News and commentary from the past week or so.

This is an Open Thread.

80 Replies to “Midweek Roundup: Transportation Resilience”

  1. Does anyone know when King County Metro coaches 6500 to 6521 will enter service? I’ve looked on Pantograph and they still don’t enter service as coaches 1068 to 1088.

    I’ve seen them on Airport Way near the Boeing Field stored but am not sure why they’re there whenever I pass by on Sounder South.

    Someone told me they would enter service by the Fall 2026 shakeup but that’s happened, so when? I’ve never even seen a test bus.

    1. The 6500 series began service on August 29. From what I can tell, they are only running on the F Line.

      1. Wait, they already have? I just checked Pantograph and the map shows them but the history doesn’t. They’re already running? I must ride them!

        2. Pantograph didn’t update the fleet. Ive emailed them about it they don’t respond. So many buses are missing from the fleet.

          Metro’s data also has a lot of issues. For example the 203 only gives real time in one direction, but not the other.

        3. If it was open source I could fix it myself, but it’s not. We need an open source transit app.

    2. The 105s are electric with a yellow stripe on top. I don’t know if that’s one of those models.

      1. Those are 2025 Gillig Low Floor Battery Electric EV Plus 40 footers with the yellow and blue livery. I’m talking about 2026 Gillig Low Floor Battery Electric EV Plus 40 footers with the RapidRide sign and the red and purple livery.

        I need to catch the new buses! I didn’t even know they were already in service because Pantograph was so polarized about it and didn’t include the 6500’s in their vehicle list.

      2. I saw several RapidRide F’s with purple and red the last two Saturdays at Renton TC and Burien TC.

  2. Tuesday I had a Dr. appointment so I drove instead of walking to Bel-Red. I got there around 9:40AM and snagged one of only about 10 spots left at the back of the lot. I had a 5 minute wait at the platform and saw many other people drive in after me so assume the lot was parked out. Don’t know if that’s a daily occurance as I’m usually there before 7:30AM and the lot is mostly empty.

    When I got off at Judkins Dump I waited for the crossing lights as usual. They turned off after the normal interval but the train hadn’t moved. Everyone sort of looked at one another before opening the gates and crossing. The train was still at the platform by the time I disappeared down the stairs. I don’t think it was a driver change. Maybe it was just waiting for a slot to interline with the 1 Line. Or was there something else blocking yesterday morning? No idea how long the train sat there.

  3. Personally, I am dreading the stop consolidations that will come with the R. It’s going to bump the 7 from my most ridden route, to one i rarely take, as the stops won’t be anywhere useful for me.

    1. Which stops would you miss? There is an ongoing effort pushing Metro to reconsider the stop consolidations.

    2. I think the R proposal is just an opening negotiation. Some of the stops will be added back, depending on who compains the most.

    3. There will be a lot of pushback against the R proposal as it currently exists. The plans I saw at the open house in August looked identical to the plans as they existed pre-Covid and pre-2 Line opening. Times have changed!

      My thinking is moving toward a position that the full RapidRide treatment may not be appropriate on the Rainier corridor. People aren’t riding the 7 for long distances; most riders are using it for shorter distance trips, But I’d like to see the data on trip lengths.

      Here are some of the street level infrastructure improvements I’d like to see that would make everyone’s trips better: an improved transfer experience at Mt. Baker Station, level boarding platforms at the stops most likely to require wheelchair ramps, close the 8th and Jackson stop, and move ahead with a plan to revitalize 12th & Jackson.

      I would also like to challenge the groups voicing opposition to the RR-R plan to lay out their ideas to improve the 7. I can guarantee that their clients aren’t happy with the current state of the 7. What are their proposals to improve transit service in Rainier Valley?

    4. “My thinking is moving toward a position that the full RapidRide treatment may not be appropriate on the Rainier corridor

      “People aren’t riding the 7 for long distances; most riders are using it for shorter distance trip”

      What does that have to do with it? I was on a busy H early Saturday evening, and a dozen people went less than three stops, and the bulk of ridership was between 120th and mid Delridge. On the E, only a handful of people are on at Aurora Village or downtown but somehow the bus gradually fills up in the middle and then gradually empties again.

