The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is celebrating the grand opening of a new protected bike route through North Beacon Hill, bridging a long conspicuous hole in the city’s bike network. The project, which includes segments on 15th Avenue S and Beacon Avenue S, has been in the works since 2019 and proved to be the most controversial among a slate of bike projects advanced that year to better connect Southeast Seattle with the rest of the city.
With this project completed, people biking now have access to a continuous separated connection from Little Saigon to Jefferson Park, through the heart of Beacon Hill. Beacon Hill’s light rail station finally has true multimodal access at its front door, including new transit loading platforms and improved pedestrian crossings.
SDOT is hosting an opening party at 4pm today (September 19) at Roberto Maestas Plaza, across the street from Beacon Hill Station.
The Beacon Avenue S & 15th Avenue S Safety Project is one of five projects opening across the city this year that SDOT is touting as a “hot bike summer” package, openings that can be traced back to the push to complete changes that were promised to voters as part of the 2015 Levy to Move Seattle. While that measure expired last year without meeting its commitment to build 110 miles of bike facilities across the city, having that goal ended up getting projects like this one across the finish line.
The proposal to finally connect people on bikes safely throughout North Beacon Hill was included in a 2019 resolution sponsored by Councilmember Mike O’Brien, after broad advocacy by traffic safety advocates to better connect the South End. The South Side is where the city’s road safety crisis is most acute, with a long history of deadly crashes. But the project ran into opposition from residents along 15th Avenue S, where the protected bike lane was set to replace more than 100 on-street parking stalls.
Though a parking study conducted in 2020 found those stalls were only around half utilized on any given day, those lost stalls became a major issue that almost derailed the entire corridor upgrade.
Though construction was initially set to start in 2023, that was pushed back, with SDOT conducting a second traffic study after concerns about using data from 2020. When that study largely reinforced the previous one, SDOT moved to mitigate the loss of parking on the corridor, implementing a “Residential Parking Zone” (RPZ) to better manage the remaining parking on side streets. The department also found places to add more off-street parking — to the chagrin of many urbanists — as a path forward on the project. Near-term safety upgrades were also added to 15th Avenue S ahead of bike lane construction to address concerns about rampant speeding on the street.
Plans to extend the connection further south on Beacon Avenue and further north on 12th Avenue into Capitol Hill are both in the works, though the exact details of those connections are far from settled. On Beacon Avenue, a proposal to route people on bikes onto a median path in the middle of the street popular with walkers met pushback in 2021 when it was proposed, with the city’s Bicycle Advisory Board urging SDOT to consider reallocating a travel lane instead.
On 12th Avenue, a project specifically added to the 2024 Seattle Transportation Levy by District 3 Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth would connect all the way to E Madison Street. However, reallocating parking stalls is almost certain to again be a contentious issue, along with problems SDOT has run into in the past designing a connection through the tricky intersection at Boren Avenue S and 12th. At that spot, concerns about increased congestion impacting the Seattle Streetcar put the kibosh on upgrades in the past.
“We are very excited to see Phase 1 completed for Beacon Hill’s new bike route, and cannot wait until it connects further south,” Robert Getch, who was co-chair of the traffic safety advocacy group Beacon Hill Safe Streets during a pivotal time for the project, told The Urbanist. “For now, we hope people enjoy better access to our businesses, better sidewalks to enjoy with your family, and enhanced crossings and transit stops. If you want to help create more change for good join us at BHSafeStreets.org.”
The 2024 transportation levy, approved by two-thirds of voters last November, pledges to build fewer miles of new bike facilities than its 2015 counterpart, focusing instead on upgrading the protection for bike lanes that have already been built. While flex posts and paint often fail to prevent illegal use from drivers, adding curbs or other hardened barriers increase the range of people who feel comfortable using bike lanes.
With its party 4pm Friday at Roberto Maestas Plaza, SDOT is continuing its hot bike summer celebrations. Participants can also test out the facility in a group ride. At 5:30pm, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways will lead a 2.5-mile ride, with riders of all ages and abilities welcome.
Future hot bike summer openings are set to take place in Georgetown (for two projects) and along E Marginal Way in SoDo. Earlier this summer, SDOT cut the ribbon on the Alaskan Way bike lane between the central waterfront and Myrtle Edwards Park.
Ryan Packer has been writing for The Urbanist since 2015, and currently reports full-time as Contributing Editor. Their beats are transportation, land use, public space, traffic safety, and obscure community meetings. Packer has also reported for other regional outlets including BikePortland, Seattle Met, and PubliCola. They live in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle.
