Friday Roundtable: Lake Washington Boulevard Car-free Weekends 2026

24 Replies to “Friday Roundtable: Lake Washington Boulevard Car-free Weekends 2026”

1. Lake Washington Blvd. can also be reached on foot from several Link stations, with Columbia City, Mt. Baker, and Judkins Park being the closest. The one-way distance is about a mile, depending on the station, but the walk is scenic, and mostly park paths. Including wait time, these options are nearly as fast as taking the bus (none of the bus options run very frequently on weekends), but much more scenic.

   1. Imo the most family friendly route to LWB from outside the neighborhood is via Mt Baker Station, which can be reached from many, many bus routes plus the 1 Line of course. From here, it’s a 20 min walk on a gradual grade along scenic and low traffic Mt Baker Blvd and Mt Baker Park to Mt Baker Beach.

      Columbia City Station is great too but a bit further and less direct. Great to stop there for food though on your way home! I think the 50 stop at Genesee Park also deserves a mention. I think many folks assume riding all the way to Seward is necessary but it is a nice flat walk down to the lake from Genesee and 43rd.

      1. I agree that these two routes from Link — also shown on the article’s map — are the flattest paths to Lake Washington.

         Metro bus routes 14 and 50 have several stops that can be used, depending on why part of the Lake you may want to reach. The corner at 50th and Genesee one that is quite close to the lake and the slope is modest.

         Like many areas of Seattle, there are some hidden gem sidewalks, stairs and paths scattered across the neighborhoods near LWB. It’s part of what makes Seattle fascinating and magical to discover.

2. I’ve usually gone from Mt Baker station through Mt Baker Park, and then north to the 27, 3, or 2. Once I went south to Genesee Park, through the park (which was a disappointing neglected blank lawn) to the 7.

   This time I’ll need to limit walking between the boulevard and the transit stops. So I might start from the 27’s last stop, or the 50’s Seward Park stop. If I can’t go the whole way I’ll turn west in the middle, where at least the walking is after the car-free boulevard experience rather than before it.

3. Which part of the route is best if you wanted to focus on one third of it?

   1. Every section is lovely!

      If you like residential areas with vistas and can handle hills, the mansions and lawns north of Andover and east of Hunter Blvd/ Lake Park Dr are beautiful. Homeowners often hire professional landscapers to keep most lawns looking like manicured gardens. There is an unmarked stairway to/ from LWB here:

      https://maps.app.goo.gl/RCYBsDPQVqXzJa6c9?g_st=ic

      Horton Street is another good connecting street and it has a one-block hidden, unmarked path/ stairway on its path.

      If you are a less hardy urban hiker, the waterfront walkway with benches easily reachable from Route 50 between the Rowing Center and Marina is nice — particularly between 45th and 50th where it’s at right the water’s edge. It’s more amazing when the trees bloom in the spring or change colors in the fall. The Olmstead crew really focused on planting trees that vary in color and look through the year, and we still visually benefit from that aesthetic planning.

      1. Yes the Horton route is a local favorite! You will feel like you are trespassing but it is a lovely urban hike. It’s a worthy alternative to the Mt Baker Blvd route especially when you follow Horton past Hunter Blvd down the stairs towards Rainier.

   2. My favorite section is the northern mile between Mount Baker Beach and 43rd Ave. This part of LWB is easy to access via transit. I’d recommend taking Route 14 to Mount Baker Park and walking down through the park to LWB. Once you get to 43rd, walk through Genesee Park and catch Route 50 on Genesee. The only downside is Route 50’s 30 minute frequency during the weekend.

      1. It’s certainly lovely!

         Its only distraction is that traffic noise from I-90 can reach the areas near Mt Baker Beach. The noise would be more noticeable on car-free days.

   3. I would likely discourage anyone from using the 27 to get to the event on LWB. The Leschi neighborhood is fine but save it for another day.

4. Let’s not forget about Seward Park! There’s a 2.5-mile flat path that encircles the park and there are many pathways into the forested areas of the park. I spent many summer days as a kid practically living in Seward Park. Route 50 stops closest to Seward Park.

   For people only interested in walking along LWB, you can ride the Mt. Baker tail of Route 14 from Mt. Baker Station to McClellan & Mt. Baker Blvd. (about a 4-minute ride). The 14 has 30-minute headways on Saturdays, but the walking route from McClellan to LWB is quite nice. To return home, you can catch the 50 on Genesee (30-minute Saturday headways) or walk to Rainier and catch a 7 (10-minute headways). As mentioned earlier, Genesee to Rainier is not a picturesque route, but it’s flat and direct.

   1. How hilly is the interior of Seward Park? I was in it twice, and once it seemed like all hills and thick woods, but another time I found it more varied I think.

      The frustrating thing with Seward Park is the walk from the bus stop just to get to the loop trail. Often I’ve thought, “Do I want to deal with a half-hourly bus and a long walk just to get to the start of the trail?” and the answer is “Not today”. If the bus ran every 15 minutes (doable) or the distance were shorter (not doable), I’d go to Seward Park more often and suggest it to people more often.

