Ryan Packer
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.
Proponents of a $7.5 billion project to widen I-5 and replace the Columbia River bridge are ignoring induced demand, creating faulty traffic models that obscure its real environmental impact.
Ballard Link is still in planning, eight years after the passage of Sound Transit 3. With the environmental review process essentially starting over, major action on the project isn't expected until 2025.
Tacoma's $900,000 budget for Vision Zero is set to be slashed to $90,000 as the City prioritizes other areas for funding, leaving the Grit City without a dedicated revenue source for safety upgrades.
An updated version of Seattle's 20-year growth plan includes additional opportunities for housing density, but mostly retains the city's longstanding pattern of walling off lower-density areas of the city.
The privately funded project to upgrade pedestrian and bike facilities in Seattle's north downtown waterfront has reached final design. Here's what's planned.
Several high profile officials are pushing for the next update to the central Puget Sound's Regional Transportation Plan to be more transformative than it might otherwise have been. The plan sways which projects get grants.
The Urbanist is in the midst of our fall membership drive. The coming months are some of the most pivotal the region has seen in recent memory.
King County Metro is projecting a significant budget shortfall by 2028 if its current spending plan is maintained, thanks to lagging sales tax revenue, increased costs, and ambitious fleet electrification plans.