      “My thinking is moving toward a position that the full RapidRide treatment may not be appropriate on the Rainier corridor.”

      That’s politically impossible now. Metro and the governments have committed to it and promised it so much. If it’s downgraded, some people will say Seattle isn’t getting its fair share of RapidRide lines.

      Metro told one of our editors that it understands there’s a lot of opposition to the current stop list, and concern that residential density has changed since it was written in the pre-covid era, and that Metro is interested in reevaluating it before finalizing it. That’s why we haven’t written an article demanding the stop list be reevaluated, because it looks like Metro will do it on its own.

      In the meantime it’s certainly worth articulating what stops commentators think are most important and why, and how to handle the tradeoffs between various stops and speed.

      1. What is the cost/benefit analysis of RR-R? Metro has to remove stops to make the R move faster to attract choice riders. But what is the cost of dropping stops for the sake of speed? How many stops have to be removed to make the R attractive to riders that don’t have easy access to a Link station (Graham, Orcas, Genesee, Andover, etc.)? How many riders are going to see their 5 minute walk to a bus stop become a 10 minute walk–just to save 3 minutes on the R?

        quote: “That’s politically impossible now. Metro and the governments have committed to it and promised it so much. ”
        I don’t think Metro has thought much about the plan since 2019. It’s been sitting on a shelf since Covid. They dusted it off last summer and brought it out as it was in 2019 to workshops for community comment.

        And when STB discussions touch on the second downtown tunnel, West Seattle Link, or any other questionable transit project, are we going to simply throw up our hands and say “that’s politically impossible…”? I don’t think so.

        1. Metro should reconsider the R line alignment; much has changed they agreed to the Kubly SDOT phasing; it failed and that has not been acknowledged; both Link and RR were delayed; the latter more so. First, extend the Rainier Avenue South service to the Rainier Beach station. The color of the bus or the route number does not matter much.

      2. “People aren’t riding the 7 for long distances; most riders are using it for shorter distance trip”

        What does that have to do with it?

        It matters a lot when it comes to the proposed stop diet. The worst situation is when both your starting bus stop and destination bus stop are eliminated. That is more likely to happen with short trips. Shorter trips also benefit the least from a stop diet.

    5. There is an ongoing effort pushing Metro to reconsider the stop consolidations.

      This is a very important point. Metro is headed back to the drawing board because of public pressure from transit advocates.

      In the meantime it’s certainly worth articulating what stops commentators think are most important and why, and how to handle the tradeoffs between various stops and speed.

      I think it is the opposite. The burden of proof is on Metro, not riders. The 7 is extremely popular. It gets very good ridership. It performs extremely well by every metric (see page 52 here). It is up to the planners to make the case that a bus stop should be moved or removed, not the other way around. If this is difficult to do, then just leave things alone. There is no reason to assume that removing stops is good. By its very nature it is a trade-off. Nor can we assume that the planners are simply applying some sort of generic standard. Quite the opposite. Some of the gaps are huge by world standards. Again, there may be a reason for having such a huge gap but the planners have to make the case for it. Every large gap should have an explanation.

      For example, I would get rid of the bus stop at Cloverdale. The gap between Rose and Henderson is then too large. I thus have to make a case for this, so here goes:

      Cloverdale is too close to Henderson and Rose. Ridership is relatively low at the stop (about 70 riders total). The street grid favors Rose (to the east). This means that for a lot of potential riders, it is just as easy to get to Rose as it is to get to Cloverdale even though Cloverdale is closer (as the crow flies). Riders to the west can take advantage of the fact that the bus turns west on Henderson. If you are at Cloverdale & Renton Avenue they you would walk to Cloverdale & Rainier right now (if you want to go north on Rainier). But in the future you can just walk to Henderson & MLK.

      There are alternatives (including just leaving it alone) but it isn’t hard to make the case to get rid of the bus stop. In contrast, a lot of the changes seem arbitrary. I have no idea their reasoning.

