowing oncoming car traffic, the city also feels the need to change the bike lane transition. It sounds like SDOT is rolling out their go-to solution that everyone hates: A diagonal bike lane crossing through the middle of an all-way stop intersection. I cannot confirm the details because SDOT has not published materials about them, but an SDOT spokesperson told CHS they would be “redirecting people biking eastbound to the north side of Union St sooner, to shift the crossing from midblock to the all-way stop controlled intersection at 11th Ave and Union St.” So I assume it will be the mirror version of the 9th and John intersection near Denny Park:

Navigating an intersection like this is a dramatically worse biking experience than crossing a single bus-only lane. It is both less safe and less inviting to use. It’s not the worst possible bike crossing, but it has some significant issues. The problem with these diagonal crossings is that people biking have a very long crossing and must watch for threats in a 270-degree range the whole time because there are four different places where someone in a car could blow through the stop sign or proceed out of turn because they don’t understand that you are going to bike diagonally. Biking safely in a city requires riders to always be on the lookout for someone in a car who is not following the rules because you bear the consequences of their mistakes, and these diagonal crossings have so many possible conflict points riders have to watch for all at the same time. Would you feel comfortable letting an 8-year-old child navigate through this intersection on her own? Because that’s the all ages and abilities standard we are supposed to be trying to achieve, and it falls short here.

SDOT should cancel work on this project and restore the previous condition. Then if they want to put forward a proposal to reopen it to car traffic, they can make their case to the public about why we should invest public money to make it easier for more people to drive cars into the heart of the Pike/Pine business district and listen to people’s feedback. If they can’t make a good case, then they shouldn’t do it. Maybe realigning the bike lane is the best option for bus and street operations for reasons I can’t figure out on my own. That’s totally possible, but they haven’t given folks any chances to understand what is happening or why, so the public’s only real option is to demand that work stop. I’m not saying it needs endless outreach, but there should be some happy point between zero notice and a half decade of consultant-led meetings. And the same standard should apply to walk, bike and transit improvements as well. Propose a change, listen to feedback, make a decision.

I will update this post if I hear back from SDOT (I asked for project design drawings and whether they had conducted any outreach).

https://bsky.app/profile/mattbaume.bsky.social/post/3m26egjfuss2r

#SEAbikes #Seattle

Growth, Gains and Greatness: One Year of RapidRide G
https://kingcountymetro.blog/2025/09/12/growth-gains-and-greatness-one-year-of-rapidride-g/
#KingCountyMetro #RapidRideGLine #MadisonStreet #Community #RapidRide #News #SDOT

Growth, Gains and Greatness: One Year of RapidRide G
https://kingcountymetro.blog/2025/09/12/growth-gains-and-greatness-one-year-of-rapidride-g/
#KingCountyMetro #RapidRideGLine #MadisonStreet #Community #RapidRide #News #SDOT

Growth, Gains and Greatness: One Year of RapidRide G
https://kingcountymetro.blog/2025/09/12/growth-gains-and-greatness-one-year-of-rapidride-g/
#KingCountyMetro #RapidRideGLine #MadisonStreet #Community #RapidRide #News #SDOT

Look at the early designs and some proposals for the recently announced Belltown to Seattle Center Connection project and visualize how this bike infrastructure might appear in my video:
https://youtu.be/chNjzjeydDU
#seattle #pnw #SEAbikes #BikeTooter #sdot

Includes designs by SDOT & @seabikeblog

Thank you Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) for keeping the cycle lanes clean!

#BikeTooter #SEABikes #SDOT

With Alaskan Way bikeway opening, Seattle has a complete bike route along its downtown waterfront for the first time in city history

SDOT finished up work on the new Alaskan Way bikeway between Myrtle Edwards Park and the Overlook Walk, just in time for Friday’s much-awaited opening of the new park and playground at Pier 58.

For the first time in the city’s history, Seattle will have a complete and connected bike path on its downtown waterfront. For generations, anyone biking along the waterfront had to choose between mixing with busy car and truck traffic or wading through crowded sidewalks. Most opted for a third option: Avoid biking on the waterfront unless absolutely necessary.

That all changed this year, and Thursday’s opening of the Alaskan Way bikeway has made it official. The waterfront (should we rename it the Dzidzilalich Trail?) is poised to be the new busiest bike route in the city, challenging the Westlake bikeway and even the storied Burke-Gilman Trail. It’s a route that is both appealing to tourists and useful for transportation. Riding along the waterfront will soon be in every “What to do in Seattle” guide. It will be a defining and lasting part of downtown Seattle culture, the kind of thing newcomers and visitors will assume has always been there.

Yes, I wish the surface roadway along the central waterfront segment were skinnier and the walking and biking spaces were wider, but even those skinnier-than-they-should-be bike lanes are glorious.

It’s wild to think that a continuous bike connection to Myrtle Edwards Park and the Elliott Bay Trail almost didn’t happen. It took a huge amount of organizing and community advocacy to convince the city to add it to the to-do list. Seattle Neighborhood Greenways and Cascade Bicycle Club both put a lot of effort into it, and the project’s fate ultimately relied on leadership from Seattle Port Commissioners who powered through a lot of resistance from the cruise terminal to find a solution. It is very easy to imagine a scenario where they just said, “No, a path won’t work here,” and then dug in their heels to stop it. Instead, a unique compromise was found in which the bike route will detour around the cruise terminal only during loading and unloading hours. We’ll have to watch to see how this arrangement works in practice, but it is great that people should not be forced to cross the street twice during the majority of the time when there is no cruise activity.

It is now possible to bike from the Ship Canal Trail to Alki without ever mixing with car through-traffic (there’s a short on-street section in Interbay, but it’s on a dead-end street and is low-stress). If you walk your bike across the Ballard Locks, you can even bike more than 15 miles from Golden Gardens to Alki Beach via the Seattle downtown waterfront without mixing with car through-traffic at any point. Not long ago, this concept seemed like the stuff of dreams. Freaking awesome.

