Hypothetical King County Metro 24/7 Network map of north Seattle. Route colors are chosen arbitrarily.
This is a hypothetical redesign of King County Metro’s transit service in the Seattle area, with smaller changes to Sound Transit service, meant to enhance riders’ ability to reach destinations throughout the city whatever the time of day. Within the city’s borders, every stop is served by at least one route with 15-minute or better headways, 24 hours per day, seven days per week. This improves riders’ ability to move through Seattle by an average of 26.9% on weekdays, with greater increases on weekends.
The resultant network and schedule is viewable in this basic viewer1.
Ryan Packer had a recent editorial about adding bus service on First Avenue. I completely agree. There are many options and issues to consider.
Center Running with Normal Buses
Many of you are familiar with the RapidRide G buses on Madison Street that run in the center of the street and use center platforms. These buses avoid congestion that occasionally occurs with BAT lanes. There are no turning cars to worry about: it’s is like a busway in the middle of the street. On Madison Street they achieve this with special buses that have doors on both sides. This is very effective but it limits flexibility.
There is another technique that can achieve the same goal but does not require special buses. The buses serve center platforms from the right side (like a normal bus) even though the platform is in the middle of the street. You can see this in action for part of Van Ness Avenue in San Fransisco. You can also see how this works in these diagrams for a potential Aurora rebuild. By staggering the bus stops in this manner you can use regular buses to serve center platforms while still using a limited amount of street space. You would take just as much right-of-way from First Avenue as they planned on taking for the streetcar (with just as much of a speed improvement) but be able to serve it with any bus in our system.
With the Montlake Lid bus stop opening in April, this article will recap the past and briefly explore the future of transit on SR-520. The opening of East Link will lessen the need for so many bus routes across SR-520 but we should still take full advantage of the infrastructure that is already there.
This article will briefly look at Sound Transit’s planned deletion of ST 541 and ST 545, expansion of ST 542, and future ST 544. We’ll then pivot to a new concept of restoring Metro’s Route 255 to downtown Seattle, or improving the Route 255‘s connectivity to the U-District.
A new trail segment has opened connecting the first two phases of the Lake to Sound Trail in Des Moines and SeaTac, as reported by Mara Mellits in the Seattle Times. The Times article has a map of the trail and its relationship to the Green River Trail, Interurban Trail, and Cedar River Trail. Today’s Roundtable looks at the current trail extent, and two future segments that will connect four major trails in south King County.
With the new segment, the trail starts at the Des Moines waterfront, and runs northward through the middle of a large woodland area. it passes a half mile west of Angle Lake station on the 1 Line at S 200th Street. It continues northward in an area west of the airport, then turns east and goes along the northern edge of the airport (S 154th Street), ending at 24th Ave S.
A future extension (shown by a dotted line on the Times map) will continue east to Tukwila International Boulevard station and the Green River Trail.
This is part 3 of a 3-part series on route 8. Part 1. Part 2.
Even if Denny Way is solved, frequency for the route is subpar, especially at night, where it drops to 20-30 minutes.
Headways
7-9am
9am-4pm
4-6pm
6-8pm
8-10pm
10pm-1am
Weekday
12 min
15 min
12 min
15 min
20 min
30 min
Saturday
15 min
15 min
15 min
15 min
30 min
30 min
Sunday
15 min
15 min
15 min
20 min
30 min
30 min
A table of Route 8’s headways
At peak, theoretical 12-minute headways are rarely met as Route 8’s schedule only allocates 60 minutes to go from Queen Anne to Mount Baker, but oftentimes this trip takes more than 90 minutes. This means buses don’t arrive at their base on time, resulting in cascading delays as buses start their next trip late. Riders are often left waiting 20 or even 30 minutes for their next bus, especially during periods of bad bus bunching.
However, once bus lanes are added, the opposite would happen as buses speed through the route but spend the time savings sitting idle at their base until their next scheduled departure. Metro must be ready to adjust schedules accordingly and increase frequency to more efficiently utilize their existing resources to meet the exploding demand that would accompany bus lanes. Luckily, it seems like they are working closely with SDOT and will be well-poised to respond immediately to maximize benefits from any infrastructure improvements.