  4. Does anyone know how long it takes for new bus stops to show up in Metro’s trip planner / Google Maps / One Bus Away?

    Metro and Sound Transit reopened stops on NE 145th Street and 30th Ave (EB) and 32nd Ave (WB). That way, transfers between routes 72 and 522 will take place at the intersection of 145th and Bothell Way, rather than further west on 145th.

    But those stops aren’t in the system yet. So Google Maps says transfers are at 27th Ave which usually means there’s a better transfer that could work but the app doesn’t show.

    For example, heading from Lake City to Lake Forest Park City Hall.

    Google Maps: Get off 72 at 145th/25th at 9:40, board 522 at 9:52, arrive at 10:02.

    Actual trip: Get off 72 at 145th/32nd at 9:38, board 522 at Bothell Way / 145th at 9:40, arrive at 9:47.

    Not having the new bus stops in the system makes the trip appear 15 minutes longer than it actually is.

    1. I met someone in Chinatown the other day who came there from Everett. She hadn’t been to Seattle in years, and didn’t know about Link. The incredible part was that Google Maps on her phone would not plan a trip between Everett and Seattle using Link. I tried it myself, and it was as if Google didn’t think Link existed. So she took the E instead (after taking a bus to Lynnwood Transit Center, and then another bus to Aurora Village!) Not sure if I would ever recommend transit directions using Google Maps again. It used to be pretty good, but they must’ve started vibecoding it.

      I have also had bad experiences with the Metro trip planner. For some reason it always wants me to go to Downtown Redmond first. If I’m going north, that makes sense, but not if I’m going anywhere else.

      Lately I’ve just been looking at the schedules and maps, and planning everything manually.

      2. Trip Planner has a strange perspective–I wanted to travel from Firist Hil (on 9th at St. James Cathedral) to the U-District. The logical route would be taking a 60 to Broadway and then either Link or 49. But the app would only offer instructions for me to walk downtown to take the Link. Similar offerings for a return–no recognition of geography, nor of my having indicated limited walking. Technology, they say, is our friend–sometimes.

        1. I’ve had much better luck with Google Maps than Trip Planner. That being said, there have been plenty of times with Google Maps where I thought “That doesn’t make sense”. So yeah, it is basically a crapshoot. My big complaint with Google Maps is that they think you can’t cross a street that people cross all the time. It makes calculating long walks very difficult (I have to do it in pieces that I stitch together).

    2. I remember looking at the Aug 29th service change in GTFS mid-August and those stops were not added back into the dataset (specifically stops.txt). I think that’s the main issue; without that data, trip planners can’t use that stop.

    3. Google doesn’t really add stop per user request. They are all automatically populated from publicized GTFS feed updated by agencies, in this case King County Metro https://metro.kingcounty.gov/gtfs/
      I believe the best way to fix it is to to contact King County Metro and point out the mistake you see on Google Map.

      1. It looks like they pushed an update on Sept 8th. Most of the Fall update was pushed in mid-July. So they certainly realized something was not right and made another version.

  5. Why are we increasing transit taxes in Pierce County by just 0.9 percent? I wish we could increase it to 1.2 percent so we could get more service! I know that Proposition 1 already increases service with a 0.3 percent sales tax increase but a 0.6 percent sales tax increase would add more service than Proposition 1 would as well as match the sales tax with Thurston and Snohomish counties.

    Pierce Transit seriously doesn’t just need more evening service but as well as night owl routes. It also needs more funding for promised BRT.

    1. Likely because Pierce County has a history of turning down tax initiatives. A similar prop (adding 0.3% to the sales tax) failed in 2011 and then again in 2012.

      1. That’s the problem, voters don’t know the true benefits of the proposition.

        1. Pierce has more Republicans than King or Snohomish. Probably because it’s further from Seattle. There’s nothing deeper to it than that.

        2. I think it would be great if Pierce Transit could secure additional funding but I understand why the funding measure has failed in the past. For the average voter, transit is mainly useful for getting to Seattle or travelling within it. Pierce County is located further away from Seattle than Snohomish County, and is less dense, which (for the average voter) makes transit relatively less useful.

