All posts by wl

On November 5th, Seattle voters passed the $1.55 billion 2024 Seattle Transportation Levy.

Transportation Levy Overview

The transportation levy spends money in the following 10 categories (with some subcategories highlighted):

Continue reading “Seattle Transportation Levy Passes”

Community Transit will be improving Swift Blue along Evergreen Way in Lake Stickney (an unincorporated area north of Lynnwood) and Everett. The Swift corridor consists of Aurora Avenue, Pacific Highway and Evergreen Way. It currently has some BAT lanes with gaps. The new projects will fill in those gaps with new BAT lanes and potentially the missing sidewalks along the corridor.

These improvements follow up after the recent Swift Blue extension to Shoreline North Station via 200th St, Meridian Ave, and 185th St.

Continue reading “Swift Blue Improvements”

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.

Continue reading “Route 7 Transit-Plus Recap”

SDOT recently announced RapidRide J Line construction will start in October, with service planned to launch in 2027. RapidRide J will travel from downtown Seattle to University District via Eastlake Avenue replacing Route 70.

According to SDOT, the two years of construction will build the following:

• 15,130 feet of repaired sidewalks
• 2 miles of repaved roadway
• 3.7 lane-miles of protected bike facilities
• 2 miles of bus priority lanes
• 177 improved crosswalks
• 33 intersections with traffic signal improvements, including 253 new traffic signal devices
• 190 newly planted trees

The project heading to construction has evolved somewhat since planning for a high-capacity transit corridor on Eastlake started in 2011, which eventually became RapidRide J in 2019.

Continue reading “RapidRide J Line – Final Design and Recap”

With the opening of Lynnwood Link Extension, Community Transit will restructure many of its bus routes to focus more on all-day semi-frequent service across western Snohomish County. Other peak-only express buses will be truncated to allow for some all-day express buses as well. In additional to reallocation of bus hours, Community Transit will run more bus service in general with 480,000 annual bus service hours, totaling 32% more service by 2026. The major restructure will go into effect tomorrow morning, September 14, with others to follow in coming years.

Main highlights:

• Improves and expands access to fast and frequent Swift bus rapid transit lines, including the new Swift Orange Line
• Adds more frequent bus service throughout Snohomish County and more late-night and weekend bus service, resulting in:
  • three times the number of routes with 20 minutes or better frequency and two times the number of routes with 30 minutes or better frequency
  • increasing the number of people and jobs within walking distance of all-day, frequent transit service by 68% and 40%, respectively
• Replaces Northgate and downtown Seattle bus service with new express 900-series routes to Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace light rail stations

Main Links:

• New Community Transit System Map, pdf of new system map
• Previous Community Transit System Map, pdf of current system map (link will likely be replaced / not work after September 14)
• Community Transit Transit Changes, lists only new bus routes and highlights large route changes
• Community Transit Service Changes, lists all Community Transit bus route, lists other relevant bus routes and shows all Community Transit bus schedules
• Sound Transit Express Changes
• Sound Transit 2024 Service plan (pdf)

Note: due to the large number of route changes, the descriptions below may be slightly simplified for conciseness and will also prioritize listing moderate to major changes with some minor route schedule changes skipped.

Continue reading “Community Transit Restructure – 2024 and Beyond”

King County Metro’s RapidRide G, Seattle’s first center-running bus rapid transit (BRT) line, will start running this Saturday, September 14. The route features 24/7 service with all-door buses enabling boarding on both sides allowing transit riders to access the new center stations, bus only lanes, transit signal priority, and off-board payment with ORCA card readers at stations. The route will also be the only route with a stop on 1st Avenue in Downtown since service there was cut in 2020.

Here’s a summary of the route’s planned service frequencies:

Period	Peak & Midday 5 am to 7pm	Evenings 7 pm to 10 pm	Night 10 pm to 5 am
Weekday & Saturday	6 min	15 min	15-40 min
Sunday	15 min	15 min	15-40 min

Continue reading “RapidRide G and Bus Restructures”

Edit, September 10, 7pm: the original article has been updated to correct errors and clarify statements with input from Sound Transit. We regret the errors.

Sound Transit’s Stride S1 Line, the bus rapid transit (BRT) project approved under ST3 to connect Bellevue to Burien via South Renton in 2028, has been updated over the last year to include support for full electrification, temporary route changes around the Tukwila International Boulevard Station due to issues with fish water culvert requirements, and consideration of potential station location swap in South Renton.

While some of these changes are being spun to imply better connectivity for future riders, the real impact is in making the line slower and likely less useful for future riders, compromising the S1 Line’s original goals of prioritizing speed as a compromise for skipping major destinations in South King County. For the S1 Line to represent a real improvement in transit service worth the capital investment, Sound Transit must find ways to make up for these potential degradations in future service.

Continue reading “Stride S1 Line Updates: TIBS Reroute, Renton Station Swap, and More”

King County Corridor 1052, a potential rapidride conversion of Route 181 currently travels from Federal Way via Auburn Station to Green River College. With the introduction of Federal Way Link extension as well as I-5 freeway access additions, Route 181 speed improvements as a RapidRide will connect Auburn and Green River College closer to Seattle and the rest of the region. In this post we’ll review the corridor, Metro’s planned improvements, expected ridership and estimated project costs.

Continue reading “RapidRide Corridor 1052 (Route 181)”

King County Metro Corridor 1056, a potential RapidRide conversion of Route 165 — traveling between Kent Des Moines Station, Downtown Kent, and Green River College — was set as Tier 3 priority corridor for future RapidRide expansion. In this post we’ll review the proposed route alignment, planned improvements, and expected ridership.

Continue reading “RapidRide Corridor 1056 (Route 165)”

Sound Transit has approved a new elevator for SeaTac east of Tukwila International Boulevard in Motion No. M2024-43. In a presentation to the Board’s Rider and Operations Committee (pdf) on July 18, Sound Transit staff outlined how the existing elevator experienced frequent outages and requires bus bridges to accommodate passengers to and from Angle Lake station.

Continue reading “Sound Transit Elevator & Escalator Service Going Up”