It has taken generations of advocacy dating back to at least the 1960s and decades of investments from the city, the port, the state and even the federal government to get us to this point. The nine-year Move Seattle Levy, which expired at the end of 2024, set out with a goal of connecting our disparate bike network, and the finishing of this final waterfront gap is that levy’s mic drop. The people of Seattle invested in ourselves, and it paid off.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

SDOT needs a goddamn intervention

#seattle #sdot #BikeMap #maps #BikeTooter #design

City plans to add 150 parking spaces next to too-skinny Alki Trail + An easy way to widen the trail as part of the project

SDOT recently updated its plans for changing how parking works along Alki Avenue SW with a note that they now plan to add 150 parallel parking spaces to the water side of the street adjacent to the Alki Trail by mid-June.

The city’s current plan, created at the request of Councilmember Rob Saka, is to simply add these parking spaces without making other improvements, which means parked car doors would open onto the Alki Trail. “Wheel stops are not here, as these spaces will be adjacent to the curb” on Alki Ave between the 1200 and 1700 blocks, SDOT told West Seattle Blog. Such a design would create new hazards to trail users who are already squeezed into a sub-standard 10-foot-wide space (12 to 14 feet is more appropriate for a heavily-used two-way trail). Trail users often ride in the painted buffer area, weaving around the street signs placed there, because the trail is not wide enough for comfortable passing. Under this design, riders in that space would also be at risk from car doors. Seattle Bike Blog strongly opposes adding curbside parking to the road as it is for this reason (it would also degrade views of Elliott Bay, but that’s a different concern).

SDOT is collecting feedback on the plan via a one-question online survey. West Seattle Blog first reported the new plan to add the new trailside parking in a May 29 story, giving anyone opposed to the change very little time to respond (funny how improving bike conditions requires seemingly endless public outreach but making bike conditions worse barely requires any outreach at all).

However, there could be an opportunity to improve the trail and further calm traffic on Alki Ave at the same time. This section of the Alki Trail has a painted line on the street side marking off about four or so feet of space where the city has placed signposts, mostly NO PARKING signs that would need to be removed, anyway. If the city creates a new buffer space on the street between the parked cars and the trail and removes the signs in the existing painted area, they could effectively widen the Alki Trail to a more appropriate 13–14 feet while also retaining 10.5-foot general traffic lanes and two parking lanes. Such a design could also be extended all the way to Alki Beach.

I created some diagrams using Streetmix to illustrate the idea. You can play around with ideas yourself using the existing conditions example I created:

There are also opportunities to dramatically improve the bus stops along the street:

Perhaps the biggest benefit of all would be the dramatically shorter crosswalks. People crossing the street today are exposed to traffic for at least 28 feet, but sometimes 35 feet if the parking lane is open. We can get that down to 22 feet or maybe even less, which would make the crosswalks much safer and more comfortable.

Alki Ave does need more traffic calming, and parked cars are one way to accomplish that. It’s not my favorite method because parked cars create visibility issues, but anything that reduces the extreme width of a 20-foot lane will help reduce speeding. I hope that the city does not use their rushed schedule as an excuse to ignore ideas that could make the street better.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

Dearborn bike lane barriers removed for bridge painting through 2026, but crews will install temporary barricades

"The new plan sounds good, but it’s a bit concerning bike riders weren’t fully considered before work began."

I agree it's a pretty significant oversight. I hope this doesn't represent SDOT's general attitude towards people cycling.

#BikeTooter #SDOT #SafeStreets

Lane reconfiguration with a new cycle lane is happening on N 130th between Stone Way N and 1st Ave NE!

#Seattle #VisionZero #BikeTooter #SEABikes #SDOT #SafeStreets

Unfortunately, "We have corrected walk signal messages in multiple locations and continue to respond to tampered push buttons as we learn of them," SDOT said in a statement.

#SDOT

Early data shows Seattle halved pedestrian deaths and had zero bicycling deaths in 2024

I have no idea how this happened. As some comments suggest, moving violations have become more rampant in the last couple of years as we "come out of" the pandemic. I mean it's great news, but I don't want #SDOT to slow down their work because of this.

#Seattle

Article by @[email protected]

I hope #SDOT reconfigures N 85th west of Aurora so buses can run more smoothly without being stuck in traffic.

#Seattle #BusOnlyLane

Extensive SDOT study finds the Alki Point Healthy Street works well and is popular

After surveying 1,200 people (PDF) and writing a 50-page report (PDF), SDOT has determined that calming traffic and upgrading the walking and biking spaces on a handful of blocks at Alki Point has increased walking and biking use, has made people feel safer, and has not caused a parking crunch as detractors feared.

The Alki Point Healthy Street is a permanent upgrade to the scenic beachside street near the lighthouse where Alki Ave SW curves and turns into Beach Drive SW that was constructed in 2024 and builds on some temporary safe streets measures that started in 2020. The design added a new separated biking and walking path along the beach side of Beach Drive as well as a traffic diverter (AKA a “modal filter”) on Alki Ave at 64th Place SW.

In response to concerns about the loss of parking, SDOT found ways to formalize additional parking in the area. Staff also conducted multiple parking use studies and found that the majority of areas are less than half utilized (with several parking areas sitting more than 80% empty most the time). The fullest parking areas they recorded during 8 different surveys taken over a four-month span still had 9% of spaces available, and there was ample parking nearby those mostly full areas. Will this data satisfy everyone? It never does. But hopefully it satisfies decision makers who will likely still get some complaints.

The report is affirming to all the local advocates who have put a lot of time and energy into supporting this project during its years of development. It also puts SDOT in a good position to make further improvements like extending the project one more block along Beach Drive.

One big subjective improvement from the new design on Beach Drive other than the added elbow room for people walking and biking is that parked cars no longer block the view of the beach and Puget Sound. Especially as the average car keeps getting bigger and taller, parallel parking along the street can obscure the connection between the neighborhood and the waterfront. This is such a special place in the city, and it needs to be celebrated rather than blocked off by a wall of parked cars.

