Cherry blossom season typically heralds the end of winter, and it returns this weekend. The U-District Cherry Blossom Festival starts today with special events now through March 29. While the groves at the University of Washington’s campus in Seattle are the most popular destination for blossom-seekers, The Seattle Times ($) offered five alternative urban cherry tree destinations to consider visiting for blossom viewing. Last year, the Urbanist created a map of each of Seattle’s 17,000+ cherry trees and 27,000 other blooming arbors.

Here are some transit-accessible cherry blossom viewing suggestions across Seattle, Bellevue, and Tacoma:

Continue reading “Friday Roundtable: cherry blossom season” | 7 comments

Stride 3 BRT will be the new avenue-running BRT on SR 522 (Bothell Way) from Seattle/Shoreline via Lake Forest Park and Kenmore to Bothell. The bus will run every 10 to 15 minutes and stop at 14 stations.

This article will continue the Stride 3 BRT discussion with the eastern half of the route with Kenmore and Bothell.

The previous article (Stride 3 BRT Part 1: Seattle, Lake Forest Park and Kenmore) discussed the western half of the route with Seattle, Shoreline and Lake Forest Park.

Continue reading “Stride 3 BRT Part 2: Kenmore, Bothell, and I-405” | 29 comments

Reminders & Updates:

• Simulated Service of the 2 Line west of Lake Washington has resumed. Northerners rejoice. The Crosslake Connection of the 2 Line opens on March 28.
• Downtown Transit Tunnel Closure Mar. 21-22: Link service between Capitol Hill to Stadium will be replaced by shuttle buses next weekend for scheduled maintenance.

Local News:

• No transit measure for King County in 2026, but the Council will likely implement a 0.1% sales tax hike for roadway maintenance, which currently has no funding (The Urbanist).
• A state bill directly authorizing 75-year bonds is dead, but an amendment to the state’s transportation funding policies might give Sound Transit the authority it’s hoping for (The Urbanist).
• Bellevue wants to know if residents agree with dropping speed limits 5 mph on most city streets (Seattle Bike Blog).
• Sound Transit should leverage the vast popularity of light rail expansion to get laws and policies changed before cutting ST3 projects (Op-Ed; The Urbanist).
• King County Metro recorded over 334,000 boardings on Feb. 11, the Seahawks Victory Parade day (Metro Matters). Metro reports last February’s average weekday served about 265,000 boardings.
• SDOT is once again accepting applications to volunteer on the various advisory boards (SDOT Blog)
• Seattle Mayor Wilson has proposed legislation to speed up construction of tiny house villages, an early step toward delivering on a campaign promise for 1,000 new shelters in 2026 (The Seattle Times, $). Erica C. Barnett reflects on the consequences of abandoning “Housing First” (PubliCola).

Continue reading “Midweek Roundup: gas prices surge” | 97 comments

On February 26, Sound Transit announced the ground-breaking of Stride 3 BRT construction. Stride 3 BRT will be a new avenue running BRT on SR 522 (Bothell Way) from Seattle/Shoreline via Lake Forest Park and Kenmore to Bothell. The Stride 3 will connect the north Lake Washington corridor to the regional rail spine. The bus will run every 10 to 15 minutes and stop at 14 stations. This article will go over the choices for the Seattle to Kenmore segment and review the design plots released by Sound Transit.

Continue reading “Stride 3 BRT Part 1: Seattle, Lake Forest Park, and Kenmore” | 98 comments

London vs Berlin transit. Which is better? (Evan Edinger)

Top 15 highest-ridership cities in the US, Canada, and Mexico. (CityNerd)

This is an open thread.

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Over two series of articles in 2011 and 2024-2026, Seattle Transit Blog has shared detailed breakdowns of the ridership patterns for dozens of routes across King County Metro, Sound Transit, and Community Transit. Puget Sound is fortunate to have an extensive transit network but Seattle Transit Blog cannot cover every route. Instead, we have built a dashboard to share the ridership data for every route.

Initially, the Seattle Transit Ridership dashboard only includes data for King County Metro routes and Sound Transit Express routes operated by King County Metro. All routes have data from 2024. Data from 2025 will be added after the March 28 service change. Over the next few months, we will add data for routes from other Puget Sound transit agencies.

The dashboard is available below and at seattletransitridership.com. Use the dropdown menus to pick the agency, route, and time period for the data you would like to view. By default, the static plots will be displayed. We are also working on interactive plots, which you can see by checking the checkbox. The interactive plots are formatted better on larger displays.

Continue reading “Seattle Transit Ridership Dashboard” | 52 comments

Over the past few months, the Wilson Transition Committee has met with thousands of Seattlities to better understand what the residents of Seattle want to see from the Wilson administration. The full report outlines recommendations in eight areas: Housing Affordability & Community Needs, Economic Development & Workers’ Rights, Transportation & Environment, Arts, Culture, & Creative Economy, Civic Narrative & Major Initiatives, Standing Up for Our Values, Public Safety, Parks, & Community Wellbeing, and Student & Youth Advisors.