          There’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem as well; Pierce County has never had particularly good transit, so it’s hard to convince people to pay more for it. If the 0.3% tax measure passes and Pierce County residents see the benefits then maybe Pierce Transit can come back and ask for more.

        3. “Pierce has more Republicans than King or Snohomish.”

          Since the Republican Party is supposed to be conservative (aka right) are you saying that Pierce would rather deal with the current transit they have?

        4. “There’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem as well; Pierce County has never had particularly good transit, so it’s hard to convince people to pay more for it.”

          That’s also the problem with Everett, so no wonder the state passed legislation allowing Everett Transit and Community Transit to merge without voter approval to get this over with. Wow, that is not the Washingtonian way!

        5. Southeast Pierce is anti-tax and voted against the past two Pierce Transit levies. Tacoma and Lakewood voted for the last one at least but it wasn’t enough. The PT service area contracted in the 2010s to exclude southeast Pierce that kept taking down expansions. Tacoma voters are probably less enthused about taxes than Seattle or King County voters, but they’re more supportive of taxes and good government services than southeast Pierce is. Whether all those who vote against taxes are Republican would have to be confirmed.

        6. “That’s also the problem with Everett, so no wonder the state passed legislation allowing Everett Transit and Community Transit to merge without voter approval to get this over with.”

          Call me when there’s a public vote on highway projects.

        7. I mean that more voters in Pierce (as opposed to King and Snohomish) are opposed to taxes for transit. It’s rooted in ideology.

          I mean in real life, Federal Way has better transit than Tacoma, because it has higher taxes. Can the average person in either place tell the difference? Not really. The tax difference is miniscule, and most people in both places never ride transit.

          It’s just a consequence of how the political boundaries were drawn. As I recall, Pierce even had to remove Puyallup from the transit district in order to have a chance of passing anything.

        8. “Pierce even had to remove Puyallup from the transit district”

          Puyallup and Spanaway are still in. It’s the areas beyond them that are out: Sumner, Bonney Lake, Buckley, etc.

        9. There’s some level of ideological aversion to taxes but I think it’s rational. Pierce County is much more difficult to serve than King or Snohomish County. To put it in perspective, Tacoma (by far the densest city in Pierce) has the same density as Federal Way or Lynnwood, while also being located further away from Seattle.

          The reality is that King or Snohomish will get much more value per dollar out of transit (or really any form of public infrastructure) than Pierce.

        10. Tacoma is as, or more dense than any city in Washington not named Seattle.

          When you take into account that it’s serving substantially more people than someplace like Bellevue, that substantially smaller and is just as dense, yet has vastly more local and regional transit dollars thrown at it, there is a clear disparity.

    2. 0.9% is the statutory maximum sales tax rate for a PBTA (which Pierce Transit is). The additional 0.3% is only available to Community Transit and Intercity Transit.

  6. Question for Link riders who aren’t disabled or seniors. Do you consider the pull-down seats that are reserved for the disabled and seniors off-limits for you to sit on? Or, do you think it’s ok to use them provided you remain aware of riders who might need the seat or space more than you, and are ready to stand without being asked?

    1. I consider them the same as I consider handicapped stalls in bathrooms: shouldn’t be used if there are other spaces available, but not “off-limits” if no one else is using them.

    2. I’ll use them if no other seats are available. If I see someone that looks like they need a seat, I’ll offer it, but nobody has yet took me up on this.

    3. I asked the question because I sometimes use them, but I see a lot of riders who won’t use them, as if they are completely off-limits.

    4. Now that I’m in the in-between category where I sometimes use the front seats for various reasons, I look to see whether the row behind it (with deep legroom) or the row behind that is empty and is suitable for me at the moment, to leave the pull-down seats for somebody more disabled. But if I’m only going a few stops I don’t bother because it’s unlikely somebody will need them in that short a time.

    5. I consider them to be open to anyone as long as there’s no people who are seniors or disabled requesting them. Or they could be open to anyone if the intended people aren’t present.