SDOT measured significantly more people walking and biking on the street in 2024 after the changes compared to 2020, 2021 and 2022, but I’m not sure how useful these comparisons are since a lot has changed about people’s travel patterns due to the pandemic restrictions in those earlier years. For example, driving is also up on Beach Drive during the same time period. As a general rule for Seattle Bike Blog coverage, I try to compare to pre-pandemic travel data and skip over early 20s numbers for any story that’s not specifically about the pandemic. The 2020 Seattle Traffic Report (PDF), which is based on 2019 data, has become a very important document for this reason. Unfortunately, SDOT does not have count data from before 2020 for this stretch of the road because it’s not classified as an arterial roadway. So we know the numbers are up, but it’s hard to pick out the effect of the improvements versus the effect of the pandemic.

The survey results support the idea that at least some of the increase is due to the changes with 71% of respondents saying they felt safe using the improved street and 57% saying the improvements have made them more likely to visit the area. Many respondents suggested further improvements like making the street one-way, improving signage and partnering with Seattle Parks to program the space. There was also support for finishing the final block of the project on Beach Dr between 64th and 63rd Avenues SW, which SDOT is planning in 2025. The city also plans to create a new crosswalk on 63rd at Beach Dr, improve the design of the cul-de-sac on Alki Ave, adjust some signage, and add street art to the walking and biking path.

There was opposition to the project, though, led by a group calling itself “Alki Point for All,” as West Seattle Blog reported. 28% of survey respondents said they “have difficulty accessing the Alki Point Healthy Street because of parking.” But the city’s eight different parking studies showed plenty of parking available. 25% of respondents also said they use the street by “parking on Beach Dr SW to enjoy the view from my vehicle.” Honestly, this doesn’t seem like the kind of use case the city needs to prioritize, especially since there are plenty of open spots on the east side of the street at least most of the time. People can still see the view from there. The most confusing claims from the Alki Point for All group has been that removing parking on the beachside of the street would somehow harm people’s ability to do marine mammal rescue or for kids to take field trips to the beach. The project does neither of those things. If anything, the wider walking path will make walking with a large group of kids easier and safer. And, again, there is still parking on the east side of the street. Meanwhile, pollution from cars, including oil and tire dust that washes into waterways and the sound, is directly linked to marine life harm such as the devastation of local coho salmon populations that marine mammals like orcas rely on. You would hope that advocates for marine life would be looking for opportunities to support efforts that make it easier for people to get around without cars, such as the Alki Point Healthy Street project. The group also claimed that “the loss of parking means that even fewer people will be able to visit Alki Point” and that “this soul-nurturing view, and access to marine life, should not belong to a privileged few.” Well, SDOT data shows the project increased the number of people using the street. So, that’s good news, right? Or does the view only nurture the soul if seen through a car window? And how can you argue that reserving 100% of the roadway for traffic and parking is “for all,” but having a walking and biking path on one side and parking on the other is exclusionary? These arguments are really, strange, right? Am I missing something?

In the end, SDOT summed up its findings this way:

• Alki Point Healthy Street permanent improvements have successfully improved perceptions of comfort and safety for people walking and biking.
• Use of the Alki Point Healthy Street by people walking and biking has continued to increase.
• People driving have also returned to the Alki Point Healthy Street and are typically able to find parking.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

Seattle prepares to pass budget with huge increases for safe streets + What CM Saka should do about Delridge

Thanks to Seattle voters, in 2025 the city is poised to invest $21 million in new sidewalks, $4.2 million in sidewalk repairs, $8.6 million in Vision Zero, $1.6 million in Safe Routes to School, $9.8 million in new protected bike lanes, and $1 million to upgrade existing bike lane barriers. To deliver all this, they are also going on a hiring spree, so if you know anything about building sidewalks you should keep an eye out for job listings.

The sidewalks funding line is particularly eye-catching and is the result of a decision to front-load sidewalk construction early in the first four years of the levy. Not only will this result in more sidewalks sooner, it should also help prevent sidewalks from getting cut in future years if some unforeseen issue arises that leads to cuts in the levy spending plan.

SDOT could get an even faster start if the Council dropped their proposed proviso on about half the levy funds for 2025 ($89 million), which would prevent the department from accessing those funds until they have presented a spending plan that the council approves. The council could instead request a spending plan by a certain date without holding up the funds, and they can always take action at that point if they want to change something. SDOT has a huge amount of work to complete in just eight years, including the time-consuming process of finding, hiring and onboarding new staff. Getting a slow start on Move Seattle projects was a huge problem for the previous levy, and a mistake the city should not repeat. The Council should not get in their way unnecessarily.

Seattle Neighborhood Greenways has put out an action alert urging folks to contact Councilmembers with a set of asks outlined at the bottom of this post. You can find documents regarding the Council’s budget amendments via the 2025-26 budget’s Legistar page. Many are within the “proposed consent amendment package,” though the final outstanding changes are in the “amendments for individual vote.” You may also need to reference Mayor Bruce Harrell’s proposed budget, which is found on a completely different website. The Council is debating amendments this week and will make their final votes on Tuesday and Thursday next week.

As part of the consent package, City Council has proposed creating a new $7 million per year Council District Fund within the SDOT budget for “neighborhood-scale traffic safety improvements and other district transportation priorities at the direction of the City Council.” In other words, a council slush fund. This would be a rare diversion from the usual way council and mayoral duties are divided in Seattle since Council rarely ever “directs” a department. Usually, the council is limited to providing (or placing conditions on) funding and setting official policy, but the actions of the departments nearly always go through the mayor.

I know “slush funds” have a bad rep, but I’m very interested to see how this new fund works in practice. It could be nice for Councilmembers to actually be able to respond more quickly to reasonable smallish requests from constituents. It’s frustrating for everyone when, say, a group of neighbors ask for a stop sign only to run into a dead end trying to get it onto SDOT’s workplan. But I’m sure the quality of return the public gets from these investments will vary greatly depending on the Councilmember directing the funds. I am also very interested to see what happens if a councilmember directs a project that the mayor opposes. Whose “direction” will win?

There are a handful of items that are still up for debate. We reported yesterday about the Council’s proposed actions to come up with a plan to shut down the South Lake Union Streetcar and remove the Center City Streetcar from the capital improvements list, so I won’t go into that again here.

