For that we can give a bit of credit to the city council, who passed a unanimous resolution last year laying out expected timelines for completing a fully connected network downtown. But the department will not meet all of the expectations in the resolution, with some key segments delayed or watered down. Overall getting these projects on the ground is a huge step forward, adding significant mileage and aiding the ability to safely get around downtown by bike–likely paying safety dividends for all road users. This will take the form of four major projects that should be in use by the end of the year.

9th Ave N

9th Avenue North is the most direct connection between downtown and the Westlake bike trail, but a protected bike lane on the entire street has been delayed by adjacent construction for years.

Currently there are short protected bike lanes on opposite sides of the street from Mercer Street to Harrison Street. Those would be extended two additional blocks south to John Street. South of that intersection SDOT plans to install a two-way cycletrack on the west side of the street, directly adjacent to Denny Park, where it would continue through Denny Way for one short block on Bell Street. Amazon’s new building at 8th Avenue and Bell Street will be installing another block of the two-way cycletrack later this year to connect to 7th Avenue.

People on bikes would transition between the two-way cycletrack and the one-way facilities at a new all-way stop sign at 9th Ave N and John St, where green bicycle markings will indicate to drivers that people on bikes will be transitioning by riding diagonally across the intersection. While this may create some confusion, it definitely seems preferable to creating the same transition at Denny Way.

The rest of the Bell Street two-way bike lane project should be completed next year, though what exactly that means for people on bikes between 2nd Avenue and 5th Avenue is still not exactly clear.

8th Avenue

The 7th Avenue bike lane continues to get segments added to it for riders headed southbound, but except for a few blocks where Amazon was required to build bike lanes on both sides of 7th Avenue (five years ago out of coordination with the current plan), there is no northbound counterpart. 8th Avenue would be that complimentary facility, theoretically connecting Pike Street to that above mentioned bike lane on Bell Street.

Currently, 8th Avenue between Pike and Pine is a two-way street. It would be converted to a one-way, with a protected bike lane on the left (south) side of the street all the way to Virginia Street. There would be another street-side transition, with all users going from the left to the right (north) side of 8th Avenue. This is to prepare riders for the transition onto a two-way street again north of Westlake Avenue, which is where the bad news comes in: north of Westlake, the facility is currently planned as a paint-only bike lane in the door zone of a pick-up and drop-off area. The protection comes back only for a short half block before Bell Street.

This leaves a key segment of the center city bike network unsafe, impacting the entire network’s usability. This absolutely doesn’t meet the definition laid out in the city council resolution for “an ‘all ages and abilities’ bicycle connection to serve all ages, languages, ethnicities, gender, race and abilities” and there isn’t any plan to remedy.

Another protected block on Pine Street will be completed to connect 7th Avenue to 8th Avenue as part of construction on 8th Avenue—though with that block being home to the Hyatt’s dropoff area, it remains to be seen how robust that protection will be.

Pike Street

A safe bicycle connection between downtown and Capitol Hill has always been just out of reach for Seattle’s transportation planners and advocates. Seattle will take a huge step toward that with the installation of protected bike lanes on either side of E Pike St all the way from Broadway to 9th Avenue, but it will fall just short of providing the key connections that would actually provide safe cycling space for all users.

SDOT says it will not be able to install bicycle facilities on Pike Street between 6th Avenue (where the current one-way protected bike lane ends) and 9th Avenue until next year. The transition between one-way street downtown and two-way street on Capitol Hill will be the most important part, and at this point we don’t have a good idea what that looks like. So right now we can only think of this as a wholly separate facility from any of the other downtown projects.

The selection of Pike Street as the location for both directions of safe bike travel on Capitol Hill is a huge step forward. The amount of parking that will have to make room for these facilities is not insignificant. There are no plans to remove the paint-only bike lanes on Pine Street that currently see a high amount of use, but it’s likely a lot of users will switch to Pike Street when a protected facility on a street that offers little conflict with King County Metro buses opens there.

Main Street / 5th Ave S

The best piece of news for the Center City bike network was announced last month when the latest version of the implementation schedule came out: 2nd Avenue will finally get extended this year to the other side of the daunting transit hub around 4th Ave S and S Jackson St, and not via the original hilly route proposed last year that utilized 6th Ave S.

5th Ave S is the route that makes the most sense, as laid out in the Bicycle Master Plan, paired with S Main St. A one-block extension of 2nd Avenue south will complete the route, with a bus stop on 5th Ave S moving a bit further south to accommodate the new lane. S King St will be the planned destination to connect people on bikes to the new S Dearborn St protected bike lanes that run all the way to Rainier Avenue.

King Street, which is planned to be converted into a Neighborhood Greenway, will be the weakest link in this route. The street has all-way stops at every intersection, but traffic diversion will not be added in Chinatown-International District. SDOT’s Dan Anderson told the bicycle advisory board last week that speed humps were not supported by the community and so the only improvements on King Street will be that the road surface will get repaved and signage added. It’s not clear how this qualifies as a “greenway” on a busy downtown street. Crossing improvements will be made up the hill, but the connection between 5th Ave S and S Dearborn St is envisioned as S King St and Maynard Ave S.

That being said, a protected bike lane ending in Chinatown-International District is very different from one ending on 2nd Ave in Pioneer Square. Making space for people on bikes along 5th Ave S will be a huge change in modal priority in that area.

Hey, What About 4th Avenue?

If SDOT can complete these segments by the end of the year, it won’t have checked every box on the city council’s wishlist, but it will have completed the lion’s share of them. That would add the largest number of miles to the city’s bicycle network since the Mayor Jenny Durkan took office in late 2017.

Last month, however, SDOT told the city council’s Transportation and Sustainability Committee that the 4th Avenue two-way protected bike lane, which the department had previously said was at 100% design, would have to be downgraded to a one-way protected bike lane. Director Sam Zimbabwe told the committee that the “traffic impacts” and the costs of the two-way facility had not been fully evaluated.

This ignores the two-year One Center City process that evaluated options for moving people through central downtown and included stakeholders from every Seattle transit agency as well as an expansive group of downtown stakeholders. The outcome was the 5th Avenue and 6th Avenue transit lanes, that were installed earlier this year, and the 4th Avenue protected bike lane. If SDOT is backsliding because of lost parking, at least the department could admit that. But the bike lane is designed and installing a one-way facility first would be a waste of money.

The plans for actually getting projects on the ground by the end of 2019 are highly encouraging. Cities around the world have shown that bicycle usage increases exponentially when a network is completed, and Seattle is still waiting for that to happen, even though record numbers of people are riding. Seven of the 10 highest usage days ever for bikes using the Fremont Bridge were in 2019 so far. Imagine what will happen when SDOT completes the routes envisioned by the city council’s leadership.