  7. I drove by the new affordable TOD apts next to the Link OMF-East, and a few minute walk to Spring District Station, on 120th in Bellevue today. They have a now leasing sign up with a phone number and website. I checked out the website and read this …

    “Outside your door, navigating downtown is a breeze. I-405 and NE Bell Red Road put the whole Eastside within reach, and the light rail is just a short walk away if you’d rather leave the car at home. Grab groceries at Trader Joe’s, browse Market Place at Factoria, or window-shop at The Shops at The Bravern, all just minutes out. When you want some quiet, the Bellevue Botanical Garden is nearby too. Amazon Headquarters, Seattle Children’s Hospital, and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport are all a manageable drive away. It’s a neighborhood built around everyday convenience, without the extra cost.”

    All throughout the website the Link station is barely mentioned. Incorrectly, it says that I-405 is 3.4 miles away, when it’s about a half mile away. This was written by someone with very little knowledge of the Eastside. They even mention the Bravern. These are affordable apartments, correct? They also call Market Place Factoria an “outdoor shopping center.” Is it outdoor?

    I’m curious what others think. Take a look at the website. Am I being too critical, or did they completely miss the mark with this marketing?

    thebriarbrighthaven dot com.

    1. The address on the website, ” 11990 NE 17th St, Bellevue, WA 98005″ (bottom of the page below “Let’s Talk”) is completely wrong. That’s in a single family neighborhood near Hidden Valley sports park. Check out their “Get Directions” link. Where is this place?

    2. These new apts are in between the OMF-East and Audi Bellevue, on the west side of 120th Ave NE. If you click Get Directions on the website, it says it’s at 1601 120th Ave NE. I wouldn’t bother to mention this website, but it might be the worst, most inaccurate housing marketing webpage I’ve ever seen.

    3. Sounds like someone wrote a bunch of it using AI. It’s one of the problems with not doing actual fact checking.

    4. “NE Bell Red Road”

      They spelled it wrong. It should be Bel-Red Road or BelRed Road. I checked the webpage and it is indeed spelled that way there.

      “the Link station is barely mentioned.”

      It says “the light rail is just a short walk away if you’d rather leave the car at home”. This is what most TOD real estate marketing blurbs would do.

      The first paragraph on the home page is a bit better, and puts light rail before cars:

      “You’re also just a short walk from the light rail, so getting around the Eastside, or into Seattle, doesn’t have to mean sitting in traffic. Add to that easy access to I-405, a quick drive to major employers like Seattle Children’s Hospital, and Market Place at Factoria right around the corner.”

      I’m surprised they promote Factoria so much. I always thought of Factoria as a hard-to-get-to third-tier center with little reason to go to.

    5. It’s just LLM slop. Whoever made the web site aimed to fill space with words, and they definitely accomplished that.

      Which probably doesn’t matter… these affordable apartments are pretty much all the same, and everyone finds them through ARCH. Go through the ARCH list, find a complex near your job, call the number. (As in this case, they rarely have the price list on the web site.)

    6. I was also thinking it was AI. Look at the featured destinations, and remember that this is affordable housing:

      Trader Joe’s: Yes, but Whole Foods at Wilburton is the easiest on Link. There’s no bus toward Trader Joe’s. What about Safeway at 140th or Fred Meyer at 148th?

      Market Place at Factoria: Why is that better than all the stores in downtown Bellevue or along Bel-Red or NE 8th?

      The Shops at The Bravern: Low-income people don’t spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on high-end designer items.

      Amazon Headquarters: Why would a non-employee go there? I guess some of the warehouse workers and drivers are eligible for affordable housing since they’re eligible for food stamps. But six-figure headquarters workers wouldn’t be.

      “Seattle Children’s Hospital”: Are they likely to have children who need specialty care? What about the two general hospitals in the neighborhood. Well, not quite in the Spring District, but adjacent. Speaking of which, why isn’t Spring District mentioned anywhere? Why is Factoria mentioned more than Spring District?

