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Cycling/Transit/Transportation/Vision Zero/Walking

2018 Worst Intersection in Seattle: Rainier, 23rd, & Hill

by Troy Heerwagen @TroyHeerwagen on June 22, 2018

For the first time ever, Seattle’s worst intersection is in South Seattle. Rainier, 23rd, and Hill beat out numerous other contenders to be chosen by readers of the Urbanist as the worst intersection in Seattle for people walking, biking, and busing.

The Worst Intersection in Seattle contest was conceived in 2010 to call attention to issues in our built environment that affect pedestrians. Starting this year, the scope has expanded to consider the perspectives of bicyclists and bus commuters as well.

Similar to last year’s winner, Denny and Stewart, Rainier and 23rd is a traffic-clogged intersection that should primarily serve traffic on its way to the nearest freeway, according to SDOT. However, both intersections fail in that regard due to regular backups from the freeway that slow down frequent bus routes and block crosswalks.

Rainier and 23rd may be even worse for pedestrians than Denny and Stewart, with narrower and more uneven sidewalks that are placed closer to streets that carry faster-moving traffic. 35,000 cars per day travel along Rainier, Seattle’s most dangerous street, and over 10,000 on 23rd. There have been over a dozen collisions in the last five years at this spot.

Cycling/Vision Zero/Walking

Bellevue Invests in Downtown Bike Network with Protected Bike Lanes

by Stephen Fesler @safesler on June 22, 2018

Separated bike lanes are coming to Downtown Bellevue. It’s the first big foray into all-ages and abilities bike infrastructure for Bellevue’s city center. Over the next several weeks, crews will install new bike lanes on 12 blocks of 108th Ave NE stretching from Main St to 12th St NE. Billed as a bikeway demonstration project, the city will use several different bike lane techniques and treatments. The project will help people on bike move through the city center and link them to the I-90 Trail, SR-520 Trail, other local bike facilities, and the Bellevue Transit Center.

Most of the bike lanes will be separated from general traffic, some with physical protection. Separation will come in three flavors: painted buffer lanes, temporary flexible diverter posts with curbing, and planter boxes. Crews will also use green paint markings on the street, similar to Seattle, to provide better visibility and raise the profile of bike lanes. These will generally be applied at locations where motorized vehicles and bikes are expected to converge, such as driveways and intersections.

Cycling/Transit/Transportation/Walking

Fairview Ave N Bridge Replacement to Start 2019, Long-Term Detours Ahead

by Stephen Fesler @safesler on June 21, 2018

On Monday, the Seattle City Council is poised to approve several small property acquisitions to facilitate the Fairview Ave N bridge replacement. This is one of the last hurdles for green-lighting the project. The bridge is deemed to be structurally deficient and seismically vulnerable and happens to be the last major bridge built of timber in the city with portions that are older than 65 years.

The bridge replacement is a key citywide project given that Fairview Ave N is a primary north-south artery connecting communities like South Lake Union, Eastlake, and University District. The bridge will close early next year for demolition and rebuilding. Reopening of the bridge is anticipated in early 2020.

The long-term closure will be particularly acute for people on foot, bike, and bus. The Cheshiahud Lake Union Loop and electric trolleybuses both directly through the bridge. Bridge replacement will take about a year, meaning that a long-term detour will be put in place.

Inclusionary Zoning/Land Use & Development/Parking/Wonkabout Washington

Wonkabout Washington: Tacoma Passes Inclusionary Zoning for Mall Area

by Futurewise @FuturewiseWA on June 21, 2018

We are excited to announce a new partnership between Futurewise and The Urbanist! Futurewise is a statewide organization dedicated to proper implementation of the Growth Management Act. We encourage healthy, equitable, and opportunity-rich communities while protecting our most valuable farmlands, forests, and water resources through wise land-use policies and practices. We’re excited to be partnering with The Urbanist on a new regular dispatch to keep you updated on land-use news from around Washington State. We’re calling it Wonkabout Washington.

