Comments on: 358 Bus Stop Plazas

By: Westlake Streetcar Placemaking - Seattle Transit Blog

Westlake Streetcar Placemaking - Seattle Transit Blog — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:44:19 +0000

[...] use of public ROW for pedestrians and placemaking, not cars. This trend started with Metro’s 358 bus stop plaza improvements, then the Pike/Pine pedestrian improvements and finally Bell Street linear park. As I [...]

By: roddygirl

roddygirl — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:31:08 +0000

That would be us-ours is one of the streets with one of these bus stops at the end. We are trying to get our block to go cul-de-sac because the proposed changes are sure to turn our street into a park and ride. Do you think the city and metro is doing anything to alleviate this future problem? In fact, they have effectively taken this option off the table for our street. Also given that because people speed down Aurora, they speed up our street. That really makes the parents of small children happy and we fear for our lives getting in and out of cars.
Additionally, we have some SERIOUSLY bad parking problems already on the street, with people already parking and riding the bus and a business down on Aurora that uses the street as a parking lot for their service trucks. The bus stop will be expanded, but we are not seeing any viable solutions to our existing parking problems.

By: Jon Morgan

Jon Morgan — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:35:29 +0000

This would be a HUGE improvement over the 16 from Northgate. Takes forever and you have to walk in some not so friendly areas to reach the heart of Fremont.

By: Jon Morgan

Jon Morgan — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:34:07 +0000

I’d love to rip out Aurora and replace it with a boulevard. SDOT has a whole pedestrian safety project going on there because the corridor is so dangerous for peds. But remember: it’s a STATE highway. Olympia’s permission would be required. Given their hemming and hawing over the Viaduct tunnel, I don’t see them allowing or funding this anytime soon.

By: Morgan Wick

Morgan Wick — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:15:09 +0000

Smaller businesses don’t have the name value of a Home Depot or Lowe’s. For the most part, you won’t find them on TV, so you’re less likely to know they exist.

Also, because they’re so big they can carry some stuff you won’t find anywhere else, as Erik points out.

By: Morgan Wick

Morgan Wick — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:11:19 +0000

Which side of Aurora? If it’s the east side you might be a special case because of Green Lake Dr.

By: geekgirl

geekgirl — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:23:48 +0000

A bike boulevard up to Phinney Ridge from Aurora is really only going to get a lot of traffic if we were to have a Norwegian style bike escalator. I’ve tried biking up 83rd and it is not fun!

By: Squints

Squints — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:45:11 +0000

If aurora were a boulevard we could have more minor crossings of 99 – perhaps at 42nd – and some left turn lanes allowing people to avoid clogging up the few underpasses there already are. It would help disperse low-speed, local traffic onto surface streets and free up capacity on the main collectors.

But I guess it really all comes down to priorities. Do you want to primarily serve people living in far-out housing and commuting to downtown or do we want to make seattle neighborhoods better places to be?

By: Emily

Emily — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:16:28 +0000

I live at 83rd & Aurora. I wonder if these options would create more traffic on 83rd. More traffic on my street–bummer. Nicer place to stand and wait for the bus–nice. Hmmm.

By: Adam B. Parast

Adam B. Parast — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:59:49 +0000

Yeah Seattle really needs to commit for funds to bike boulevards.

By: Lloyd

Lloyd — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 05:54:45 +0000

And, to encourage biking, “Rapid Ride” and boulevardization, no subsidized (“free”) parking on Aurora south of the north city limits, please! As John C says above, we need Aurora as an alternative to blockages on I-5, Greenwood/Phinney, Roosevelt/11th, and as the major arterial it is. And Bernie has it right “No to more lanes; yes to better use of existing lanes” and, please NO parking.

By: cjh

cjh — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 05:50:12 +0000

What s/he said.

By: John C

John C — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 05:15:45 +0000

Fremont & Dayton are being transitioned into official bike boulevard status. 77th, though not yet officially a bike blvd., it is a cross town “shared use” street according to the SDOT bike master plan with bike signage all along the route, traffic calming, special bike access features and a signal at Aurora. From Golden Gardens to Greenlake it functions as a bike blvd in practice if not in name. Besides, strictly speaking, Seattle has no bike blvds if you compare us to Portland or Berkeley. I wish we weren’t so far behind those two cities.

By: Adam B. Parast

Adam B. Parast — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:38:08 +0000

I used to live right on bridge way. It would be nice if the 358 at least stopped there off-peak. The 5 provides good service but late at night it would be nice to have both.

By: Adam B. Parast

Adam B. Parast — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:35:58 +0000

Not to mentions there isn’t any money for anything more than incremental improvements to Aurora.

By: Adam B. Parast

Adam B. Parast — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:33:56 +0000

Exactly. These options are really solutions for different locations. It really depends on the individual conditions of the intersection. Also I agree about bicycles. Unless there is an existing signal it is crazy to think that a bicyclist would try to get across Aurora.

By: Elbar

Elbar — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:33:22 +0000

There needs to be a bus stop on Aurora closer to downtown Fremont–that weird freeway stop up at 46th Street in the middle of nowhere is too far away and spooky after dark. I was surprised that such stop was not included during the recent reconfiguration of the 39th Street stops near the Aurora bridge. The old Route 6 used to stop on 39th some years ago, and served Fremont residents well, especally those who needed to go to and from the Zoo and Shoreline area. Today at least a flagstop for riders to debark ONLY on Aurora and 39th would be an improvement.

By: Adam B. Parast

Adam B. Parast — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:31:11 +0000

Yeah I agree. Option 2 is probably the safest.

By: Bernie

Bernie — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:06:57 +0000

There’s Greenlake, the Zoo and the cemetary that all constrict E/W access. From the UW go north to 85th or use Northgate Way and Holman. Because of the Sound and Lake Washington Seattle is forced to put the emphasis on North South over East West.

By: DPR

DPR — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:03:23 +0000

Is there actually a 77th Street bike boulevard?