I'm a transportation and housing reporter living in Seattle. My areas of focus include making our streets safer for people outside cars, the best ways to utilize public space, and how to prevent the present from holding the future hostage.
Digging into the archives to spell out the fact that the Seattle Times editorial board has never supported a city transportation levy, going back to 2006. Their credibility has run out on this issue.
https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/10/28/the-times-credibility-run-out-on-seattle-transportation-levy/
The environmental review for the largest highway project that the Pacific Northwest has ever seen is out for public comment. It includes a glaring omission: the fact of induced demand.
Things we don't talk about: the cost of *not* making speed and reliability improvements to our local bus network.
Due to increased traffic congestion, King County Metro expects to schedule an additional 6,500 hours in 2025 and 18,000 in 2026...to maintain the same service.
Here's the full rundown of the latest draft of Seattle's 20-year growth plan.
The good: more neighborhood centers, fewer Middle Housing restrictions
The bad: more traffic-oriented development, parking mandates sticking around
Following the launch of Lynnwood Link and an associated bus restructure in Snohomish County, Community Transit's three Swift BRT routes all saw double digit ridership increases, including a 36% jump on the Orange Line.
Emails show how Kemper Development, unhappy with plans for a two-way protected bike lane along the back of Bellevue Square, proposed an alternative to route people on bikes onto side streets. The plan was approved by the city's transportation commission.
https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/10/24/bellevue-greenlights-bike-detour-proposed-by-kemper/
Eight years after Sound Transit 3, Ballard Link is still stuck in planning limbo. I dug into what's actually happening and when we might see progress.
https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/10/19/why-ballard-link-is-still-trapped-in-planning-limbo/
An amendment dropped by Rob Saka just 24 hours before the final hearing on the city budget today asks for a plan to decommission one of the city's streetcar lines, which has been operating in SLU since 2007 but has struggled with low ridership.
https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/11/12/rob-saka-pushes-to-decommission-the-south-lake-union-streetcar/
Initial ridership data on Seattle's newest RapidRide line reveal over 4,000 riders hopped on a bus on an average weekday in October, a 15% increase over the line's first few weeks in September. While it's starting out strong, there's clearly room to grow.
https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/11/11/rapidride-g-bus-ridership-starts-strong/
Even as other major cities are dropping mandates to include an arbitrary number of parking stalls in new development, Seattle is set to double down, requiring them even with new transit-oriented zoning and neighborhood hubs.
https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/11/08/seattle-set-to-double-down-on-arbitrary-parking-mandates/
In 2021, Rob Saka demanded, as a private citizen, that SDOT remove a barrier preventing drivers from turning left into a preschool parking lot.
Now that he's an elected official, he's proposed a $2 million earmark to force its removal.
https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/10/31/saka-seeks-to-remove-delridge-lane-divider/
Bellevue has released initial designs for a pedestrian bridge over I-405 that it hopes can not only act as a multimodal connection but as a community amenity, integrated into the surrounding neighborhood.
https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/10/29/bellevue-pedestrian-bridge-over-i-405/
Got to join the great folks at KUOW's Soundside today to talk about last week's release of the updated One Seattle Comprehensive Plan.
https://www.kuow.org/stories/seattles-latest-growth-plan-is-out-how-would-it-ch
@dgodon@mastodon.online @urbanistorg@mstdn.social agreed. But if the legislature won't even approve the small steps...
We're also trying to cover those big moves too, of course.
WSDOT Secretary Roger Millar and CM Claudia Balducci are among the voices pushing for the next update to the central Puget Sound's regional transportation plan to be ambitious and transformative, rather than minor and around-the-edges.
https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/10/14/puget-sound-transportation-plan-refresh/
Seattle has been planning to expand the number of school zone speed cameras for nearly two years. Rob Saka, now the chair of the transportation committee, has suggested that the city reconsider that plan, using reasoning that rests on shaky ground.
https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/10/03/saka-questions-school-zone-camera-expansion/
A land use fight is brewing on Bainbridge Island, where growth targets and state housing mandates could mean big changes.
So far the Bainbridge City Council has signaled a desire to do the bare minimum, but not everyone's on board with that.
https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/11/04/sleepy-bainbridge-island-decides-how-to-grow-up/
@LCW4PPL@social.ridetrans.it I noticed the same, so I'm holding back from sharing until I hear back from Sound Transit.
NEW: Despite the fact that fatalities and serious injuries nearly doubled on Tacoma's roadways between 2019 and 2023, the city's proposed budget for the next two years would reduce $900,000 in Vision Zero funding to just $90,000, a 90% decrease.
https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/10/18/tacoma-set-to-slash-vision-zero/
Without major action in next year's county budget, King County Metro faces a significant fiscal cliff in the coming years as the agency starts to exhaust its reserve funds. County officials are starting to grapple with that reality.