Tacoma City Council Approves Mall Neighborhood Plan with Support from Community

On Tuesday, May 15th the Tacoma City Council voted unanimously to approve the Tacoma Mall Subarea Plan. The plan is an innovative example of smart urban growth, including increases in transportation access, implementation of affordable housing incentives, and promotion of resident and environment health by encouraging green infrastructure.

A dozen Tacoma residents addressed the Council to specifically support the inclusionary zoning ordinance, which requires developers of 15+ units to build 10% affordable for households who earn 50% of the area median income (incentives include height bonuses, reduced parking requirements, and multi-family tax exemptions). Many of these residents shared their struggles finding affordable housing in Tacoma. They commended the plan for providing more options for low-income households and asked for inclusionary zoning to be implemented city-wide.

One Center City/Transit/Transportation

Council Contemplates Seattle Transportation Benefit District Reforms

by Stephen Fesler @safesler on June 20, 2018

The voter-approved Seattle Transportation Benefit District (STBD) is getting its first big policy reform since the passage of Proposition 1 in 2014. The tax measure was devised as a response to imminent countywide cuts to transit, saving the city from apocalyptic service reductions and eventually allowing for overall transit service expansion.

Though the scope of programs and policy objectives have changed over the past few years, the formal policy changes and district authority that could soon be passed (as soon as next week) Seattle City Council would the pave the way for wider availability of free ORCA transit passes for students, tangible speed and reliability improvements on bus corridors, and service boosts on bus routes that wouldn’t qualify for additional city-funded investments under current law.

Overview of STBD Reform Proposal

To recap, the ordinance authorizes the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) to do the following:

Regional partnerships. The legislation would expand the opportunity for regional partnerships to cost-share service improvements on routes that only have 65% of stops within Seattle. This would reduce the minimum requirement from 80% of stops within Seattle, allowing many other routes to become eligible for additional service hour investments, including Routes 106, 120, 124, 345, 372, and 373 and the RapidRide E Line–routes that tend to operate in underserved areas of the city.
RapidRide service. All existing and future RapidRide services would be eligible for additional service hour investments regardless of geographic operation (i.e., wholly or partially operating in Seattle) or performance metrics.
Capital investments. Through December 2020, SDOT would be able to spend additional revenues on capital improvements for transit. These investments could include transit-only lanes, queue jumps, transit signal priority, and other strategies to improve speed and reliability. Capital investments could also be made to enhance the passenger experience, such as off-board fare payment and stop improvements.
ORCA transit passes. All Seattle Public Schools high school students (10,200) would received free ORCA transit passes in addition to another 500 middle school students and 300 Seattle Promise community college students. This would be a massive expansion of free transit passes for students in the city. Right now, the city helps fund 3,000 free transit passes for qualifying high school (2,600) and middle school (400) students. Seattle Public Schools provides an additional 8,000 free transit passes to high school (6,200) and middle school (1,800) students. The school district would continue their contributions to funding student passes.
Contracted pilot transit services. A new pilot program for contracted transit services would be created. Several transit van routes would be set up to provide first-mile/last-mile connections for underserved areas and between other corridors of interest by third-party transit providers–that is, not by King County Metro Transit. Transit vans would be required to provide seating capacity for at least eight passengers. While contractors may not be unionized like most Metro operators, companies would need to provide labor harmony agreements to be eligible as a city contractor.

Move Seattle/One Center City/Streetcar/Transit

Let’s Add New Bus Lanes to Overcome ‘Period of Maximum Constraint’

by Doug Trumm @dmtrumm on June 20, 2018

The news on One Center City has not been very uplifting. The effort to keep Seattle moving during coming transit logjams got a re-brand to “Imagine Seattle,” but it appears to still be lacking for bold imagination and timeliness.

