I’m not sure how this escaped our notice up to now, but the giant repaving project going on on Elliott and 15th Avenues NW involves installing peak-only bus lanes. This is a crucial improvement if RapidRide BRT in this corridor is to be worth anything.
We still haven’t seen any other details about what Ballard RapidRide will entail.
Of course, the project is mentioned in the context of a driver whining about losing road capacity, but the P-I at least makes an effort to acknowledge the number of people this will help.
It’s good to know there will be a decent option for densely packed Ballard residents before light rail gets there 2030-ish. Hopefully, the existence of this capacity won’t be used as an argument against eventually getting there with LINK.
the bus lanes are only good from 7-9am and 4-6pm. this is only slightly better than the usual parking restrictions in places like E. John on capitol hill, etc.
for this to be really useful, the bus lanes should be in effect all day – otherwise it’s just going to be confusing and probably ignored (not to mention how many right-turns that are made there, etc.). in fact, i think people can park in those lanes outside of the 7-9am and 4-6pm window. that works GREAT (sarcasm) on capitol hill, as at least one person almost every day inevitably ignores the restrictions and undoes the benefit of those lanes anyway (causing the 43/8 in that case to have to sit and wait to merge into the left-hand lane in full traffic to get around the offending vehicle).
I had mentioned something of this in one of our earlier posts. I think this is awesome, cause it directly relates to me and has peeled about 7-10 minutes off of my commute. I think it needs to be enforced ALL DAY! As for the whiny drivers that are crying about a lost lane, well they need to remember they never really had that lane due to illegal parkers! That was and is the worst thing about 15th Ave W! May the Southbound get installed quickly!
Personally, I’d work on getting to all day by lengthening the lane restriction times first (say, 6-10 and 3:30-7:30). This will both ensure that anybody who needs to get towed is towed before rush hour really kicks in and make drivers more used to the idea that the lanes are often closed. All day lanes can be stage 2, along with rapid ride.
Finally a reliable bus corridor to downtown. Hallelujah! Now that we’ve made busing more convenient AND faster than driving finally… we seriously need more frequent service. These bus routes are CRAMMED with people during rush hour, creating an uncomfortable and unsafe riding condition. As the fuel price keeps rising can Metro keep up with all the new transit users? Or will it turn them off with infrequent and uncomfortable service?
But anyway, yay for bus lanes!
Despite agreeing with what andrew, nick, and steve already said, I was rather pleased with today’s Getting There. I hadn’t heard about this great improvement for Ballard bus folks and am glad that Rick came right out and said it:
“Recognizing that we can’t build our way out of the city’s traffic issues, we need to provide transportation options that look beyond the single-occupant automobile,” Sheridan said. Woo, go Rick!
Likewise, I’m pretty happy with Wayne’s response to another brilliant idea (can you just feel the sarcasm emanating from my comment?), raising speed limits on city roadways:
Wentz said the lower speed is part of a city effort to “to create facilities for all users that promote the health, safety and welfare of the general public” and the city is trying to do this “by incrementally modifying driver behavior using speed reduction, roadway section modification and constructing roadways with features such as median islands.”
I stopped reading Getting There awhile back because I found it to usually be filled with complaints about new redlights and aggressive pedestrians; offers of some numbskull’s newest and greatest suggestion to retime a light, remove a crosswalk, or allow SOVs to use a carpool only access ramp; and Wayne saying the City will look into it.
Good suggestion on slowly increasing the enforced times steve. That appears to be the only way to do things like this. It makes me chuckle when people ask “wasn’t the 3rd avenue bus only restriction suppose to go away when they reopened the bus tunnel?”. Not sure if it was intentional, but that trickery worked out perfectly.
I have a question:
If RapidRide intends to serve Ballard effectively, how will it “bypass” the traffic congestion and chokepoints in the vicinity of the Ballard Bridge?
“I stopped reading Getting There awhile back because I found it to usually be filled with complaints about new redlights and aggressive pedestrians; offers of some numbskull’s newest and greatest suggestion to retime a light, remove a crosswalk, or allow SOVs to use a carpool only access ramp; and Wayne saying the City will look into it.”
Don’t forget the angry Seattle driver whining about the bicyclist “in the way” of his pickup truck.
Don’t you just love how the dumbest and most self-centered people always seem to think they have the best way to “fix” traffic problems? As if the entire world revolves around their piddly lives?
Oh, that’s a good question ballardcommuter. This shows the BRT route passing over the bridge. Maybe they plan to install some kind of signal priority that allows the bus to get ahead of the backup? Perhaps similar (but significantly improved) to the one at Montlake.
Yeah, this has been on the books for awhile now… And, as far as I know, wesley’s right. A few of us pushed hard awhile back to give signal priority to buses near the bridge so that they could come up the bus lane and then “jump the queue” of cars to go onto the Bridge.
We’ll see how it all actually looks once Rapid Ride is up and running…
ballardcommuter: The Ballard bridge is a tricky issue. It is listed under the National Register of Historic Places so making any modifications to the bridge could prove to be a tough process.
On another note, the bicycle master plan calls for the creation of a bicycle only bridge near that crossing.
Thanks guys for all the information!
Now i’m wondering if the new bike crossing that djstroky mentioned could have the potential for a bus-only bridge with bike and pedestrian facilities that could be capable of carrying a potential light-rail line?
(Yes, I know there probably won’t be funding for such an ambitious project and light rail to Ballard is decades away)