      This indirectly shows one of the problems with the Spring District. The TOD development has no supermarket or other everyday stores. It has a pub and a golf-equipment shop. That’s why people have to drive to Trader Joe’s.

  8. SDOT: New 24/7 speed safety cameras will enforce traffic laws on Rainier Ave, E Marginal Way, and Sand Point Way

    https://sdotblog.seattle.gov/2026/09/09/speed-safety-cameras-update/

    “In 2027, we will add new 24/7 speed safety cameras on Rainier Ave S, E Marginal Way S, and Sand Point Way NE as the initial phase of up to 10 new safety cameras recently announced in Mayor Wilson’s recent Executive Order to strengthen our Vision Zero work.

    These locations were chosen based on their concerning history of excessive speeding and deadly crashes.”

    Map of existing cameras and stretches where new cameras will be installed is here: https://sdotblog.seattle.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/Image-02b-scaled.jpg

    1. “In 2027, we will add new 24/7 speed safety cameras on Rainier Ave S, E Marginal Way S, and Sand Point Way NE as the initial phase of up to 10 new safety cameras recently announced in Mayor Wilson’s recent Executive Order to strengthen our Vision Zero work.”

      But I thought Katie Wilson was through with cameras on the streets.

      1. The left always struggles with nuance. There are significant differences between traffic enforcement cameras (generally good) and mass surveillance cameras (generally bad).

      2. But traffic-enforcement imagery can be seized for surveillance. E.g., if you’re looking for a specific license-plate number or kind of car or out-of-state plates. Or if you see a person a the car window or getting out of the car. I’d think the city would still be concerned about ICE seizures. But I also think Wilson also said shutting off the cameras was a temporary policy for during the World Cup.

        1. Yes, but there is a huge difference between tracking a registered vehicle and a person. As my old driver instructor said: driving is a privilege, not a right. In contrast, walking around on the street is definitely a right and being able to do so anonymously is as well.

          That being said, there should definitely be limits on how they track vehicles. It is easy to imagine it being abused. Someone could blackmail someone if they notice a car parked next to a strip club. It isn’t that much different than what a private investigator would do. The cameras just make it easier. There should be checks to make sure the information isn’t abused. It is also worth pointing out that cameras read license plates or “Good To Go” information as well (and that information could be abused).

        3. Traffic enforcement cameras only record when a potential violation is detected. Then, an enforcement officer reviews the results. Evidence is kept for a limited time and then deleted. If there is no evidence of violation, the photos/videos are deleted immediately. Automated traffic enforcement cameras are correlated with improved traffic safety.

          This is a stark contrast to mass surveillance cameras which automatically log and timestamp every person and license plate which come into view, 24/7.

        4. This is the same logic that because police brutality exists, police needs to be defunded.
          Why not focus on how to stop unlawful access to surveillance instead?

        5. “Why not focus on how to stop unlawful access to surveillance instead?”

          We can’t stop it when the feds break federal laws and say federal law overrides state/local laws, and ICE threatens to arrest city officials if they don’t turn it over, or the administration withholds critical funding or grants from the city that the city can’t function without. Not all of that has happened yet but it might. If the cameras are off, there’s nothing to seize. Then the feds have the harder task of forcing the city to turn the cameras on, or forcing the city to install more cameras and turn them on.

  9. That list of featured destinations around the Spring District TOD is crying out for a Seattle comparison.

    “Grab groceries at Trader Joe’s”: In Seattle Trader Joe’s is on RapidRide G, or four blocks from U-District station (and you don’t have to walk around the building through a parking lot like at Wilburton). Whole Foods is at Roosevelt Station. H-Mart & Co are at Capitol Hill station and near U-District and Westlake stations. Pike Place Market is near Westlake station. Uwajimaya and small Asian groceries are at CID station. Red Apple market is at Beacon Hill station. Safeway is at Othello station. Fred Meyer is in Ballard on the 40, in Greenwood on the 61, and in Renton on the 101.