The problem, dubbed the “Period of Maximum Constraint,” stems from convergence of several major construction projects, a shortage of bus base capacity, and buses coming out of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (which will decrease their efficiency and further crowd surface streets). This will leave a gap in transit capacity for a few years before more light rail extensions come online–starting with Northgate Link in 2021 and followed by East Link in 2023 and Lynnwood Link and Federal Way Link in 2024–which should free up bus platform hours. It might take opening all those light rail extensions to truly release the pressure valve on our transit network, meaning the constrained period could drag on until 2024.

Though billed as a bold visioning process, One Center City has yet to lead to anything revolutionary being adopted thus far. The major addition to the transit network will be a new downtown transit pathway using Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue and providing transit lanes in some stretches but not in others. This should provide a workable alternative for buses kicked out of the transit tunnel next year. But Seattle’s transit ridership is growing steadily every year bucking national trends. Plenty of doubt remains if we’ve done enough to meet demand and prevent rampant overcrowding and delays.

We should not let this crisis go to waste. This is an opportunity to improve our transit network rather than do the bare minimum to scrape by. That’s why I propose that Seattle should roll out as many dedicated transit lanes as possible across the city within one year’s time. There’s no reason to settle for mediocrity. Our bus bases being at capacity means King Count Metro Transit doesn’t currently have room to add new buses even if it wanted to, which is pushing the Seattle City Council to look at using private operators to add bus service. This creates an imperative to use our platform hours more efficiently rather than letting buses languish in traffic.

Even without RapidRide improvements, a handful of Metro buses carry in the ballpark of 10,000 daily riders–Routes 5, 7, 8, 36, 40, 41, 44–and they should be our first priority when adding new transit lanes. We should also look at the next tier of high ridership routes as we look to make the transit network run more smoothly as we face the prospect of transit gridlock and overcrowding.

Vision Zero/Walking

109 Dead on Washington Roads as Pedestrian Deaths Reach Record High in 2017

by Ryan Packer @typewriteralley on June 18, 2018

Joshua Karl Reynolds was walking on the shoulder of Birch Bay Lynden road near Blaine, Washington on a Saturday evening last May when he was struck and killed by the passenger-side mirror of a passing truck. The driver of the truck left the scene and turned himself in to police three days later. Joshua’s mother told the Bellingham Herald that he had been walking everywhere he went after being ticketed for driving without a valid license. He was thirty-three years old.

Angela Brumley was crossing Pacific Avenue S in Tacoma last November when she was struck and killed by a Jeep. Pacific Avenue in that area has two marked crosswalks for pedestrians within a half-mile of each other, at 108th St S and at 99th St E. She was crossing the street at 106th on a dark and rainy day. No charges were filed against the driver of the vehicle. She was thirty years old.

Jennifer Young was crossing 12th Avenue in Anacortes last June when she was struck by a commercial semi making a left turn from Commercial Avenue. She was walking across an intersection with a marked crosswalk. The Skagit County medical examiner’s webpage states that “the cause of death is multiple blunt force trauma and the manner is accident.” She was forty-four years old.

Nellie Yelli was walking in a marked crosswalk across Wallingford Avenue N in Seattle just north of Green Lake last January, on New Year’s Day. The woman who struck Yelli with her car left the scene before returning an hour later and later pled guilty to vehicular homicide while driving under the influence. Treza Hafzalla is currently serving an eight-and-a-half year prison sentence. Nellie Yelli was sixty-two years old.

Preliminary numbers recently released by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) show in 2017, 109 people walking were killed by traffic on Washington’s streets. This is an increase of 21 people from 2016 and a 118% increase in five years, compared to 2013 when 50 people on foot were killed. Over the same time period, the number of people who were killed on our state’s streets went from 436 to 565, a 29% increase. The number of people on bikes who were killed in traffic has stayed relatively constant, with fewer fatalities in 2017 (13) than in the previous two years.

Overview of STBD Reform Proposal

Bridge Housing and Shelter