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.
Seattle councilmembers are seeking to amend the $1.55 billion transportation levy proposal in a number of ways, including boosting sidewalk repair funds, closing a few gaps in protected bike routes, and further revamping the Ballard Avenue cafe street. Council will discuss amendments Tuesday in committee.
Bus priority on Downtown Seattle's Third Ave transit mall doesn't currently extend north of Stewart Street though most of its bus routes do. A project to add more transit priority is at risk of being delayed again.
After initially announcing an expanded schedule for Bicycle Weekends, Seattle Parks walked it back. Internal emails reveal why.
Ten years in the making, Seattle's most robust bus rapid transit line ever will start running this fall between Downtown Seattle and Madison Valley.
The newly transformed section of Beach Drive SW has turned walkers and rollers into priority users while still allowing vehicle access. Meanwhile, a coalition allied around parking concerns continues to plot a way to undo the safety project.
The opportunity to redevelop nearly five acres across from Lumen Field is pitting competing interests against each other. Some hope to see housing, but industrial stakeholders are pushing back.
A planned overhaul of Shoreline's 175th Street is prompting a call for a reset after complaints over tree removals. City leaders don't appear ready to back off the planned multimodal improvements.
King County's trail network is a great resource for getting around without a car, but outdated rules limiting access are getting overhauled to allow greater use.