The post Center City Bike Network Moves Ahead with Some Major Gaps first appeared on The Urbanist.

“I’m heartened that City Council voted today to confirm him as the permanent Director of the Seattle Department of Transportation,” Mayor Durkan said yesterday. “Now, we can carry on the hard work of building a city of the future with more world-class transit and safer options for biking and walking.”

“When we undertook our search for the next leader of the Seattle Department of Transportation, we looked for a visionary leader with a proven track record of keeping cities moving, and delivering on critical transit and transportation projects,” she added. “Over the last month, Sam has already shown he is up for the job as he led the Seattle Department of Transportation during part of the permanent viaduct closure and our snowiest month in 50 years. He worked around the clock with his City colleagues to limit the impact on residents and businesses.”

Zimbabwe will be tasked with some monumental projects moving forward. Next month, the city will roll out the next round of improvements to support One Center City a.k.a. Imagine Downtown. Developing a financing plan for the Center City Streetcar project will be fundamental this year. And pushing through the reset of the Move Seattle Levy will be no easy task. But Zimbabwe appears ready for the tasks ahead of him.

Much of Monday’s city council meeting was consumed by the Mandatory Housing Affordability rezones and land use regulation changes (more on that tomorrow). But an important piece of legislation passed to set the city council’s legislative agenda for the year. There were some subtle housing, transportation, and land use highlights embedded in that resolution:

• Legislation to address unfair evictions, particularly in marginalized communities;
• Planning for land use of surplus areas of the Battery Street Tunnel;
• Review of a city budget office response for a municipal bank business plan;
• Discussions and legislation pertaining to annexation of the Duwamish Annexation Area and the North Highline Annexation Area;
• Review and possible modification of the Multi-Family Tax Exemption program;
• Adoption of the 2019-2020 comprehensive plan updates;
• Review of legislation to modify the incentive zoning program;
• Legislation to update the city’s wireless telecommunications facilities siting procedures;
• Review of SDOT’s effort to develop a decongestion pricing program;
• Legislation to revamp tree protection and canopy regulations;
• Review policy recommendations for unreinforced masonry structures; and
• Renewal legislation for a levy funding city libraries.

Last week, the Seattle City Council also approved updated design guidelines for Uptown and the University District, which we covered in detail late last year. The design guidelines will apply to new development subject to the city’s design review program.

The post City Council Appoints Zimbabwe as SDOT Director, Passes Work Plan first appeared on The Urbanist.

The Mayor framed the position as being highly responsive to the Period of Maximum Constraint, an era of anticipated traffic challenges kicking off with the Alaskan Way Viaduct closure on January 11th–it’s also been dubbed the Seattle Squeeze.

“[The viaduct closure] marks the beginning of a period of significant mobility challenges that will require coordinated, efficient response that delivers for the people of Seattle,” Mayor Durkan said in a statement. “With his decades of experience in planning, operations and fast-changing periods of uncertainty, General Worden will help ensure we are meeting the challenge for the public, freight mobility and critical services like public safety.”

Of course, the Mayor had just announced her selection of a permanent director of the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) last month, choosing Sam Zimbabwe, Project Delivery Manager at Washington D.C. Department of Transportation. Worden was a finalist for the SDOT director position and finished in the top three, according to Crosscut.

“I talked to Sam at length when he was hired about the focus that SDOT needed and what we needed to be doing during the Period of Maximum Constraint, and he was very much in favor of having a person who would coordinate across departments, because this isn’t just SDOT.” Mayor Durkan said during a press conference yesterday. “It affects the Seattle Fire Department, Seattle Public Utilities, Seattle City Light, Seattle Police Department. So we need one person at the cabinet level who can coordinate every single one of the agencies so that the people of Seattle know that we’re doing everything we can during this very difficult time.”

Hiring the runner up is becoming a bit of a pattern for the Mayor, as she also hired Cameron McLay as a consultant to oversee police reform after he finished second behind Seattle Police Department Chief Carmen Best for the top job.

Reporters pressed Mayor Durkan about whether hiring Worden would be taking power away from Zimbabwe, but she insisted it wouldn’t.

“The new SDOT director will run SDOT,” Mayor Durkan said. “The general is going to be the point of contact for coordinating the City-wide response involving 29 departments for the Period of Maximum Constraint.”

The Seattle City Council still must confirm Zimbabwe as SDOT director, but, as a cabinet hire, Worden avoids the same scrutiny, and in fact he already started and joined the City payroll on January 2nd.

Worden will be based out of the City’s Emergency Operations Center, which the Mayor’s press release explains will be “so he has access to necessary centralized communications and technology assets for real-time coordination.” Presumably, Worden would direct the deployment of the City’s rapid response collision wreckage clearing equipment, which the Mayor has publicized as needed preparation in the run-up to the Seattle Squeeze.

Moreover, the role will coordinate numerous agencies: “Worden will be the single point of contact for ensuring the City’s 29 departments have a coordinated response to new mobility challenges and impacts to department operations, including managing the right of way, conducting incident response, and ensuring the continued delivery of emergency services. He will also help ensure the City is working closely with partner agencies on operations and planning.”

Senior Deputy Mayor Michael Fong will oversee his day-to-day work, the Mayor’s Office said. This raised the question why Deputy Mayor Shefali Ranganathan would not oversee the new traffic czar since she is the deputy mayor tasked with transportation–Erica Barnett asked just that question at the press conference.

“This isn’t just about transportation,” Mayor Durkan responded. “Again this is about a response about 29 departments. And Senior Deputy Fong is the senior deputy mayor so he actually reports to me, but he coordinates with Senior Deputy Fong.”

General Worden himself has yet to make a public appearance, but the Mayor’s Office says he will be involved in public outreach going forward.

“While Seattle faces significant mobility and traffic challenges, Mayor Durkan’s vision for the future is both compelling and a call to action,” Worden said in a statement. “I look forward to working with the Mayor as well as my City and regional colleagues to help address the complex challenges and ensure a coordinated response that advances safety and mobility.”

Meanwhile, the Move All Seattle Sustainably coalition is still pressing the City to add more bus lanes, bike lanes, and signal priority for pedestrians to deal with the Seattle Squeeze, but has gotten no assurances beyond the four temporary bus lanes recently announced. Adding more bus lanes wouldn’t be that hard nor that expensive. For now, though, Seattle will have to settle for the hiring a two-star general as traffic czar at an expense of a quarter million dollars per year as qualifying for ‘we’re doing everything we can.’

The post Mayor Durkan Hires Defense Contractor to be Traffic Czar for Seattle Squeeze first appeared on The Urbanist.

“I think the more people know and understand about what and how difficult it is going to be to get in and around Seattle, the better it will be,” Mayor Jenny Durkan said. “What we’ve been doing [is] to make sure there are other ways than cars to do that. Our office and the City of Seattle has made preparing for this period a priority.”