      1. The interior is fairly hilly, though the Sqebeqsed Trail is fairly flat (or at least gradual grades – it’s an old service road) once you get there. It’s mostly old growth forest, so it’s obviously wooded but there’s some good variety (wetlands, meadows, etc.) too. It’s definitely something more fit for at least a half-day exploration especially after accounting for how long the 50 takes.

5. I biked down to Seward Park last night from Beacon Hill. Indescribable how much nicer it is without cars. I-90 trail -> Colman Park -> LWB -> Seward Park loop with essentially no cars on a nice evening. Couldn’t recommend strongly enough. Starting at Judkins Park then looping back to Columbia City would be a great bike ride for anyone.

   We need more full-time car-free spaces in the city like this!

   1. How do you get to Colman Park from the I-90 trail?

      At the east end of the bike tunnel where the park ends at a plaza overlooking Lake Washington, somewhere around there is a way down to Lake Washington Blvd. I’ve always found it hard to find, and a couple indirect blocks away from the boulevard, and may have a stair. It was also closed for periods during Link construction, so I couldn’t confirm exactly what it would look like when it fully reopens. But this goes straight down from the I-90 trail to the boulevard, not into Coleman Park. So are you talking about another park entrance?

      1. When you exit the tunnel, you go all the way to the street there (Irving) and turn left up the hill, then you take the first left again, which is Lake Washington Boulevard, which takes you through Colman Park. It’s steep and not very well signed, but no stairs. Though I believe if you walk through Colman Park from the top entrance on LWB there’s a few stairs on the trail down to the lake.

6. I was down early Saturday morning parking in a parking lot close to the L.W. boulevard. I was enjoying the morning watching bicycle only weekend. I noticed families with young children and there dogs in leashes on the main road and large groups of bicycle racers, 6 or more doing 35 to 40 mph yelling at the families with there kids, out of the way. This looks like an accident waiting to happen, worse then the children on the sidewalks with cars. This does not look safe with small children and there pets able to go anywhere on the closed road with fast bikes .Who’s going to be responsible for an accident?

   1. What’s your answer to your own question? If a bicyclist did hit a pedestrian on LWB, who do you think is responsible for the accident? Remember, Mayor Wilson said “We’re opening Lake Washington Boulevard every weekend to make more space for people to bike, walk, roll, and be outside.”

      1. It’s no different than if a cyclist were to hit a pedestrian on the Burke-Gilman trail. The cyclist would be at fault.

   2. It’s a valid point. I’ve heard bicyclists complain about families blocking their high speed bicycling path and I’ve heard families complain about high speed bicyclists creating danger. A hierarchy of some sort seems inevitable with bicycle facilities just like with streets.

      Maybe it needs to be clarified what kind of bicycling has priority at certain times during the weekend.

      Pool rules often do something similar. Sometimes the pools are for aggressive lap exercising and other times it’s a family play time. So rather than just have “car free” we would have “car free exercising” and “car free family play” promoted as separate events.

      This is a transit blog and I’m not sure if this is the right place for furthering the discussion.

      1. It’s a bit ridiculous. Why villainize cars if you act exactly the same if not worse on your bicycle?

         Cyclists who use a car free space to create the exact same problem… What a joke. Can’t even blame car brained anymore. Run a shuttle bus and add sidewalks for actual pedestrians. Cyclists are a menace.

         1. Bicycles are much narrower than cars. So, a street of the same width leaves far more room to go around people, so such conflicts happen far less often than sharing the space with cars. The speeds are not nearly as high. Bikes don’t emit the noise and pollution that cars do (*). And, when a bike does hit someone, the collision is not nearly as deadly as when a car does, because the bike weighs much less.

            (*) For what it’s worth, I do not believe gas-powered dirt bikes should be allowed in car-free spaces either; it should be limited to pedal bikes or electric bikes only.

         2. “The speeds are not nearly as high. “

            LWB now has several speed cushions every few blocks. Freeway speeds don’t happen with cars on LWB.

            Hearty bicyclists with expensive, lightweight bikes routinely go the speed of cars on LWB.

   3. It is a street, not a sidewalk or narrow cycletrack. It should be wide enough for bikes to go reasonably fast without interfering with pedestrians. And it was billed as “Bicycle Weekends”, and expectations built up from previous bicycle weekends on the same street. So these racers brought their bikes. Was that any different from previous years? How much conflict has there been between fast bikes and peds on previous weekends? I’ve never heard of it being an issue.

      If the bicyclists aren’t just riding, but weaving close to pedestrians and shouting “Out of my way!”, that’s a problem in itself that should be addressed. Again, how has this been handled in the past? Are there any particular laws pertaining to it? Pedestrian harrassment, pedestrian endangerment, scaring kids, something like that?

      I don’t know what asdf2 means by gas-powered dirt bikes. That sounds like a motorcycle? How common are they?

Comments are closed.