Councilmember Sara Nelson has proposed a pointless and frankly obnoxious amendment that would “Request that SDOT provide a report on the performance measures and evaluation criteria used for consideration of bus-only lanes.” Specifically, she wants the report to detail how SDOT evaluates things like the “impact on general traffic capacity and congestion” and “any measures SDOT may take to mitigate potential underperformance.” Nelson and the rest of the City Council just passed a massive policy document called the Seattle Transportation Plan, and it includes meticulous explanations for how and why the city will make various transportation improvements including bus-only lanes. Here’s the transit section (PDF), which has a whole section starting on page T-62 about “defining success” that lists all the ways SDOT will measure outcomes from transit investments. Nelson either doesn’t understand what she voted for when approving the Seattle Transportation Plan or she is trying to undermine it. For example, the city very intentionally shifted to metrics that “prioritize person-throughput rather than vehicle throughput,” (page T-66) not metrics that prioritize the “impact on general traffic capacity.” Council should vote no on this one.

The transportation amendment that has gotten the most attention (other than the streetcar) is probably Councilmember Saka’s $2 million project in the consent package to allow left turns into the Refugee and Immigrant Family Center Bilingual Preschool. This is the site of the Delridge Way SW centerline curb that Saka infamously compared to the Trump border wall in an email years before he ran for City Council, as reported by Publicola. We addressed this location and those emails with Councilmember Saka in an introductory interview at the start of the year when he was named Chair of the Transportation Committee. That little curb, which prevents left turns into and out of the preschool his kids attended, was one frustration that helped set him down the path to running for office. The inflammatory border wall comment is hanging over the conversation about this amendment, but that annoying curb is one symptom of larger and genuinely frustrating issues with the Delridge design.

If I were to advise Councilmember Saka on this, I would suggest clearing the air about the border wall comparison. Mea culpa. Then expand the scope of this amendment to address issues at the core of the Delridge design problem so that the benefits expand across the neighborhood rather than just this one preschool, which feels a bit too specific for a public investment of this scale. Folks at the preschool were not the only ones who were ignored during the creation of this Durkan-era planning monstrosity. Many of the oddities on the street design (like the center buffer areas that look like turn lanes but aren’t or the fact that there’s only one bike lane on a two-way street) are because the street has three lanes southbound (one general, one bus and one bike) and one lane northbound, which is pure nonsense. Traffic is not heaver in one direction than the other, so why on earth would the road be designed this way? It’s as though the street thinks people head south and never come back. This is the actual source of Councilmember Saka’s issue. That center line curb is only needed because people would have to turn across multiple lanes plus the bike lane, a scenario we know to be potentially dangerous. The curb itself is not the problem, it’s a symptom of the street design’s illness. With a left turn pocket instead of a second southbound lane, people would only need to turn across one lane plus the bike lane, which is easier to do safely. All the unmarked crosswalks along Delridge would also become much safer with only one lane in each direction, another benefit. The primary tradeoff would be that southbound buses would need to use in-lane stops the way northbound buses already do, and SDOT staff would need to check that this would not negatively impact transit service. It would also be amazing if this project could add the missing northbound bike lane to the street because it makes no sense to have a protected bike lane in only one direction. I’d go as far as to say the Delridge street design is downright embarrassing to the city and the RapidRide name.

Below is the text of the amendment as currently written. Hopefully Councilmember Saka will do a rewrite before final passage:

This Council Budget Action (CBA) would impose a proviso on $2 million of appropriations in the Seattle Department of Transportation’s (SDOT’s) budget to make improvements to Delridge Way SW near the SW Holly St right-of-way to allow for left-turn ingress and egress from adjoining properties, including the Refugee and Immigrant Family Center Bilingual Preschool. These improvements would resolve access conflicts with the operation of the Delridge RapidRide service. It is the Council’s expectation that SDOT shall deliver these improvements, and that SDOT will begin project development and implementation no later than August 1, 2025.

One small note is that the revised budget reverses about $8 million over two years that the mayor’s initial levy-free budget had planned to add for “protected bike lanes and transit corridor improvements,” largely work that had been delayed past the end of the Move Seattle Levy. The plan from the start was to instead use Seattle Transportation Levy funds for these projects if voters approved it, which they did. When I initially saw the reduction in bike lane spending, I was concerned. But after a lot of budget diving and searching (can Seattle please make this process easier to follow?), I finally figured out that the “cuts” were from the mayor’s proposed budget, which had to be written assuming the levy would fail. The mayor’s office had cobbled together funds to finish projects that went past the Move Seattle Levy end point so that even if voters did not approve the levy, those projects could still be completed. Once the levy passed, those cobbled together funds were removed as planned. So really this change is not a problem, but I am leaving this paragraph here just in case someone else discovers those apparent “cuts” and has the same concern I did.

Seattle Neighborhood Greenways sent out an action alert calling for the following budget changes:

1. No cuts to Accessibility. There is a massive backlog to make our streets accessible for everyone. Funding from the newly passed transportation levy will make large investments in accessibility, but unfortunately the City Council is proposing to cut some of existing ADA funding in the mayor’s proposed budget. The levy is meant to be additive, not a replacement for existing funds. 
2. Don’t undo valuable safety projects. An amendment proposed by Councilmember Saka would spend $2M of taxpayers’ dollars to remove a safety barrier that prevents an illegal left turn into a parking lot on Delridge Way SW. Traffic safety barriers prevent the hitting and killing of pedestrians.
3. Do not hold Levy funding hostage. Council already approved this levy proposal in July before sending the package to voters. But now they’re proposing a proviso on half the levy, or $89M. This would delay SDOT hiring new staff and hinder their ability to advance projects quickly in 2025, and holds hostage funding that voters just approved by a landslide.
4. Automated camera revenue needs to go back into traffic safety. The 2025 budget includes an expansion of automated school zone speed cameras while diverting revenue from automated enforcement away from physical street improvements that keep kids safe on their way to school. Any automated enforcement cameras should be a temporary solution, and all revenue should go towards physical street improvements.
5. We also stand in support of the Solidarity Budget Coalition’s push against austerity budgeting. We need to shift funding from criminalization to invest in community needs and pass new progressive revenue to adequately fund our city’s needs. See here for more details.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

Seattle voters approve at least $487M for safe streets

The Seattle Transportation Levy appears to be sailing to a landslide victory after the initial drop of ballots showed the measure passing with 67% of the vote, a margin that could grow as more ballots are counted.