The first impacts from the closure of the SR-99 viaduct will begin on January 4th with the southbound S Atlantic St off-ramp and northbound Royal Brougham Way on-ramp. Other on- and off-ramps as well as the highway mainline will remain open until 10pm on January 11th when the remainder of the viaduct will fully closes.

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) expects that the full viaduct closure will send an estimated 90,000 daily vehicle trips to other roads or convert to other types of trips until the new deep-bore tunnel opens in February. The theory of induced demand also predicts some trips will disappear without a giant downtown highway viaduct making them so enticing and convenient, and agencies are emphasizing working from home on their websites and press releases. During the viaduct closure, WSDOT is planning to convert I-5 southbound high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to general purpose lanes from Mercer Street to Corson Ave S just for good measure–keeping motorists happy and suffering in equal measure while ensuring transit is exceptionally slow on I-5.

But even after the “Seattle Squeeze” wraps up, other long-term impacts from large construction projects and lack of city center exits from the tunnel will still prevail making travel through downtown challenging at least through 2024.

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) will roll out temporary transit lanes on Cherry Street, 4th Ave S, Aurora Avenue, and the West Seattle Bridge ahead of the viaduct closure. Though slated to be temporary, they may become permanent. “The last time we closed the viaduct and added some of these things, they actually work really well,” said Heather Marx, SDOT Director of Downtown Mobility. “Some of these may become permanent depending upon the operational needs.”

Last week, the Move All Seattle Sustainably (MASS) coalition laid out a plan to deploy more bus lanes across the city now to keep buses moving during the Seattle Squeeze and long-term Period of Maximum Constraint. The planned corridors by SDOT are similar to a few MASS proposed bus lanes, an indication perhaps that MASS is influencing city officials to take bolder action.

The transit and freight bypass over SR-99 between Alaskan Way S and Colorado Ave S in Pioneer Square–notable for its “h” shape–will open, making it easier for buses to get around. However, the eastbound contraflow lane on Seneca Street for buses will be removed since the viaduct off-ramp to it will permanently close.

Mayor Jenny Durkan acknowledged the frustration with people driving blocking transit and bike lanes. “Normal traffic enforcement can’t help that much because we have a police officer pulling someone over,” Mayor Durkan said. “It just blocks traffic more. So we are seeking in Olympia, with the County, the authority to use camera enforcement for our bike lanes and bus lanes… so that we can keep those things flowing bikes, pedestrians, and transit.”

Marx said the recent expansion of transit priority hours to seven days a week on Third Avenue should help and issued a warning to motorists. “Really don’t drive on Third Avenue,” she said. In March, Third Avenue will have all-door boarding as the next phase of speed and reliability for buses on the corridor. As an interim solution due to the delayed deployment of additional ORCA card readers at most Third Avenue stops, Metro will have staff members with hand-held ORCA readers to facilitate all-door boarding. MASS has also called on the City to extend Third Avenue transit priority and restrictions through Belltown (currently they terminate at Stewart Street) to get buses to Denny Way and beyond unimpeded, but the City has taken a wait-and-see approach.

Starting on January 14th, the King County Water Taxi between West Seattle and the Colman Ferry Dock will see service double (an extra 12 trips), offering 20-minute headways at peak. This will help provide extra service on weekdays, particularly during the midday. King County Metro will operate shuttle Routes 773 and 775 in West Seattle to meet all extra sailings at the Seacrest Park Ferry Dock. The extra service is planned to operate through March 27th after which Metro will revert to a summer sailing scheduled. But perhaps if ridership is robust enough, the transit agency will find a way to continue extra water taxi trips permanently.

“It’s important for people to realize that [bus] routes coming into Downtown Seattle from everywhere will be less predictable and will most likely be delayed to some extent,” said Bill Bryant, service planner for Metro.

Bryant highlighted several bus routes from the north end that will be particularly impacted due to their usage of Aurora Avenue. Metro expects service disruptions to Routes 5, 5X, 26, and 28 as well as the RapidRide E Line in both directions during the viaduct closure, at least until the new tunnel opens. Southbound routes on Aurora Avenue may need to rerouted. “We’re going to take a dynamic approach to this situation,” Byrant said. “Where Metro will be more flexible than we ever have been before in rerouting in real time to respond to changing conditions.”

Metro will have up to 20 extra buses ready on standby for deployment seven days a week all day long, at least until the early evening. Weekends may have fewer extra buses available. “Those buses will be able to fill in on any route in the system that’s affected by this traffic situation,” Bryant said.

On the south end of Downtown Seattle, Metro will have several key pathways for buses to use during and after the viaduct closure. Express and express-like buses to points south like West Seattle and Burien will typically operate on the yellow path, as indicated in the map, but may use an alternate path, indicated in orange, during the initial viaduct closure if traffic is an obstacle. Once the new SR-99 tunnel opens, buses will primarily use the blue path indicated below until the permanent pathway, indicated in green is a viable option. This should not affect where riders get on and off buses, Bryant said. Affected routes will include Routes 21X, 37, 55, 56, 57, 113, 120, 121, 122, 123, and 125 as well as the RapidRide C Line.

If the initial response is not sufficient, SDOT could deploy further temporary transit-only lanes to keep buses moving, Marx said. Transit restrictions and transit priority could also be expanded to include hours between 5am and 10pm. MASS, on the other hand, is pushing the City to be more proactive rather than wait for transit gridlock to ensue.

On March 23rd, remaining buses in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel will move entirely to surface streets. The tradeoff here is less reliability and speed for people taking Routes 41, 74, 101, 102, 150, 255, and 550 but faster and more reliable Link trains remaining in the tunnel. A new transit path will be rolled out on Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue for many surface bus routes.

Whether we call it the Seattle Squeeze or the Period of Maximum Constraint or Carmaggedon, it will undoubtedly be a challenging time to get around the city. But it does present a lot of opportunity to promote, invest, and make deep prioritization changes for transit in order to keep Seattle and the region moving.

Correction: At the time of publishing, we inadvertently specified the I-90 HOV lanes instead of I-5 HOV lanes that will be open to all traffic in the southbound direction.

The post Extra Water Taxi Service and a Few Temporary Bus Lanes Planned for Seattle Squeeze first appeared on The Urbanist.

The viaduct coming down was one of the main impetuses for the One Center City planning process, a meeting of the minds at the regional transit agencies. The outcome of that process was mainly the status quo, and so as we hurtle toward what is anticipated to be a major weeks-long traffic jam, it’s worth noting what tools the city is utilizing to prepare for this event.