At night, current frequencies make relying on Route 8 to get you home at night untenable, especially if making a transfer, and also leaves it wholly unable to serve evening events in Capitol Hill and Seattle Center. Additional service hours during these periods is not only relatively cheap given low traffic conditions, but also extremely effective in improving frequency. Only one additional round trip bus per hour is required to bring headways from 20 minutes to 15 minutes, and only two buses an hour are required to to bring headways from 30 minutes to 15 minutes.
This is part 2 of a 3-part series on route 8. Part 1.
As the only arterial connecting Seattle’s second and third densest neighborhoods, Denny Way is one of the most important streets in the city. But as all locals know, it doesn’t work well for anybody right now, including drivers. It’s clear that something needs to change. That’s why the Fix the L8 campaign has been pushing for bus lanes in both directions along it since 2023 to ensure that this vital east-west connector can move as many people as possible. And it would help more than just Route 8 – Routes 1, 3, 13, 17, 24, 33, and RapidRide D also share Route 8’s headaches at Denny and 2nd.
Any bus lane in Seattle – especially on Denny Way – should include red paint and should be 24/7 to reduce confusion, boost compliance, and maximize effectiveness. Furthermore, while the bus lane would need to allow right turns for general traffic at most intersections, there are many redundant eastbound right turns at signalized intersections with high pedestrian volumes which should be restricted to minimize the impact of turning traffic. Specifically, 2nd Ave, Warren Pl, Broad St, Taylor Ave, Vine St, Bell St, Westlake Ave, Lenora St, and Fairview Ave can all be served by a turn immediately before those intersections. Denny and Westlake is especially problematic as extremely high pedestrian volumes mean each right turning car can delay the bus multiple light cycles.
Once again, Sound Transit is reconsidering its priorities as economic realities clash with its ambitious service expansion program. The Sound Transit Board recently attended a retreat focused on understanding the challenges facing the agency, including a brainstorming session to come up with ideas for cutting costs in order to afford the many projects planned under ST3. Since the results of that retreat are not yet public knowledge, it seems appropriate to do our own brainstorming here on the Seattle Transit Blog. Assuming we won’t get vast sums of new money from the Federal government or unlock some sort of highly progressive tax source, significant cost savings must be found if ST wants to deliver the transit improvements hoped for under ST3 in any reasonable timeframe.
This post is intended to kickstart that conversation with some of the ideas we’ve come up with for “fixing” ST3 over the years, ranging from relatively benign concepts (like cutting costs by using prefabricated guideway segments) to radical redesigns (like an independent, automated Ballard – Westlake Link Line). We want to hear your ideas in the comments, too.
This is part 1 of a 3-part series on route 8 and Denny Way. Part 2 will be Tuesday, part 3 Thursday.
Seattle needs more bus lanes. Everywhere.
We are in the middle of a worsening climate crisis, and Seattle’s contribution to it is largely driven by personal vehicles. According to Seattle’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory, transportation accounts for nearly 60% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the city. Unfortunately, that metric is only increasing. Commute Seattle’s 2024 survey results have city center commuters who drive alone outnumbering transit riders and growing rapidly.
Seattle’s transit mode share is only about half of what is was in 2019
It’s clear that Seattle needs to take drastic actions as soon as possible to reverse this trend to bring these numbers closer to pre-pandemic level, when transit riders outnumbered drivers 2:1. The most effective way to turn would-be drivers into transit riders is just to make taking transit faster than driving. Red paint is an extremely cheap, fast, and effective way to do so, especially when combined with signal changes to ensure buses can take full advantage of transit lanes.
Adding bus lanes is also particularly important as King County Metro faces a looming fiscal cliff. Faster and more reliable buses means that each of Metro’s service hours can go further and require less slack and redundancy. Additionally, we urge the county to prioritize service over fleet electrification, which is exacerbating funding issues. If electrification goals take precedence, then we risk a death spiral of worse service leading to fewer riders, leading to even more service cuts. If we continue down this path, we risk pushing even the most ardent of transit advocates to resort to owning and driving a personal vehicle.
King County Metro’s upcoming fiscal cliff threatens to result in a death spiral of service cuts