Over eight years, the levy promises to invest more than $160 million in Vision Zero, $193 million in sidewalks and crosswalks and $133 million in bicycle safety. Those three categories total $487 million for direct investments into safer streets, about double the annual amount in the expiring Move Seattle Levy. It also promises $151 million for transit improvements and $66.5 million for public spaces in addition to $221 million for bridges and $403 million for street maintenance. It does not include any funding for new or expanded roadways.

With these funds in hand, Seattle has the means to make a meaningful push to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries on city streets by 2030, the city’s stated goal since 2015. The city also has the means to make meaningful progress on reducing its largest source of greenhouse gas emissions: Road transportation.

Washington State voters also appear to have rejected I-2117, an effort to repeal the Climate Commitment Act’s carbon tax that funds a lot of active transportation and trail work in the state’s budget. The initial results from election night show 62% of voters rejecting the initiative. This is another huge win for climate action, biking and walking safety, and many other investments. This result should also give WSDOT the state the green light to begin its delayed e-bike rebate program.

The approval these votes by such wide margins are much-needed rays of hope in our community on a very grim day for the nation. I see our community believing in itself and investing in a better tomorrow. We’re not giving up just because the problem seems difficult, even insurmountable at times.

“Tonight’s results demonstrate that Seattle voters are committed to advancing a safer transportation system that benefits all,” said Mayor Bruce Harrell in a statement declaring victory for the levy.

Unfortunately, there are strong echos of 2016 here, when the region passed Sound Transit 3 funding in the same election that Trump won the first time. I went to the ST3 party, and it was grim. People were in tears everywhere, and it was hard to muster much of a cheer when the transit measure passed. It was a big local win overshadowed by a much larger loss.

I know a lot of you are feeling horrible today. It has taken me hours to write this story because my mind keeps drifting back into the doom spiral thinking about our nation’s future. I am grateful that I had a rec league hockey game scheduled last night in Mountlake Terrace. An hour and a half of biking round trip was very helpful for my mental health. Getting outside and moving my body broke up that painful ball of anxiety in my gut so I could at least start working through it. I’m sorry to say that I didn’t come up with any answers to fix our nation’s problems, but I found strength in this thought: Remember that your community loves you.

As I wrote in 2015, the path to the Move Seattle levy “was paved by the lives of people who did not need to die.” The same is unfortunately true in 2024. But Seattle has defiantly responded to a rise in traffic deaths with a rise in traffic safety funding. We refuse to accept that beloved members of our community must die to preserve the status quo on our streets.

Thank you to everyone who worked to make this transportation levy as good as possible, and then everyone who worked to get out the vote and make sure it passed. Special thank you to Rita Hulsman, who did not allow our city’s leaders to take their eye off what really matters in this levy. We have done a genuinely good thing that will save lives and make our city a healthier and better-connected place.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

SNGreenways storymap shows how the 2015 transportation levy ‘made Seattle a safer place for walking, biking and rolling’

The 2015 Move Seattle Levy added nearly 100 miles to Seattle’s bike network, repaired or replaced 44 public staircases, built 1,600 new accessible curb ramps, made 293 transit improvements, repaired 220 blocks of sidewalk and built 350 new blocks of sidewalk. This is in addition to all the other road and bridge maintenance work.

It’s easy to forget how much Seattle has accomplished since voting in 2015 to nearly triple its transportation levy. Now that voters are in the process of deciding whether to increase the levy by yet another 88% annually by voting YES on Seattle’s Proposition 1, it is worth revisiting what the expiring levy has accomplished.

Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, which has endorsed Prop 1 and has been working to get out the vote, created a StoryMap highlighting just a few of the projects that only exist because voters in 2015 approved the levy. Some of my favorite projects that they didn’t list include the Duwamish Trail connection just south of the West Seattle Bridge, the SW Admiral Way bike lanes (do you all remember how scary that climb used to be?), and the Rainier Valley Neighborhood Greenway (though it’s not an effective alternative to Rainier Ave bike lanes, it is a great project on its own). A few more major levy-funded additions are still pending construction, including the Georgetown to Downtown bike route, the Alaskan Way bikeway completing the Elliott Bay Trail, and the in-construction project on 11st/12th Ave NE that will connect to the Eastlake bike lanes as part of the under-construction RapidRide J project.

I, for one, am excited to see what SDOT can accomplish with 86% more annual funding for Vision Zero, 105% more funding for sidewalks, curb ramps and crosswalks, and 108% more funding for bicycle safety. Vote YES on Proposition 1! If you want to help further, sign up for a volunteer effort to get out the vote.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

SDOT set to start Aurora-Licton Springs healthy streets upgrades on N 100th St, Fremont Ave N

SDOT is starting work on a series of new and upgraded healthy streets in the Aurora-Licton Springs area that will connect to the existing 1st Avenue NW healthy street and upgrade the regional Interurban North bike route on Fremont Avenue N. Planned upgrades to connect the route to the John Lewis Memorial walk/bike bridge to Northgate Station and along Ashworth Avenue N near Licton Springs Park are scheduled for 2025.

The biggest improvements will likely be new “modal filters” at key locations that are designed to allow people bike through but create physical barriers to prevent turning or cut-through car traffic. Neither upgrade changes existing rules, but they will hopefully improve compliance and better separate the biking and driving spaces. SDOT crews will also update the signage to make the new no right turns rule more clear. These filters are simple little curbs that could make a big difference because these healthy streets only work if traffic is very low. Only people accessing a home or destination on these streets should be driving there. They should never be useful for avoiding traffic on a nearby arterial. SDOT is installing these new filters at N 100th Street/Greenwood Avenue N and N 105th Street/Fremont Avenue N. Unfortunately, the project stops short of reaching 85th/Fremont, which could use a similar upgrade.