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) posted an update to its blog after the announcement of the viaduct closure this week: “Here’s what we’re doing to help you get around downtown.” In it, the department lays out its five strategies for getting people around the center city:

1. Transportation system monitoring and real-time management.
2. Investments in transit.
3. Reducing drive-alone trips downtown.
4. Managing construction projects in the public right-of-way.
5. Working with commuters, employers, visitors, and Seattleites on their commute.

But it’s clear that pretty much the only tool in the toolbox at SDOT under Mayor Jenny Durkan is trying to move more vehicles, mostly with one or two people in them, though our limited downtown streets at the expense of those who chose alternate options.

The post does not mention any additional resources for people who might want to switch to walking or biking. A proposed bike lane on 4th Avenue was cancelled early in the Durkan administration for this exact event: the potential to carry more cars on that street apparently outweighed the number of people that could be carried by a bike lane there. No bicycle facilities will be planned to help get people through downtown for this extreme traffic event.

As for the first item on the list, “transportation system monitoring and real-time management,” it’s not hard to find an example of what that looks like in practice. For the most part, it is a prioritization of cars above other modes, namely people on foot. The Mercer corridor currently gets a high level of scrutiny from the municipal tower traffic center, to the detriment of people just trying to walk there. Having a 24/7 operations center constantly finding ways to get cars through as many intersections as possible is a fool’s errand.  And once again, the focus here is on what can be done to move more cars, as opposed to what can be done to move more people.

Seattle’s bus system is due for a big impact with the closure of the Alaskan Way viaduct, to be sure. SDOT touts added trips coming in September as a result of transportation benefit district funds, but added trips won’t do much good if they are stuck in traffic, and a lack of dedicated right-of-way for most bus routes means fewer trips than we could be providing as service hours sit in stop-and-go. 

The RapidRide C, once it shifts to surface streets from the Alaskan Way viaduct, will have an extra 10 minutes added to its scheduled time between downtown and West Seattle, increasing from 25 minutes to 35 between 3rd & Pike and Alaska Junction. Increasing that time even further due to congestion will make that trip noncompetitive with driving, increasing the cycle of congestion. SDOT has added a bus lane to 4th Avenue S in SoDo that doubles as a turn lane, but routes elsewhere lack even this.

The 3rd Avenue bus corridor, now that it is transit-only all day, should be a safe haven from congestion delay, but SDOT does not mention enforcement on the busiest bus mall in the country. Instead, they state that SPD officers will be on hand to, you guessed it, help drivers: “We’re coordinating with the Seattle Police Department to deploy uniformed police officers at key transit intersections–prioritizing transit and helping drivers get through.” Prioritizing transit in a general purpose lane, of course, means prioritizing all traffic.

SDOT also says they intend to restrict construction closures of certain streets in the downtown core during the three-week SR-99 closure in order to maintain car lane capacity. Imagine if the same policies were in place around sidewalk closures in downtown, including developments like the Rainier Tower project that removed a sidewalk in the middle of downtown on both 4th and 5th Avenue, forcing pedestrian traffic to the other side of the street.

With no added emergency bus lanes, and no additional places for people to safely bike, and even no guarantee of safe walking infrastructure, the period of “maximum constraint” remains a missed opportunity to chose not to attempt to cram as many vehicles onto Seattle’s downtown streets during the middle of a climate crisis. It remains to be seen exactly how effective the city’s strategies for dealing with this challenge will be, but whether they luck out or don’t, we won’t be any closer to realizing the city that we wish we inhabited.

The post Getting Ready for a Post-Viaduct Downtown the Only Way We Know How first appeared on The Urbanist.

If adequately enforced, this will be a huge time saver for transit users in Seattle’s center city. Previously vehicles were allowed to drive on 3rd Avenue all day on the weekends, and throughout the weekday from 9am to 3pm and after 6:30pm. During peak times, drivers could still access 3rd Avenue for a block but technically had to make a right turn and exit the street at the next intersection. These turns were detrimental to transit mobility–right turns, as drivers wait for the busy intersections to clear of pedestrians, back up buses behind them more than drivers going straight down the entire corridor would.

Keeping buses moving on 3rd Avenue within the next several years in particular is critical for a number of reasons. Delays caused by private automobiles using 3rd Avenue as well as increased dwell times associated with one-door boarding mean that currently the street is close to capacity for the number of bus routes that are able to use the route during peak hours.

In March of next year, every single bus that uses the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT) to get through downtown will instead need to find a surface street. While 2nd Avenue and 4th Avenue have transit-only lanes as well, those streets are also limited in the number of routes that can be added. Nonetheless, without extra capacity on 3rd Avenue, that’s where they will likely end up, vying for space in lanes that also double as turn lanes for private vehicles.

By the time the DSTT closes to buses next year, SDOT will also have ORCA readers installed on every bus stop from Denny Way south to Yesler, allowing boarding at multiple doors. According to documents presented to the One Center City advisory group last year, this could speed up boarding by up to 20 seconds per bus, allowing an additional 20 buses both north and southbound to use the street during every weekday peak period. 

Understated Impact from 3rd Avenue Changes: Safety

In the past five years, there have been 217 collisions recorded by the Seattle Department of Transportation in the stretch of 3rd Avenue that will be impacted by these changes, or one every eight days. Essentially one collision per week that had the potential to delay transit while also presenting a life-threatening situation for those involved. One collision per eight days is extremely high for a street that is ostensibly reserved for transit–removing vehicles even more should have a big impact on how many collisions happen there.

Among those 217 collisions, there were 45 pedestrians involved. On the new transit-restricted 3rd Avenue, no left turns are allowed during any time of day on any day of the week. Left hook collisions make up a high proportion of pedestrian-involved collisions, and the number of pedestrians on this bus-oriented street is very high. While One Center City stakeholders, after professing safety as a high consideration, mainly left out projects that would have a big impact on safety, 3rd Avenue could be a place where a reduction in people getting hurt by traffic violence is a byproduct of a move to a more efficient transit street.

The post 3rd Avenue All Day Transit Restrictions Start Today first appeared on The Urbanist.

They were there to get a recap of the decisions that had been finalized, without them, during those nine months as Seattle’s new mayor assumed control and the Washington State Convention Center expansion, the pivot point on which so many transportation challenges downtown in the next few years hinge upon, was approved by the city council. In that time, the Fourth Avenue protected bike lane was postponed to 2021, Metro and Sound Transit announced that they would largely not be truncating any bus routes at the University of Washington light rail station to avoid downtown congestion, and SDOT told the city council’s transportation committee that it was far from a sure thing that additional northbound bus lanes on Fifth and Sixth Avenues would be ready in time for the March 2019 exit of buses from the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel.

The board also received word that One Center City, closely associated with the “period of maximum constraint” and the specific projects associated with it, would be rebranding: the new name is now “Imagine Downtown: Big Ideas for the Heart of Seattle.” Imagine Downtown will be the umbrella under which the agencies conduct the long-term planning around moving people through Seattle’s central neighborhoods. The fact that Imagine Downtown was also the name for the City of Atlanta’s downtown planning process that completed in 2009 was not mentioned.