    “Market Place at Factoria”: I don’t know what a comparison would be. But there’s all the stores downtown, CID, Capitol Hill, and SLU: they have at least some of what you need. On Link and dozens of bus routes and two streetcar lines.

    “Amazon Headquarters”: People walk to it from SLU and Capitol Hill. The 8 is now faster. Several other bus routes serve it, too many to list.

    “The Shops at The Bravern”, “Seattle Children’s Hospital”: Try U Village. On several feeder buses from U-District station.

    “Bellevue Botanical Garden”: The Arboretum is on the 11, and one stop away from the G. Discovery Park is on the 24 and 33, Seward Park and Alki on the 50, Kubota Garden on the 106. The Bellevue Botanical Garden has no bus route.

    “Seattle-Tacoma International Airport”: On the 1 Line, baby. Visitors rave about how convenient it is.

  10. Kirkland Council Divides Over Affordable Housing Fees in Low-Density Zones

    Kirkland’s approach is stupid. They let developers get one large lot or combine 1-3 lots and build essentially single family housing at a 1:6 ratio. The stupidity is this is 6X the cars without adequate parking (the “garages” aren’t useful for parking anything larger than a motorcyle) and no hope of transit ever being an option. Rose Hill is a disaster as far as urban planning. 85th will never have density to support the mind investment cost at I-405. Another proof of stupidity is the Kirkland emphasis on the Link spur to S Kirkland P&R. To be fair, the upzone and planning around Totem Lake has been good.

    1. (the “garages” aren’t useful for parking anything larger than a motorcyle)

      Is the problem that the parking spaces are too small, or that cars are simply too large?

      1. Two problems, one the garages are so small that if you have anything in there besides the car it won’t fit or you won’t be able to open the doors far enough to get out. They also face the entrance off of an ally that’s only about 8′ wide so you can’t make the turn to get into/out of the garage without a multi point turn. And if you own the best-selling vehicle in the U.S., the Ford F-Series, forget about it.

        1. Personally, I don’t have much empathy for folks who buy cars that can’t fit into standard parking spaces.

    2. I think building low-density housing is unlikely to yield much affordable housing anyway. Both because I don’t see developers making one unit out of four total affordable, and also because if half the single-family lots upgraded to four units with one affordable unit each, that still wouldn’t add up to a lot of affordable housing or enough. The solution for affordable housing is multifamily structures with lots of affordable units. But that doesn’t mean we can’t continue pursuing missing-middle housing on other lots or keeping some single-family houses.

  11. [off-topic; although one of the shared links discusses SPD issues in addition to transit and land use issues, that doesn’t mean SPD issues are suddenly fair game on the Seattle Transit Blog.]

  12. It occurred to me how similar the Metro 44 and 8 are:

    1) They are both crosstown buses (neither one goes downtown).
    2) Both existed long before Link.
    3) Both now provide key connections to Link.
    4) Both are very slow because of congestion.
    5) The buses are so slow that people have suggested alternatives that involve detouring from the main corridor.
    6) We’ve made some improvements on the corridor but the bus is still really slow.
    6) It is probably unrealistic to add center bus lanes and center bus stops (like the RapidRide G). But we can add more BAT lanes.
    7) Much of the congestion is caused by cars trying to get onto the freeway. BAT lanes alone won’t help with that.
    8) You could completely close the ramp but a compromise could be made that simply alters the access to that ramp.

    In the case of the 44 that means preventing people from turning right on 45th to get onto the freeway. This would take some work (it would be simpler to just close off the on-ramp entirely). But I think you do it with a few steps:

    1) Ban right turns from eastbound 44th to 5th NE and the freeway ramp.

    2) Ban left turns from eastbound 45th to northbound 4th. Drivers can use Latona to either access 4th or get up to 50th. (There is a left-turn lane and left-turn light for Latona.)

    3) You would want to prevent people from using 47th as a shortcut or as a way to avoid traffic turning right from 50th. The simplest way to prevent this is to make 47th one-way westbound from 5th to 4th (just like 44th).