More details on the upcoming work from SDOT:

We are excited to share an update for the Aurora-Licton Springs Healthy Street!  

As soon as late October, we will start construction on the permanent installation of the Aurora-Licton Springs Healthy Street on N 100th St and Fremont Ave N.  

We will install permanent signage with a concrete block base and newly painted curb space around it at each intersection along the Healthy Street. At intersections where Aurora-Licton Springs neighbors requested planters, we will install the permanent signage with a planter sign base. Unauthorized on-street parking located within 20 feet of the intersection will be removed for the permanent sign installation.   

To further improve safety for people walking and biking along the Aurora-Licton Springs Healthy Street and discourage cut-through traffic, we will construct additional safety enhancements at the intersection of Fremont Ave N and N 105th St. These enhancements will include installing new medians on the north and south sides with cut-throughs for people biking, restricting vehicle turns from N 105th St onto Fremont Ave N, and maintaining existing left and right turn only restrictions for vehicles on Fremont Ave N at N 105th St.  

We designed these enhancements to discourage pass-through vehicle traffic along the Healthy Street, improve access to the Interurban Trail, and provide safe space for people walking and biking. Visit our project webpage to learn more about the enhancements coming to six different intersections along the Aurora-Licton Springs Healthy Street.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

Seattle will pay $5.75M to two people who say streetcar tracks caused their bike crashes

Even after a series of widely-publicized crashes on the Jackson Street streetcar tracks years prior, the City of Seattle failed to make the street reasonably safe for people riding bikes. So after Janet Ball and Eric Boris crashed there in two separate incidents in 2019, they sued the city for negligence. The city settled the joint case out of court for $5.75 million, with $5.5 million going to Ball (who suffered more significant injuries) and $250,000 going to Boris. In the settlement agreement (PDF), the city did not admit fault or commit to fixing the hazardous conditions in the blocks near the intersection of 5th Avenue, the Seattle Times reported.

The payment amount represents a significant increase over previous injury settlements related to people crashing on the First Hill Streetcar tracks while biking. Seattle settled with the family of Desiree McCloud for $500,000 after she died while biking on Yesler Way in 2016. Video showed her riding between the tracks moments before she suddenly crashed. She never recovered consciousness from her injury and so could not tell us what exactly happened, but friends, family and safe streets advocates (including this site) pointed to the streetcar tracks as the most likely culprit. Daniel Ahrendt was in a horrific collision in which he crashed on the tracks on Jackson Street and was then run over by a Metro bus in 2015. The city settled with him for $1.55 million.

Unfortunately, the more people are injured on these tracks, the more obvious and egregious the city’s liability becomes. Until the city takes real action to improve bicycle safety near the streetcar tracks, people will keep being injured and the settlements will likely keep getting bigger.

The complaint (PDF), put together by a legal team led by Catherine Fleming, is damning. It notes that the consultants hired to advise the city when developing the streetcar design warned of a hazard to people biking. “Rather than provide a clear and safe path for bicyclists on S. Jackson Street as its own consultants and transportation experts recommended, the City chose not to separate streetcars, the tracks, and buses from bicyclists,” the complaint states, citing a 2010 memo from Alta Planning + Design.

A minimum of 15 people crashed on the First Hill Streetcar tracks between the time they were installed in 2013 and the time of the incidents in 2019. I say minimum because there is no consistent way for people to document their crashes. When a collision involves another party, such as a car driver, police are typically called to make a report. But when someone crashes on the tracks, such reports are rare and inconsistent. It is now 2024, and not only are there no bike lanes on Jackson Street but most of the same hazards are still present as well. Next to nothing has been done to prevent similar injuries to those suffered by Janet and Eric.

Stay tuned for a follow-up story outlining some options for making the street safer.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

Complete: Route 48 project supports more reliable bus trips between Mount Baker, Central District and UW
https://kingcountymetro.blog/2024/08/22/complete-route-48-project-supports-more-reliable-bus-trips-between-mount-baker-central-district-and-uw/
#KingCountyMetro #Projects #Route48 #Seattle #News #SDOT

Complete: Route 48 project supports more reliable bus trips between Mount Baker, Central District and UW
https://kingcountymetro.blog/2024/08/22/complete-route-48-project-supports-more-reliable-bus-trips-between-mount-baker-central-district-and-uw/
#KingCountyMetro #Projects #Route48 #Seattle #News #SDOT

Complete: Route 48 project supports more reliable bus trips between Mount Baker, Central District and UW
https://kingcountymetro.blog/2024/08/22/complete-route-48-project-supports-more-reliable-bus-trips-between-mount-baker-central-district-and-uw/
#KingCountyMetro #Projects #Route48 #Seattle #News #SDOT

Complete: Route 48 project supports more reliable bus trips between Mount Baker, Central District and UW
https://kingcountymetro.blog/2024/08/22/complete-route-48-project-supports-more-reliable-bus-trips-between-mount-baker-central-district-and-uw/
#KingCountyMetro #Projects #Route48 #Seattle #News #SDOT

Seattle decided 9 years ago to kill the SLU Streetcar

The South Lake Union Streetcar broke down Friday, August 9, and nobody even noticed until King County Metro and SDOT sent out a press release about it the next Monday. Like, I searched through social media posts and could not find a single person mentioning issues riding the streetcar line the entire weekend that it was out of operation. Perhaps even more damning for the line is that Metro and SDOT are not even running any kind of replacement service while the streetcar is out of commission, noting that riders are served by existing service on Routes 40, 70 and RapidRide C.

The thing that baffles me about this line is that people keep acting like the city needs to decide what to do with it when Seattle already made this decision nine years ago. The RapidRide J project was initially proposed as an extension of the streetcar from its odd terminus in the middle of Fairview Ave N north to Roosevelt Station, but Seattle decided in 2015 to make the project a bus line instead. The ongoing Route 40 Transit-Plus project was also once vaguely envisioned as a streetcar line (complete with a new Ship Canal crossing), but is now a set of bus reliability improvements. The time to fight for the streetcar happened a decade ago, and the streetcar lost.