The big question is will the long-term plan result is the same outcome as the short-term plan: elected officials pulling out the most palatable segments of the consensus-driven comprehensive project list and abandoning the rest. With the long-term plan, there is not a catalyzing event like the convention center driving the process, so reversion to the status quo is even more likely.

The long-term planning process will occur over the next year or so, with a full report on the recommendations of the advisory board at the end. That process kicks off with the next advisory board meeting next Thursday, July 26th, at 6pm.

At the meeting, the board received a rundown of the projects that ultimately were selected to receive portions of the $30 million in mitigation funds that the transit agencies would be investing in keeping people moving downtown during the period of maximum constraint. It’s worth reviewing what those ended up being.

• Third Avenue transit corridor improvements ($3 million): The Urbanist will be covering those changes in full detail in separate posts, starting with this one last week.
• Improvements around bus stops and key pedestrian corridors International District/Chinatown Station. This includes replacing the terminus of the old Waterfront Streetcar line at 5th Ave S and S Jackson St.

• Public realm improvements around Downtown ($800,000). These improvements are targeting McGraw Square, a key connector between central downtown and Denny Triangle, and the Market to MOHAI public realm improvement plan for areas in Belltown and South Lake Union.
• Pedestrian improvements ($4 million): Includes “enhanced lighting, intersections, wayfinding, trees and sidewalk spot repair and decluttering.” It’s worth noting that many of the improvements to speed up transit, like the ones along Fourth and Second Avenues will do so by adding dedicated turn phases that limit the amount of pedestrian crossing time but may not provide protection from turning movements when people walking have the right-of-way, not doing much to improve safety.

• Second and Fourth Avenues transit improvements ($1.4 million): This mainly comes in the form of a dedicated turn phase where there are no conflicts with pedestrians, clearing the intersection and ensuring that buses more through the corridor faster as general purpose traffic exits turn lanes.
• Fifth and Sixth Avenues transit lanes ($3.2 million): The addition of a northbound transit lane is still in the works through coordination with Washington State Department of Transportation, which must approve changes to streets that directly connect to freeway on and off-ramps. If successful, this will take 28 afternoon peak bus trips off Fourth Avenue, which should make both streets carry more bus riders more efficiently.
• Montlake Triangle Improvements ($5.3 million): With only the Route 255 being considered for reroute to the University of Washington light rail station when the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, which it uses, closes to buses, the transit agencies are still committed to making connections at this station better. SDOT’s interim director Goran Sparrman suggested that Montlake might even be considered as a back up transfer point if traffic becomes much worse than expected during the period of maximum constraint. All-door boarding is also being considered here.
• Traffic and curb management ($3.7 million): under the auspices of “maintaining access for people and goods”, SDOT is committing to streamlining the permit for commercial vehicle permits, expanding the e-park service which informs drivers where parking is available, and to attempt a pilot of alternative urban goods delivery services (like cargo bikes).
• Transit demand management and program expansion ($3.4 million): This continues the work that transportation demand management programs have done to discourage solo driving downtown. SDOT is committing to reducing single occupancy vehicle mode share downtown by 1,200 peak trips this year and an additional 3,000 next year. Strategies to meet this ambitious goal include increasing telecommuting rates, additional investments in transit through the benefit district, and improved last-mile connections from walking and biking. It also includes a contracted transit pilot that the city council has ruled out at the moment, which would have targeted neighborhoods with high drive-alone rates and provided door-to-door shuttle service provided by private companies.

Now that the near-term improvements are set in stone, and One Center City attempts to rebrand itself into something new, it remains to be seen whether the agencies involved will continue to treat the process as one to be handled at arm’s length or one that will be fully embraced.

Let’s Add New Bus Lanes to Overcome ‘Period of Maximum Constraint’

The post One Center City Is Now Imagine Downtown first appeared on The Urbanist.

Though the scope of programs and policy objectives have changed over the past few years, the formal policy changes and district authority that could soon be passed (as soon as next week) Seattle City Council would the pave the way for wider availability of free ORCA transit passes for students, tangible speed and reliability improvements on bus corridors, and service boosts on bus routes that wouldn’t qualify for additional city-funded investments under current law.

Overview of STBD Reform Proposal

To recap, the ordinance authorizes the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) to do the following:

• Regional partnerships. The legislation would expand the opportunity for regional partnerships to cost-share service improvements on routes that only have 65% of stops within Seattle. This would reduce the minimum requirement from 80% of stops within Seattle, allowing many other routes to become eligible for additional service hour investments, including Routes 106, 120, 124, 345, 372, and 373 and the RapidRide E Line–routes that tend to operate in underserved areas of the city.
• RapidRide service. All existing and future RapidRide services would be eligible for additional service hour investments regardless of geographic operation (i.e., wholly or partially operating in Seattle) or performance metrics.
• Capital investments. Through December 2020, SDOT would be able to spend additional revenues on capital improvements for transit. These investments could include transit-only lanes, queue jumps, transit signal priority, and other strategies to improve speed and reliability. Capital investments could also be made to enhance the passenger experience, such as off-board fare payment and stop improvements.
• ORCA transit passes. All Seattle Public Schools high school students (10,200) would received free ORCA transit passes in addition to another 500 middle school students and 300 Seattle Promise community college students. This would be a massive expansion of free transit passes for students in the city. Right now, the city helps fund 3,000 free transit passes for qualifying high school (2,600) and middle school (400) students. Seattle Public Schools provides an additional 8,000 free transit passes to high school (6,200) and middle school (1,800) students. The school district would continue their contributions to funding student passes.
• Contracted pilot transit services. A new pilot program for contracted transit services would be created. Several transit van routes would be set up to provide first-mile/last-mile connections for underserved areas and between other corridors of interest by third-party transit providers–that is, not by King County Metro Transit. Transit vans would be required to provide seating capacity for at least eight passengers. While contractors may not be unionized like most Metro operators, companies would need to provide labor harmony agreements to be eligible as a city contractor.

The legislation would impose budget controls on several of the new program areas:

• $7 million annually for the free student ORCA passes (including program management);
• $10 million annually for targeted transit priority and passenger amenity capital investments (through 2020); and
• $5 million annually for contracted pilot transit services.

Creating Lifelong Transit Users at Youth

In a May council meeting, Councilmember Rob Johnson pitched the idea of expanding the free ORCA transit pass for all public primary and secondary students as a way of giving younger children access to more mobility options. SDOT staff poured some cold water on the idea by saying that public schools have a unique cost recovery framework for yellow school bus service with the state. The more students that use them, the greater the cost recovery the school districts can claim, so in the case of Seattle Public Schools, the district may be lukewarm or reticent to change.

