Although the RapidRide R project to replace Route 7 on Rainier Avenue has been postponed to 2031, SDOT (the Seattle Department of Transportation) has continued to implement bus lanes along Rainier Avenue. We’ll go over a moderate recap of the changes made of the past decade starting from 2015, focusing on the transit improvements, as well as outline some near term future changes.
Previous STB Articles
| Description | Article Link |
| Ridership Patterns for King County Metro Route 7 | https://seattletransitblog.com/2024/10/21/ridership-patterns-for-king-county-metro-route-7/ |
| Work resumption on RapidRide R | https://seattletransitblog.com/2024/07/27/work-resumes-on-rapidride-r/ |
| Metro survey on RapidRide R | https://seattletransitblog.com/2020/02/21/metro-seeks-feedback-for-rapidride-r-to-replace-route-7/ |
| SDOT debating between protected bike lanes and bus lanes on Rainier Avenue | https://seattletransitblog.com/2017/08/24/rainier-avenue-will-decide-between-buses-and-bikes/ |
Rainier Avenue Improvements Overview
There have been multiple SDOT projects on Rainier Avenue. In 2015, the Vision Zero Rainier Improvements debated between bike and bus lanes and chose bus lanes. In 2023, the Route 7 Transit Plus Multimodal Corridor fixed the sidewalk along the northern portion of Rainier Avenue. In 2022 and 2024, the Rainier Avenue S Bus Lane added bus lanes in two phases from Edmunds Street to Grand Street.
Below the improvements will be listed in detail from south to north, roughly but not exactly in order of construction.
Rainier Avenue: Rainier Beach
SDOT added protected bike lanes on a couple blocks of Rainier Ave around Rainier Beach.
These new bike lanes connect the relatively bike-friendly Seward Park Ave S to the rest of the Rainier Ave S bike lanes connecting further east to Renton.
Rainier Avenue E Henderson St to Kenny Street
https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/SDOT/VisionZero/Rainier_Ph2_Aerial_08-04-2020_SP.jpg (Detailed PDF very large)
The Vision Zero: Rainier Improvements Phase 2 added BAT lanes and channelized intersections from 2~3 general lanes to 1~2 general lanes with turning lanes instead. (Phase 1 is discussed below)
Rainier Ave and S Henderson St
SDOT added a new northbound BAT lane and a right turn on S Henderson St rather than two general lanes.
Rainier Ave and S Cloverdale St
At the S Cloverdale intersection SDOT added northbound and southbound bus lanes,
Rainier Ave and S Rose St
The Rose Street intersection received a new traffic signal and crosswalk. Rainier Avenue was channelized from 4 general lanes to one general lane, new left turns and a new northbound bus lane.
Rainier Ave and Othello Street
At Othello intersection bus lanes were added in the northbound and southbound direction.
2017/2018 Survey
2018 Past https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/SDOT/VisionZero/RainierCorridor_Outreach_Report.pdf
Alternative 1: Adds a dedicated northbound bus lane, maintains right turns and business access through a Business Access and Transit (BAT) lane, and retains on-street parking on the west side of Rainier Ave S.
Alternative 2: Adds protected bike lanes (PBLs) on both sides of Rainier Ave S, a left-turn lane at intersections, and in-lane bus stops in both directions.
The Alternative 1 adding BAT lanes was chosen.
Rainier Avenue S Alaska St to S Kenny St
In 2015 for Vision Zero: Rainier Improvements Phase 1, SDOT redesigned one mile of Rainier Ave S between S Alaska St to S Kenny St from 4 lanes to 3 lanes, with one travel lane in each direction and a center turn lane. The speed limit was reduced from 30 to 25 mph.
The redesign kept or added a small amount of parking. In other sections rather than keeping the parking a northbound bus lane was added. The retrospective study found the number of annual collisions greatly decrease with the redesign.
Rainier Avenue and Edmunds
For narrower sections of Rainier Avenue with only 4 lanes, left turns were restricted and right-turn only added lanes were added.