Around the same time, SDOT made a smart decision to add transit-only lanes to Westlake Ave so Metro could extend the RapidRide C line through South Lake Union along much of the streetcar route. It was an effective and low-cost way to dramatically improve transit service in the neighborhood, but it also made the streetcar even less necessary. Many riders using the shared bus and streetcar stops just hop on whichever comes first because level of service matters far more than what kind of wheels the transit vehicle has.

These days, the SLU Streetcar carries an average of 494 weekday trips, the Seattle Times reported. It costs $4.6 million per year to operate, though advertising helps offset some of that. That operating cost would be fine if the ridership were strong because transit shouldn’t be expected to make a profit. But 494 weekday rides does not justify that level of ongoing investment. For contrast, the First Hill Streetcar carries a healthier 3,598 trips on an average weekday, though it also has higher annual operating costs. The First Hill line seems to be filling an actual transportation need while the SLU line does not.

Keeping the SLU line alive is a classic case of Seattle indecision. It’s connected to the city’s years of indecision about the downtown streetcar project, which remains stalled due to a $93 million budget gap. Worse, indecision like this can be very damaging to a community because streetcar supporters have reason to keep fighting for it so long as it seems that there’s still a chance. I don’t blame them because the vision of a European-style network of streetcars is genuinely appealing and seems like a vision worth fighting for. But even if the city built the downtown streetcar, there are no plans whatsoever to expand the network any further. We’d still just have one oddly-shaped line for the foreseeable future. The 20-year Seattle Transportation Plan and 8-year levy proposal does not include any additional streetcars. (CORRECTION: As David commented, I missed that the STP does include streetcar extensions north and south on 1st Ave beyond the current design.) These are decisions Seattle has already made.

The streetcar needs to go big or go home, and Seattle has firmly decided not to go big.

Shutting the line down is not an easy decision. There will be costs associated with shuttering it, especially if they do so responsibly by removing or filling in the unused tracks so they do not injure bike and scooter riders. It would also be a shame if the mayor and council used the budget savings to plug the general budget gap rather than investing it in other transit improvements or plans. When the mayor decided to shut down Pronto Cycle Share, the city directed the bike share expansion budget to go to bike lanes on 4th Ave and Pike and Pine Streets downtown instead. Those investments softened the blow of losing our public bike share system, which coincidentally was also a victim of Seattle indecision. Maybe the SLU Streetcar funds could go to exciting projects to speed up the Route 8 bus or early planning for Seattle-led light rail extensions, laying the groundwork for investments the city can feature in the next Seattle Transportation Benefits District vote due in 2026. I don’t know, I’m sure transit planners and advocates have ideas here. There needs to be some kind of organized effort to create a positive exit plan for the funds because this latest shutdown has made the SLU Streetcar an even bigger target for the City Council as they head into what will likely be a very tough budget season.

“Given the low ridership numbers of the South Lake Union line, does it make sense to continue that investment?” Transportation Committee Chair Rob Saka said to the Seattle Times last week. “I don’t have a strong answer yet, but I will definitively be scrutinizing that.”

Perhaps a private company would want to buy the SLU streetcar. Councilmember Saka suggested a “public-private partnership” as a possible way forward. A private company already owns and operates the Seattle Monorail, so maybe there’s a future where something similar happens with the streetcar. Amazon has invested in the streetcar line in the past. Do they like it enough to buy it? Do they want to invest in the downtown extension? Do we as a city even want this level of private transit ownership?

My support for the streetcars evaporated after Daniel Ahrendt was horribly injured and Desiree McCloud died in separate crashes on the First Hill Streetcar tracks. The city has made some bikeway improvements since to mitigate some of the dangers, but especially on Jackson Street many issues remain. The design plans for the streetcar tracks on both First Avenue and Stewart Street are also insufficient from a bike safety standpoint. I wrote extensively about what it would take to make the plans safe, and the project team did not address the issues. I won’t be sad when the city finally declares the project to be dead.

I know reading this is probably a bummer for some of you. It’s a divisive issue among folks who should otherwise be united in the fight for walking, biking and transit. If the SLU Streetcar and downtown plans die as seems likely, I hope streetcar supporters out there can find a positive way to move forward and continue their dedication to advocating for better transit in our city.

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South Lake Union Streetcar service suspended while crews address power issues
https://kingcountymetro.blog/2024/08/13/south-lake-union-streetcar-service-suspended-while-crews-address-power-issues/
#KingCountyMetro #SouthLakeUnionStreetcar #streetcar #Seattle #Metro #News #SDOT

I agree with @seabikeblog that the 2024 #Seattle transportation levy is worth supporting. Is it perfect? No. Are there ways it could fail to meet our expectations? Yes. Is it better than not having it? Absolutely.

I'm tired as hell of the perfect being the enemy of the good.

https://www.seattlebikeblog.com/2024/07/16/endorsement-the-seattle-transportation-levy-will-be-a-massive-investment-in-safe-efficient-streets/

#2024GeneralElection, #2024TransportationFundingMeasure, #Sdot

SDOT begins work on permanent remake of 3rd/Yesler

After years of piloting solutions and testing how they impact transit service, SDOT is beginning work on a rebuild of the complicated intersection at 3rd Ave and Yesler Way in Pioneer Square that they hope will prevent the potentially deadly collisions that were unfortunately common there previously.

“The intersection of 3rd and Yesler has experienced a high number of collisions for people walking and biking,” wrote SDOT on the project webpage. “In particular, drivers are prone to hitting pedestrians in the west and north crosswalks of 3rd and Yesler. ​To mitigate these collisions, we are making safety improvements that we have tested over the past two years.”

The intersection also serves as a connection between the 2nd and 4th Avenue bike lanes, and is the primary southbound option for people using the 4th Ave lane since that unfortunately lane does not continue southbound on 4th. That could change someday since the Seattle Transportation Plan calls for a continuous bike lane on 4th all the way to Seattle Boulevard S, which then connects to the upcoming Georgetown to Downtown bike route.