Councilmember Johnson acknowledged the state funding pitfall but suggested that just because that’s the prevailing framework now, it shouldn’t hold Seattle back from beginning conversations surrounding the issue. He also suggested that the city should consider lobbying state legislators to reform state law allowing for channeling of yellow school bus subsidies for universal free ORCA transit passes for students instead.

STBD Awash In Money, Not Enough Ways To Spend It

Seattle is in a unique position where the STBD fund balance has a very large surplus–up to $27.2 million but programmed to be drawn down to $23.5 million by end of year. By and large, this is the result of underspending for increased bus service with Metro, but not because SDOT doesn’t want more bus service.

Metro finds itself in a pickle with not enough equipment, operators, and storage capacity to handle more equipment. When SDOT sought a Fall 2018 service increase of 100,000 new annual service hours in the city, Metro responded by promising only 15,000 more–a far cry from SDOT’s ask. Other areas of the county are slated to get service improvements this fall, too, which only adds as a constraining factor–Metro can’t just cater to Seattle.

Expansion of the Atlantic Base is underway and could help with much-needed bus storage space in the near-term, but it won’t be ready until next year and in any case new operators and equipment are still needed, particularly if new service hours are to be deployed at peak travel times.

This has a downstream impact to SDOT since the city is soon to experience a multi-year squeeze in the city center (aka “period of maximum constraint“). Some major construction projects will have significant impacts to surface streets, including the Washington State Convention Center expansion that will give the city a double whammy. Not only will surface streets near the expansion site be influx and clogged, the expansion means that  Convention Place Station will close forcing hundreds of buses out of the transit tunnel. This will force buses onto surface streets to operate their routes in the city center and put greater pressure limited on-street layover space. Additional light rail service to ease some of the pain–namely Northgate Link–won’t come online until 2021, so the transit tunnel will remain underused in the interim.

Regional transit operators and SDOT devised a plan to reduce some of the pain by dedicating additional transit lanes and transit priority in the city center and off-board fare payment on Third Avenue. However, the near-term the Center City Connector streetcar project that would have added thousands of extra seats through the city center has been paused indefinitely. SDOT did not recommend a very robust amount of transit-only lanes on additional streets in the city center. And Metro and Sound Transit failed to adopt ambitious bus restructures for cross-lake routes, such as funneling buses to Montlake Triangle to force transfers to light rail and saving both valuable service hours and riders untold delays on city streets.

This perfect storm leaves Seattle with few good choices to expanding transit in the meantime.

Contracted Pilot Transit Services Conundrum

SDOT has whipped up a new pilot program for contracted transit services. Briefing the city council in May and June, SDOT suggested establishing several new fixed transit van routes. Nine routes would operate between outer neighborhoods and Uptown, First, and South Lake Union, presumably as one-seat rides. First-mile/last-mile connections could also be provided to transit riders in South Seattle near light rail stations and the Seacrest Dock in West Seattle. Transit vans would carry at least eight passengers per trip and be operated by private contractor companies, not Metro. The pilot program, however, needs buy-off from the city council, which has tentatively capped the initiative at $5 million annually.

The pilot program was the primary reason for holding the overall STBD reform legislation earlier this month. Some people expressed concerns that SDOT would be using private contractors who would not be unionized. Metro similarly has non-unionized contractors operating transit van services.

In justifying the pilot program, SDOT provided information to the city council on results from the 2017 Commute Mode Split Survey. City data indicates that there are 3,000 commuters that pass through the city center on weekdays that are not well served by transit. The conceptual origin-destination pairs have higher than typical of single-occupancy vehicle (SOV) trip mode split than other city center-bound commuter pairs (around 25%), which SDOT hopes to capture through the pilot program. Rachel VerBoort, an SDOT planner, indicated that SOVs can account from 30% to 60% of all trips for the conceptual origin-destination pairs. VerBoort also said that transit as a choice for these trips is challenging for potential riders because they require one or more transfers, many of which would need to happen in the city center.

Interestingly, some of SDOT’s justification for the pilot program does not appear to match the outlined concepts presented to the city council. Only one of the conceptual origin-destination pairs passes through the city center, that being between Alki to South Lake Union. A second pair between Magnolia and First Hill is a marginal case, but in all likelihood people driving are avoiding downtown streets. Some of the first-mile/last-mile trips to core transit routes, however, might be able to pick up some of the slack for people driving on downtown streets. If the objective is to eliminate a sizable portion of the 3,000 SOV trips from downtown streets, then it is not clear that the long-distance origin-destination pairs would remotely achieve that.

In Vancouver, British Columbia, TransLink operates a robust network of regular transit vans known as “Community Shuttles” that connect to SkyTrain and key elements of the frequent, high-capacity bus network. Metro locally offers a similar type of service for smaller communities, such as DART and Community Connections shuttles (fixed and semi-flexible routes) in addition to ACCESS (flexible routes for accessibility), but has yet to be deployed on the same scale of Vancouver. In many cases, local densities, geography, and roadways can make it difficult to properly service or justify full-fledged 40- and 60-foot bus service. Seattle is no different, particularly with the chosen first-mile/last-mile concepts in Southeast Seattle and West Seattle. Several transit van services could do the job better and more comprehensively than regular fixed route service.

A major hurdle to the entire contracted pilot transit service program is state preemption law. SDOT would have to gain approval from Metro before any new contracted transit route could legally launch. That may not necessarily be a substantial issue given that SDOT is already coordinating with Metro anyway for service integration, including the use of ORCA for fare payment, but there is still the off-chance that Metro could deny the request. Ideally, SDOT would use the same contractors that Metro does for ACCESS, DART, and Community Connection transit van routes (these buses are operated by private contractors, but transit vans are official equipment in the Metro fleet) so that they can be folded into the Metro portfolio instead of creating more discontinuity in transit administration.

It may be advisable that SDOT should scratch its concept for the long-distance origin-destination routes and instead focus exclusively on first-mile/last-mile challenges leaving backbone high-capacity transit routes to do the real transit job.

But a bigger win for transit riders may simply be adding more to the capital investments bucket. Money poured into expanding off-board fare payment throughout Downtown Seattle, adding transit-only and business access transit lanes on targeted corridors, and installing more transit signal priority and queue jumps could save thousands of service hours per year in perpetuity, likely delivering more collective benefits than any ongoing contracted pilot transit service program would. Put another away, the travel time savings could be immense to riders, allow Metro to operate more trips, and encourage much higher ridership overall.

Title image courtesy of King County.

Let’s Add New Bus Lanes to Overcome ‘Period of Maximum Constraint’

The post Council Contemplates Seattle Transportation Benefit District Reforms first appeared on The Urbanist.