Rainier Avenue S Alaska St to S Walden St
For Rainier Bus Lanes Phase 1, SDOT installed a northbound bus lane between S Alaska St and S Walden St, and a southbound bus lane between S Oregon St and S Edmunds St. A travel lane was converted into the new bus lane and no existing on-street parking was removed.Â
Rainier Avenue and MLK Way
In 2024, the MLK Jr Way Safety project restored crosswalks at the intersection of Rainier Avenue S and MLK Jr Way S. While the intersection has a pedestrian bridge, many pedestrians opted to cross the road even without a crosswalk due the laboriousness of going up and down, and that was leading to unsafe conditions.
Rainier Avenue: S Bayview St to MLK Jr Way S
For Route 7 Transit-Plus Multimodal Corridor, a bus-only lane was added to the southbound side of Rainier Ave S between S Bayview St and S Forest St.
Rainier Ave: Walden to S Massachusetts St
For Rainier Ave S Bus Lane Phase 2, SDOT is adding new northbound BAT lanes along Rainier Avenue from S Walden Street to S State Street. Additionally Rainier Ave / S College Street and Rainier Ave / S Grand Street will receive new stoplights.
The new S College Street signal notably allows for both easier pedestrian crossings and easier left turns from S College Street to northbound Rainier ave and from northbound Rainier Ave to westbound S College Street. Currently S College Street is one of the few east-west streets in the area and crossing on foot previously required detouring.
The new S Grand Street signal will serve the new apartments built around the area such as the Grand Street Commons.
Rainier Ave: I-90 overpass
Underneath i-90, new curb ramps were installed a new crosswalk was added on the north side of the I-90 off ramp. The new crosswalk will allow accessing the future Judkins Park station slightly easier.
Judkins Park Station: Rainier Ave Entrance
Judkins Park Station is the first East Link station for Seattle travelers heading towards Bellevue. The final design includes escalators and elevators on both sides of Rainier Avenue. Bus lanes exist on both sides of Rainier Avenue and bus Route 7 and Route 106 will stop in front of the light rail station entrances.
Future Items
RapidRide R
RapidRide R has been delayed for around a decade. On the other hand, most of the transit improvements listed above have already been implemented.
| Segment | Proposed | Current Condition |
| Segment 1 | Construct a northbound center-running BAT lane on Rainier Avenue S. from S. Lane Street to S. Jackson Street Convert the high occupancy vehicle (HOV) bypass lane on southbound Rainier Avenue S./I-90 eastbound ramp to a general-purpose lane2 | Not yet installed: Rainier Avenue S instead has southbound bus lanes Already converted: HOV lane to general lane |
| Segment 2 | Installation of a pedestrian half-signal at S. Walker Street | Not yet installed |
| Segment 3 | Remove parking and add northbound BAT lane from S Genesee Street to MLK Jr Way S Convert curbside general lane and add northbound BAT lane from S Alaska Street to S Genesee Street | Already added northbound BAT lane Extra: also added southbound BAT lane |
| Segment 4 | Northbound BAT lane from S Mead St to 39th St Ave | Already added BAT lane |
| Segment 5 | S Henderson Street BAT lanes | Already added BAT lanes |
The other items not yet implemented from RapidRide R would be the adding transit signal priority at the major intersections as well as the large off-board payment bus stops.
Prentice Loop Removal
One other complication is the removal of the Prentice loop south of Rainier Beach. The RapidRide prioritizes connecting with the Rainier Beach link station.
There were two proposals from the Metro Connects plan to replace that removed loop.
- Replace the Prentice Loop with redirecting Route 107 to terminate there OR
- Redirect Route 150 to terminate in that loop
Neither are quite the perfect fix for the removed loop, though missing the Rainier Beach connection is probably worse.
Seattle Transit Master Plan and Center Running Bus Lane
The 2016 Seattle Transit Master Plan did not plan for bus lanes on Rainier Ave south of Mt Baker Link Station. A rare case of when it was under optimistic, and SDOT was able to achieve much more transit priority. (The corridor shown above is a combination of Route 48 + Route 7)
On the other hand north of Mt Baker Link Station, the Transit Plan called for center-running bus lanes with:
Strategy RR 3.3: Evaluate tradeoffs of converting First Hill Streetcar running way on Jackson Street to center-running transit-only lanes to allow for shared RapidRide/ streetcar operations and Japantown, Chinatown, and Little Saigon center-platform stations.