    Some of the local trips would be less convenient. You couldn’t take a right on 45th to get to one of the places on 5th that are south of 45th. This would be especially inconvenient if you are close to 45th (this wouldn’t be possible). You would have to go up to 50th and then down again. The same is true for accessing that now one-way part of 47th. You would have to do this instead of this. That seems like a small price to pay for those that live there. It is worth noting that the same thing is true for those trying to reach places on Yale. This is what drivers have to do now.

    At the same time, you allow drivers to go from westbound 45th to the freeway just like they do today. Again, I would just shut off the ramp but this seems like a pretty simple compromise.

    The other part of this would be to add BAT lanes along as much of 45th as possible. There are various places where all they would need to do is take the parking or a general purpose lane. In other places it is trickier. But the street is fundamentally wide and there a lot of different options. It might have to be done piecemeal for now. That’s OK. That is what is happening with the 8 and so far the results have been outstanding.

    1. In the Wallingford neighborhood planning effort of the 1990s, it was suggested that the NE 45th Street ramps be made HOV only; this would force SOV to use NE 50th Street. It should reduce congestion on NE 45th Street. It should also help with the weave to SR-520 that leads to congestion on the southbound general purpose lanes; there would be more space for the weave. WSDOT would have to help.

      1. Yes, that is a simpler change. My only concern is about westbound traffic. Drivers would then be in the right lane (to turn north to 50th) instead of the left lane (to turn south to the freeway). This could cause backups that hurt westbound buses. I think you could fix it but it would require more work. One possibility is to make 45th a transit mall between 7th and 15th. It would be like 3rd Avenue downtown. This means drivers from the east and west would have to detour to 50th. Not only would that make travel along that section of 45th much smoother but it would have very positive ripple effects. More drivers would use 50th through Wallingford instead of 45th.

  13. Someone mentioned that 333 and 365 haven’t been back to N 145th although the construction is done, but based on the service alert message below, they are back on N 145th since Aug 29th. It is just the GTFS data hasn’t been updated.

    Beginning Sat Aug 29, Route 333 will operate on N 145th St and no longer service stops on 5th Ave NE, N 155th St, or Meridian Ave N.
    Affected stops:
    Stop #81302 5th Ave NE & NE 152nd St (NB)
    Stop #97137 NE 155th St & 5th Ave NE (WB)
    Stop #77613 N 155th St & 1st Ave NE (WB)
    Stop #16327 Meridian Ave N & N 155th St (SB)
    Stop #16330 Meridian Ave N & N 150th St (SB)
    Stop #16331 Meridian Ave N & N 148th St (SB)
    Stop #16329 Meridian Ave N & N 150th St (NB)
    Stop #77611 N 155th St & Meridian Ave N (EB)
    Stop #77616 NE 155th St & 1st Ave NE (EB)
    Stop #81252 5th Ave NE & NE 155th St (SB)
    Stop #81254 5th Ave NE & NE 152nd St (SB)

    For Route 333 to Mountlake Terrace Station get on/off at:
    Stop #81301 Shoreline South/148th Station – Bay 2 (SB)
    Stop #75340 N 145th St & Meridian Ave N (WB)

    For Route 333 to Shoreline South/148th St Station get on/off at:
    Stop #75210 N 145th St & Courtland Pl N (EB)
    Stop #81299 Shoreline South/148th Station – Bay 1 (WB)

    This scheduling data and routing change will be available in Metro’s Trip Planner and third-party transit planning applications after Saturday, September 12. We apologize for the confusion regarding this new service and appreciate your patience as the updated information becomes available.

  14. I looked at tickets for Thievery Corporation at the Showbox, and they’re $68. When I last went to shows in the 2000s, a non-major band at a non-major venue (i.e., not Blondie at the Paramount or Taylor Swift at the stadiums) was $20. Is $68 really typical nowadays? (Thievery Corporation is an electronic downtempo band from DC.)

    1. I don’t go to a whole lot of shows but that seems a little on the high side. The Showbox is a larger venue and might book bigger names. Tickets at smaller venues like The Crocodile, Sunset Tavern, etc usually run closer to $20-40

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