The problem, dubbed the “Period of Maximum Constraint,” stems from convergence of several major construction projects, a shortage of bus base capacity, and buses coming out of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (which will decrease their efficiency and further crowd surface streets). This will leave a gap in transit capacity for a few years before more light rail extensions come online–starting with Northgate Link in 2021 and followed by East Link in 2023 and Lynnwood Link and Federal Way Link in 2024–which should free up bus platform hours. It might take opening all those light rail extensions to truly release the pressure valve on our transit network, meaning the constrained period could drag on until 2024.

Though billed as a bold visioning process, One Center City has yet to lead to anything revolutionary being adopted thus far. The major addition to the transit network will be a new downtown transit pathway using Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue and providing transit lanes in some stretches but not in others. This should provide a workable alternative for buses kicked out of the transit tunnel next year. But Seattle’s transit ridership is growing steadily every year bucking national trends. Plenty of doubt remains if we’ve done enough to meet demand and prevent rampant overcrowding and delays.

We should not let this crisis go to waste. This is an opportunity to improve our transit network rather than do the bare minimum to scrape by. That’s why I propose that Seattle should roll out as many dedicated transit lanes as possible across the city within one year’s time. There’s no reason to settle for mediocrity. Our bus bases being at capacity means King Count Metro Transit doesn’t currently have room to add new buses even if it wanted to, which is pushing the Seattle City Council to look at using private operators to add bus service. This creates an imperative to use our platform hours more efficiently rather than letting buses languish in traffic.

Even without RapidRide improvements, a handful of Metro buses carry in the ballpark of 10,000 daily riders–Routes 5, 7, 8, 36, 40, 41, 44–and they should be our first priority when adding new transit lanes. We should also look at the next tier of high ridership routes as we look to make the transit network run more smoothly as we face the prospect of transit gridlock and overcrowding.

Early Rollout of RapidRide Lanes

Incidentally, some of these highest ridership bus routes also are slated for RapidRide upgrades as part of the Move Seattle levy that voters approved in 2015. Unfortunately, most of those RapidRide upgrades are now backloaded to 2021 or later, meaning they wouldn’t be around to help the bulk of the most constrained period from spring 2019 to when Northgate Link opens in 2021. A relatively easy solution would be to roll out the bus access and transit (BAT) lanes expected with new RapidRide lines early. Broader changes, such as getting the shiny new buses, stop consolidation, and off-board payment, can work their way through the process and deal with the realities of Mayor Jenny Durkan’s Move Seattle “reset”– a rumored scaling back of projects blamed on federal money drying up (which hasn’t happened to date) or taking longer to arrive.

Revised RapidRide Rollout Schedule

For example, the Seattle Department of Transportation has settled on a design with a northbound BAT lane for the Rainier RapidRide line upgrading Route 7. Why should we wait until 2021 to paint the red bus lane on Rainier Avenue? Let’s do it now to realize some of the transit time savings.

Route 44 has sections with just one lane in each direction, but segments in Ballard and the University District are wide enough to add transit lanes. That such a slow route has managed 8,400 daily riders suggests ridership potential is huge once the route is faster and more reliable, and we shouldn’t wait for RapidRide to take big strides.

The Madison RapidRide G Line isn’t a good fit for early rollout since it’d create a new route (significantly different than Route 11) and relying on a rebuilding Madison Avenue to allow for a center-running transit design. Because of Madison delays, the RapidRide H Line will be the first new RapidRide out of the gates in 2020, improving Route 120 which serves Seattle’s Delridge corridor, White Center, and Burien. The plan adds transit lanes only sparingly, with most transit lane additions coming in Burien and White Center.

Route 40 jumps out for its high ridership–its 11,400 daily riders in fall 2016 was slightly more than the RapidRide C Line–and imagine how high ridership would be if that bus wasn’t so painfully slow at rush hour. The 40 accomplishes its high ridership with a whopping 284 platform hours–significantly more than the RapidRide D Line. With more transit priority, those 284 platform hours could carry many more riders. Paint on the pavement would suffice to improve flow in the interim before the 40 gets full RapidRide upgrades in 2023. The 40 benefits from transit lanes on Westlake Avenue in South Lake Union, but lacks them on Leary Way despite a four lane design with room to add them. Queue jumps at the Fremont Bridge could also work wonders. Another issue is enforcing transit lanes better since motorists frequently ignore them and block buses packed to the gills with upwards of 100 riders.

Camera Enforcement of Transit Lanes

Transit lane enforcement would help deal with the period of maximum constraint, getting more efficient use of our existing transit lanes. Too often Third Avenue bus lanes are blocked with motorists, clogging our city’s key transit artery. Our transit agencies boast of Third Avenue being the busiest bus mall in the country, but unfortunately, SDOT has been slow to make Third Avenue bus-only 24 hours a day and extend restrictions to Bell Street. Apparently, extending the hours is being planned for September, although just how much longer the bus-only restrictions will be is hazy.

To make matters worse, the Seattle Police Department has not been able to sufficiently crack down on rampant scofflaws violating the bus-only hours we do have, and the Washington State Legislature has not been willing to allow Seattle to use camera enforcement of transit lanes.

PSA: Follow traffic laws. Yes, even if you're from out of town. Being from the suburbs doesn't mean you get to break Seattle traffic laws with impunity. What kind of logic is that!? #VisionZero #DealingWithYokels https://t.co/9smv2mx97Y pic.twitter.com/14jpBpg8dw

— The Urbanist (@UrbanistOrg) January 18, 2018

Representative Gael Tarleton proposed a bill allowing transit camera enforcement on three pilot corridors. Strikingly, that common-sense bill was buried as some Democratic legislators joined ranks with Republicans siding with motorist rights to ignore Seattle laws and block transit lanes because they are impatient or conveniently confused. If they care a lick about the transit riders and the Seattle economy, state legislators should support this crucial bill. In fact, we should expand the pilot to 10 corridors (as there will be 10 RapidRide corridors within Seattle by 2024) or scrap the limit altogether. Seattle’s economic boom has been built on transit, as our city’s population has grown by more than 100,000 in eight years even as average daily traffic on city streets has remained relatively flat.

Not RapidRide Rollout

Some high ridership routes weren’t selected for RapidRide treatment under Move Seattle, but they could still benefit from more transit priority. Route 5 got an important queue jump at the Aurora Ave and Bridge Way N interchange and piggybacks on RapidRide E Line BAT lanes on Aurora Avenue. Finding space for further Route 5 bus lanes would not be easy. However, more queue jumps could ease other bottlenecks, like the congested (and confusingly named) Fremont Way N and Fremont Ave N intersection. And there does appear to be room for a BAT lane on Greenwood Avenue.

We’ve been writing about ways to improve the much maligned Route 8 for years. The city’s settled-upon fixes still haven’t arrived, but they should to be on their way this summer. We could expand on them with painted bus lanes, particularly at key sections like Olive Way and John Street near Broadway.

