The Eastgate/I-90 corridor through Bellevue is, for the most part, a land use disaster: endless surface parking lots, essentially no high-density housing, an incomplete street grid, and above all a wide interstate with expansive interchanges.
To its credit, Bellevue is hoping to remake this corridor, which is on the shortlist for light rail in Sound Transit 3, into something a bit more environmentally responsible.
The city government and a citizen advisory committee have been at work for over a year, and now have a draft transportation and land use plan. Tomorrow is your opportunity to learn about and comment on this plan (which I don’t believe is online anywhere) before the final recommendation goes to the city council:
The open house will be at the Robinswood House Cabana, 2430 148th Ave. SE, 4 to 6 p.m., with a presentation at 4:30 p.m.
I believe this plan could contain one of my personal hobby horses, fixing the roads to improve service between Bellevue College and Eastgate.
OMG – What a beautiful picture!
Is there any way to increase the footprint of I-90?
This area E/W is one of the better East/West corridors for bicycles! Amazingly enough a lot of the traffic is on the freeway and the two parallel streets have bike lanes and are actually pretty nice to ride on for major roads.
Connecting from Eastgate (N side) under the freeway to the bike trail to Seattle (S side) at Factoria Boulvard is a problem….you take a left turn lane and then turn left with a lot of disjointedness about who goes to what lane. Then going to the trail requires hitting the sidewalk ramp which can sometimes be awkward if a car is sticking out too much…
I ride very seldomly and only in great weather. Haven’t tested alternative routes. Is it better (eastbound) to stay on the south side until the bridge at the park-n-ride?
Yes I have worked on the I 90 corridor several times and I think it works great as a business center.
Also because of low density it is one of the very few (perhaps the only) thoroughfare that does not have significant congestion! It is the only road in Western Washington that meets modern design needs.
There is already plenty of transit along there in the form of buses.
The plan does contain Snoqualamie River Road upgrades as one of the alternatives…
Even though the Robbinswood House was the site where I effectively ended my life, it’s still a beautiful house and gardens.
And yeah, the Eastgate Corridor needs a lot of work. Factoria seems to be improving though.