The draft $1.35 billion transportation levy proposal put forward early this month by Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell includes a broad array of goals for the city’s transportation system over the next eight years: repair 20% of the “major truck streets,” fix 34,000 segments of broken sidewalks, and implement safety projects on at least 12 corridors. But one high-profile target is completely missing from the draft: by how much will the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) expand the city’s network of protected bike lanes? The expiring Move Seattle Levy committed to a bold target representing ..read more

Let’s imagine what the Seattle City Council could be doing right now… if they hadn’t sworn off progressive innovation. There are a lot of new sounds over at Seattle City Hall these days. The sound of legislative staff trudging back to the office for mandatory in-person work. The sound of protesters being arrested for getting too rowdy outside council chambers. The sound of councilmembers asking questions while their aides leaf frantically through budget books seeking “efficiencies” and “redundancies.” And, I assume, the sound of staff in the various departments speculating in hushed tones abou ..read more

With Bike Bellevue scaled back, BelRed’s only proposed east-west route — Spring Boulevard — is on track to be completed sometime next decade. The City of Bellevue is going after a grant to fund design work on a brand new half-mile stretch of street near its growing Spring District neighborhood, completing the final gap on NE Spring Boulevard between 124th Avenue NE and 130th Avenue NE. Since Spring Boulevard’s first phase opened in 2020, it has functioned as Spring District’s multimodal main street, and it will provide direct access to the Spring District’s light rail station opening next week ..read more

A paper trail shows Mayor Harrell’s office cut transit corridor upzones and half the proposed “neighborhood centers” before release of Seattle’s growth plan. Seattle is in the midst of charting its growth strategy for the next two decades. Mayor Bruce Harrell’s draft Comprehensive Plan, released in March, was greeted with disappointment, as housing advocates called for bigger changes and more housing opportunities across the city. Documents recently obtained by The Urbanist through a public records request show that the Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD) had proposed a ..read more

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is moving full speed ahead with a project that could allow buses, including the infamously delayed Route 8, to bypass the most heavily congested stretches of the Denny Way corridor within four years, saving riders hundreds of thousands of hours per year. In a request for $8.2 million in federal funding from the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) submitted this spring, the department has provided more details on what a potential transit corridor along Mercer Street and Harrison Street in South Lake Union could look like. Two years ago, The Urbani ..read more

Like yours truly, Ray Delahanty of CityNerd is at this year’s National Planning Conference in Minneapolis. And like yours truly, Delahanty is spending a lot of time in a sprawling downtown convention center. In this video, Delahanty puts American and Canadian convention centers into March Madness-esque brackets to rank the best urban-oriented convention centers in the country for a hypothetical UrbanismCon. Minneapolis seeded high in the tournament while Seattle only scored an honorable mention. The post Sunday Video: Convention Center Madness first appeared on The Urbanist ..read more

“All Lands, All Hands, All Together” effort could make a dent in housing crisis. Too many people are feeling it right now – that quiet panic, that lack of certainty, that restless stress.  Washington is deep in the midst of a housing crisis, and far too many of our neighbors are struggling to pay their rent, stretching to keep up with their mortgage, or searching for a reliable roof over their heads.  I know how they feel – because I’ve been there.  When I was a child, I experienced two very different housing situations.   My dad’s house in Portland was a little house ..read more

King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda is pushing the Sound Transit board to take action to modify the pathways on the table for Sound Transit’s planned light rail extension to West Seattle in order to spare several small businesses in North Delridge that would otherwise be displaced by the project. This week she went directly to the board’s system expansion committee to provide public testimony, an unusual move that came only after meeting with Sound Transit staff and apparently meeting an impasse on what she describes as small “refinements.” Approved in the Sound Transit 3 ballot measure ..read more

WSDOT is accepting public comment until April 18 and advocates need to weigh in. The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has opened a public comment period until April 18 on its proposals for an upgrade to Amtrak Cascades service, and now is the time for transportation advocates to weigh in. Do people want faster, more frequent, and reliable passenger train service in Western Washington, in the near future? Of course we do. Unfortunately, WSDOT’s plan doesn’t get us there, so urge them to deliver faster service as soon as possible. Amtrak Cascades is the passenger rail servic ..read more

On April 27, East Link begins service! Join us to celebrate this momentous occasion. It’s been nearly 16 years since voters approved the Sound Transit 2 (ST2) ballot measure to expand our light rail system. Starting Saturday, April 27, trains will finally reach the Eastside via the East Link Starter Line (the 2 Line) serving eight stations between Bellevue and Redmond.  Construction issues mean the 2 Line won’t cross Lake Washington to connect with the 1 Line in Seattle until late 2025, but for now it will offer a new transit option for the Eastside. If you’ve been waiting for this as lon ..read more