Route 36 carried 10,000 daily riders in fall 2015, but that dropped to 9,300 in 2016, even as the neighborhood grew. What I take from that is the reliability of the route isn’t what it should be. A painted bus lane on 12th Avenue would help speed the route through this busy thoroughfare in Little Saigon. There are also stretches of Beacon Avenue that may be wide enough for transit lanes or queue jumps.

Where’s the Streetcar?

Another solution that faded from One Center City is the Center City Connector streetcar. Unfortunately, the pause of the project means another tool was taken off the table. The streetcar came with new transit-only lanes on First Avenue, boosting transit throughput through Downtown. With the connector, the streetcar was projected to move 20,000 daily riders in 2020. The delay pushed the streetcar to 2021 (or later) and may represent hospice care if the Durkan administration moves to kill the Center City Connector altogether. Getting the streetcar built will help the city deal with rising transit demand–and the sooner the better with bus capacity stretched until 2024. The results of the City Budget Office’s independent review of streetcar finances were due yesterday and an announcement is expected within a few weeks on next steps.

Why All This Matters

The period of maximum constraint would seem to be the time for heavy political lifts. It’s not clear that’s happening though. Rather than turning to private operators to scrape together service on clogged streets, the city should take initiative to help unclog our roads for transit. We can use our platform hours much more efficiently, and we don’t have to wait under the transit Armageddon is already upon us to do it. Certainly a massive breakdown of our transit system would provide some political cover to roll out long-kicked around and dreamed-of bus lanes, but letting transit breakdown before acting would also punish riders and risk all the progress our city is making as a national leader in transit ridership growth. Let’s instead enact a bold plan ahead of time.

Are One Center City Multimodal Improvements on the Way?

The post Let’s Add New Bus Lanes to Overcome ‘Period of Maximum Constraint’ first appeared on The Urbanist.

Failing to make it into the final bill was any language that would have required mitigation funding if city transportation officials determine downtown’s surface streets were not ready to accommodate the 40 buses per hour during peak that use the bus tunnel. The convention center expansion construction will require the closure of Convention Place station, requiring all buses to use surface streets instead, likely in March of 2019 if everything lines up like the WSCC intends. At the council’s Transportation and Sustainability committee meeting last week, Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) officials were not confident that they would be able to implement one of the signature projects intended to move those buses efficiently: the new 5th and 6th Avenue transit pathway. But it’s worth looking at what the city and other transit agencies have decided not to do to help move people through downtown.

For the past several years, regional transit agencies have been getting ready for these buses moving onto surface streets and how that will impact the regional transportation system as a whole. The One Center City process, a collaboration between SDOT, Sound Transit, King County Metro, and the Downtown Seattle Association, began in 2016 and created an entire advisory group made up of representatives from groups that move through downtown. The advisory group had its first meeting in fall of 2016 and met for an entire year, but most of the ideas that were presented to the board have been left on the cutting room floor.

5th Avenue Transit Mall

The most dramatic change proposed was the concept of moving all bus routes from both 2nd and 4th Avenues onto a two-way transit mall on 5th Avenue that would be restricted to other traffic during peak hours. This would cost the transit agencies nothing in additional operating costs because bus travel times would not increase, compared to all the other options, but would be expensive up front, costing up to $30 million dollars. It ultimately didn’t happen because that cost could not be justified for a transit mall that might be obsolete after Northgate Link opens, but also likely because businesses along 5th Avenue were not on board with the idea.

Added Transit Lanes on 4th & 5th Avenues

Another option to keep buses moving would have added a bus lane to 5th Avenue, where there currently is not one, and where buses like the 545 slog through peak hour traffic, and an additional bus lane to 4th Avenue, allowing buses in the existing lane to leapfrog one another. But this option had the biggest projected impact on travel times for general purpose vehicles heading southbound, an estimated impact of 3.4 additional minutes per vehicle due to the subtraction of a general purpose lane on 5th. The double bus lane was also not found to impact bus travel times enough to justify itself. It also would have cost up to $17 million to install these improvements.

520 Bus Reroutes

One of the first ideas that was proposed was improving Montlake triangle to speed up bus transfers there, allowing buses that currently use SR-520 and go all the way downtown to instead transfer riders to and from the University of Washington station. The documentation suggested that this would save riders three minutes if heading to the vicinity of Westlake Station and five minutes if heading to the International District, compared to what expected bus times will be in 2019 with additional buses on surface streets.

As the Seattle Transit Blog reported last month, Sound Transit and Metro are choosing not to reroute any 520 buses except for the 255 to Kirkland, and even that route will not be ready to reroute until September of next year, six months after buses exit the tunnel.

5th Ave & 6th Avenue Transit Pathway

One idea that is moving forward but which SDOT is not sure it will be able to implement in time for the March 2019 deadline is the 5th Avenue/6th Avenue pathway, which would extend the contraflow bus lane on 5th Avenue north to Marion Street where bus lane on 6th Avenue would continue northbound. This will take several northbound buses off 4th Avenue, but SDOT still needs to get the OK from the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) as the new bus lanes will pass several WSDOT ramps.

Another idea that never gained much traction was restricting general purpose vehicles turning right off 4th Avenue at some of the streets that buses use. Turning vehicles are one of the main reasons that the 4th Avenue gets slowed down, and the improvements proposed on 4th Avenue will simply add right turn arrows for both general purpose vehicles and buses. This will impact travel times for pedestrians along the corridor and not separate buses from traffic at all.

One of the best improvements to come out of the process will be all-door boarding on 3rd Avenue, which will also require extensive electrical work to be completed by next spring, another heavy lift. All-door boarding is another thing that the city has been talking about for a very long time, so it’s perplexing to see the agencies scramble to complete this by the deadline. And, of course, we are still very afraid of restricting random cars from driving on 3rd Avenue, so instead we will likely continue the policy of encouraging drivers to make turns in front of buses, slowing them down and putting pedestrians in the crosshairs. (And the state legislature has been no help on camera enforcement of transit lanes as Republicans and suburban-minded Democrats teams up to kill a pilot bill.)

With less than a year before buses exit the downtown tunnel and our into our limited street space downtown, the fact that we are rushing toward being ready for it reflects the reality that we won’t be asking people who drive their personal vehicles downtown to use less space. Except for a limited new bus lane on an underutilized stretch of downtown street space, the geometry of downtown Seattle for the average driver won’t change. Travel times for bus riders will be the first thing to suffer as a result. How will we implement decongestion pricing if we can’t even find space for our buses?

Featured image: Scott Bonjukian

Convention Center Delay Provides Time To Prioritize Transit

The post City Crosses Its Fingers for Early 2019 Bus Tunnel Closure first appeared on The Urbanist.