Strategy RR 3.5: Evaluate feasibility of center-running transit-only lanes on Rainier Avenue including I-90 under-crossing opportunities and constraints
If future RapidRide buses along Rainier Avenue have dual-side doors, Jackson Street could easily have center transit lanes allowing for fast transit speed between Chinatown and Little Saigon.
Conclusion
SDOT has implemented many transit and safety improvements along Rainier Avenue, and the future of the corridor for transit will continue with the introduction of Judkins Park Link Station and RapidRide R. Hopefully the next phase of Rainier Avenue bus lanes are implemented smoothly, and RapidRide R will be expedited. That would help complete both the transit corridor and the safety improvements with better sidewalks and safer signalized intersections.
Thanks for this.
I think the Walker St crossing was moved to College St, perhaps because of queuing issues on the approach to 23rd
Hopefully RapidRide R can be a bit more ambitious, given that most of the original proposals have already been implemented. It would be great to have center-running bus
A related project on the same corridor is WSDOT’s I-90 Judkins Park access project. Hopefully that follows SDOT’s station access study and creates “right angle” intersections. Right now that whole area is a mess of on/off ramps.
https://wsdot.wa.gov/construction-planning/search-projects/i-90-judkins-park-station-reconnecting-communities
https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/SDOT/TransportationPlanning/JPStationAccessStudy_FINAL_2019-03-30_sm.pdf
> I think the Walker St crossing was moved to College St, perhaps because of queuing issues on the approach to 23rd
There’s a couple reasons. Currently northbound on Rainier ave around that area you cannot make a protected left turn to reach beacon hill. Or have to reach Massachusetts street.
Also if coming from beacon hill, you cannot just drive east.
The intersection of 23rd and walker st is unsignalized whereas 23rd and college st is an all way stop so it’s easier to travel east-west. the same goes for pedestrian and bike traffic going east-west
Thanks for your extensive research to give us such a complete picture of the improvements and plans for Rainier. Often we think SDOT has the wrong priorities or doesn’t do much, but this shows it has done a lot for Rainier. Observers may not realize the extent because it happens so gradually a block at a time.
Thanks for the great summary of the gradual, ongoing transformation of the Main Street of the Southend. The upcoming extension of the northbound bus lane is expected to save riders 6min during morning congestion. The benefit to riders and KCM will be massive. This is a testament to the cost effectiveness of transit lanes.
When the city rebuilds Rainier between Mt Baker Station and Jackson they will have some interesting choices. Center running RapidRide sounds great and would pair well with Jackson. But will Metro prefer trolly RapidRide like RapidRide J? Or the RapidRide G center running models? Will they be able to find center running trolly units this time?
Good points. As far as the choices are concerned we’ve actually been discussing it behind the scenes for a few days. You are right, there are some interesting options. It gets complicated because the streetcar and several buses go along that route. The streetcar runs in the middle of the street and uses doors on the left to serve it. That means we could:
1) Convert several routes to have buses with doors on both sides. You would want all the buses to have this capability. Which means you might want to…
2) Move the 14 and 106 off of Jackson (west of 14th). Only the 7, 36 and streetcar would run on Jackson west of 14th. The 7 and 36 are RapidRide candidates (making them a good choice for special buses with doors on both sides).
3) Another option is to rework the street so that the buses (and streetcar) run in the middle of the street via a weave pattern (as shown on this diagram). This would offer more flexibility for the buses, but it would mean moving the streetcar tracks.
4) Create a weave pattern for the buses but at the same time replace the streetcar (with a regular bus). This would save money over the previous option but retain all the flexibility when it comes to routing.
It gets even more complicated when you consider the types of buses we use. For example one approach is to just buy a bunch of buses with doors on both sides since these can always be used on regular routes. But that could mean buying small trolleys, big trolleys, small diesel buses and big diesel buses (all with doors on both sides).
Route 7 and 9 used to be MT, Baker TC S Graham St, and S 46th St and S Rose St but the trolley wires are cutting off the old layover bus stops but going around back to northbound buses.