While these different areas are intertwined, it’s worth highlighting the transit, mobility, and public access recommendations:

• Expand citywide bus priority lanes.
• Create integrated mobility hubs with user amenities & safe waiting areas, especially near light rail & bus transfer points. 
• Align transit investments with equity goals, ensuring access across neighborhoods, regardless of car ownership or income. 
• Increase 24-hour bus service
• Expand North-South & East-West connections, including Rainier Valley to Tukwila/Georgetown & Golden Gardens to UW. 

The report also mentions a few early wins for each category. For transit, these include: 

• Paint bus lanes on Denny. 
• Extend Seattle Housing Authority ORCA passes & increase Orca pass programs for nonprofits.

Continue reading “Friday Roundtable: Wilson Transition Committee Recommendations” | 146 comments

This is part three of a three-part series investigating city-funded bus service in Seattle. Part 1 covered the Seattle Transportation Benefit District (STBD) from 2014 to early 2020. Part 2 covered its successor, the Seattle Transit Measure (STM) from 2020 to present. This article looks to the future of the STM and its 2026 renewal.

In April 2027, the Seattle Transit Measure (STM), Seattle’s 0.15% sales tax that funds extra bus service and other transportation priorities, will expire. Seattle (or King County) will need to place a measure on the ballot this fall for voters to approve to maintain or expand existing transit service.

County or City Measure?

Despite putting the breaks on its electrification plans, King County Metro is still facing a structural budget deficit starting in the early 2030s. Without additional funding, maintaining service will not be possible.

To avert that cliff and expand bus service countywide, transit advocates have urged King County Executive Girmay Zahilay to propose a funding measure to voters (sounds a lot like 2014 and 2020). Zahilay was supportive of this on the campaign trail. However, he said funds generated should also go to maintain and upgrade county roads similar to the failed 2007 ‘Roads and Transit’ measure activists campaigned against and a very similar countywide measure that failed in 2014 that directly led to the creation of Seattle’s Transportation Benefit District (now the STM). We reached out to Executive Zahilay and his office declined to comment.

Continue reading “Seattle Transit Measure: Renewal and a Course for More Frequent Transit” | 50 comments

Reminder: late-night Link service reductions in North Seattle are ongoing for construction of Pinehurst Station and Sound Transit’s Monthly Maintenance program.

Transportation:

• The eastside stretch of the 2 Line continues to struggle with power issues (The Seattle Times, $). Some agencies are asking the state legislature to solve it, but no dice this year (The Seattle Times, $)
• Last week, Sound Transit officially broke ground on the Stride S3 Line, a BRT route connecting Bothell to Shoreline via SR-522 (The Urbanist). Sound Transit summarized the history of transportation on the north end of Lake Washington (The Platform)
• Meanwhile, WA state legislators are planning to issue $2B in bonds to spend tomorrow’s gas taxes on the backlog of highway maintenance today (The Urbanist).
• A beer celebrating 75 years of the Washington State Ferry system is now for sale exclusively in WSF galleys (The Seattle Times, $). Advertisements say the limited brew is “from farms to ferries”.
• King County Metro is seeking a contactor for two bundles of major facility and infrastructure maintenance contracts, including upgrades and maintenance of trolley infrastructure (Metro Matters)
• On March 15, Kitsap Transit’s spring service change will bring updates to many routes and convert all routes on Bainbridge Island to three digit route numbers (KT Headways)
• A new peanut-style roundabout under I-405 on NE 85th Street will open this spring, built as part of a major interchange rework for the Stride S2 Line (WSDOT Blog).
• Community Transit shared some project updates with Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) during a roundtable meeting in February (Everett Herald)

Continue reading “Midweek Roundup: from farms to ferries” | 143 comments

For most transit agencies in the United States the largest constraint to providing more service is funding. In Seattle, that luckily has not been a constraint in recent years. Instead, our transit agencies have struggled to operate the amount of service voters have funded.

Before the pandemic, King County Metro could not deliver the amount of service Seattle wanted to purchase via the STBD. Labor shortages and limited bus base capacity meant money dedicated for service had to be diverted to capital projects and other programs.

In 2020, hundreds of millions of dollars of lost sales tax and fare revenue forced Metro to significantly downsize to stay above water by cutting service and reducing its workforce. Additionally, the City of Seattle reduced funding for night, evening, and weekend bus service and the fall 2020 service change was done under the assumption that Seattle’s Transportation Benefit District funding would lapse (which it did for four months). Coupled with very high turnover, mechanics, parts, and operators were all in short supply for years.

Continue reading “Metro Operator Shortage to End Next Year” | 57 comments