The 3rd and Yesler redesign includes new bicycle signals and hardened bike lane protection heading downhill from the intersection toward the waterfront. Later this year, SDOT is planning on a short bike lane to fill in the gap between the 2nd Ave bike lane and the new waterfront bikeway. All these small projects are coming together to create some big connections, allowing people to bike up and down the waterfront and connect into the downtown bike network without ever leaving a protected bike lane.

More details on the 3rd and Yesler project:

• Improve safety and areas for people walking and rolling: Align and shorten pedestrian crossings, repair and widen sidewalks, install curb ramps and curb bulbs, and permanently remove the travel lanes that were removed in the pilot project.
• Upgrade protected bike lane: Install bicycle signal heads, provide permanent bike lane protection along Yesler Way west of 3rd Ave, repave the bike lane on Dilling Way, and redesign the bike crossing across 3rd Ave to separate people on bikes from people walking.  
• Improve public spaces: Provide additional street trees, pedestrian lighting, and wayfinding signs.

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Here are the 8 neighborhood greenways SDOT paused until after November’s transportation levy vote

SDOT announced that eight neighborhood greenway projects previously scheduled for construction and/or planning have been put on pause because “inflation is affecting our large-scale project budgets more than initially expected,” according to the department. The Central District and Capitol Hill were hit the hardest by the pauses, though there are pauses in all districts other than 7.

We annotated the map above to help visualize the changes. The projects that formerly had solid lines are the biggest disappointment since those were supposed to have been funded through both design and construction by the end of 2024. The projects with dotted lines were only supposed to be funded through design.

The highest-profile project on the list is Phase 2 of the Central Ridge Greenway in the Central District and Capitol Hill. The good news is that the most important and difficult element of this route, a traffic signal at 18th and Madison, was completed as part of the RapidRide G project.

The projects had been included on SDOT’s 2021-24 Bicycle Master Plan Implementation Plan, a list of deliverable projects that the city created after reviewing the state of rising construction costs amid the peak of the COVID-19 response. The 2021 list also followed Mayor Jenny Durkan’s so-called “reset” of the Move Seattle Levy in 2019 that included a lot of cuts to the bike plan. The latest delays are pauses to projects that had already made it through several rounds of cuts.

Though SDOT did not cite the upcoming public vote on renewing the Seattle Transportation Levy, the department’s statement said, “We will have a clearer funding picture in late November when the City Council finalizes the City’s budget.” The passage or failure of the levy in early November will have a massive impact on those city budget decisions.

This somewhat awkward dance will probably happen throughout this year. SDOT cannot assume that the new levy will pass, so they may make decisions based on the current levy expiring without a replacement. Then if voters do approve a replacement levy, they can add things back and build out the new work plan.

More details on the pauses from SDOT:

During our first-quarter assessment of the 2024 budget, it became evident that inflation is affecting our large-scale project budgets more than initially expected. In response, we are focusing funds to ensure we continue making our transportation system safer, more reliable, and better connected and meeting Levy to Move Seattle commitments. Happily, we will still exceed our goal for Neighborhood Greenway construction this year.

Therefore, we are pausing the following Neighborhood Greenways projects. These projects will resume as budget or grant funding becomes available:

• 28th Ave NW – Adams Elementary School Neighborhood Greenway
• Beacon Hill Elementary Neighborhood Greenway
• Central Ridge Neighborhood Greenway – Phase 2
• Garfield High School to Leschi Elementary School Connection
• Lafayette Elementary & Madison Middle Schools Connection (PDF)
• Olympic Hills Elementary School Extension (NE 135th St, from 20th to 27th Avenues NE)
• Olympic View Elementary Neighborhood Greenway
• Stevens Elementary School Connection

We will have a clearer funding picture in late November when the City Council finalizes the City’s budget and information on project status could be available as soon as the first quarter of 2025. Communication will continue through postcards and project websites. For projects with email lists already established, we will also send information via email.

In the meantime, we hope you have noticed the volume of SDOT projects launching and nearing completion this year, such as the 15th Ave W/NW & Ballard Bridge Paving and Safety Project preparing to break ground in July and RapidRide G Line – Madison St scheduled to start operating in September.

We also have four safety and bike projects starting or nearing completion this summer creating a comfortable space for SE Seattle families to use; and recently posted photos of the extension of the Wing Luke Elementary Neighborhood Greenway northward towards New Holly.

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SDOT installs its latest ‘even better bike lane’ barrier on Dearborn Street

https://www.seattlebikeblog.com/2024/01/23/sdot-installs-its-latest-even-better-bike-lane-barrier-on-dearborn-street/

#SEAbikes #Seattle

2023 Seattle bike and scooter share rides reach record 5.1 million rides as Lime consolidates its lead

https://www.seattlebikeblog.com/2024/01/02/2023-seattle-bike-and-scooter-share-rides-reach-record-5-1-million-rides-as-lime-consolidates-its-lead/

#SEAbikes #Seattle

Alaskan Way bikeway will be wider, better protected in latest design update – UPDATED

https://www.seattlebikeblog.com/2023/12/21/alaskan-way-bikeway-will-be-wider-better-protected-in-latest-design-update/

#SEAbikes #Seattle

Seattle plans bus-only lane extension, pilot street treatments on Rainier Avenue South
https://kingcountymetro.blog/2023/12/04/seattle-plans-bus-only-lane-extension-pilot-street-treatments-on-rainier-avenue-south/
#KingCountyMetro #SeattleDepartmentofTransportation #bus-onlylanes #RainierAve.S. #MetroRt7 #News #SDOT

Seattle plans bus-only lane extension, pilot street treatments on Rainier Avenue South
https://kingcountymetro.blog/2023/12/04/seattle-plans-bus-only-lane-extension-pilot-street-treatments-on-rainier-avenue-south/
#KingCountyMetro #SeattleDepartmentofTransportation #bus-onlylanes #RainierAve.S. #MetroRt7 #News #SDOT