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.
A 2.2 acre strip mall property purchased by Kirkland in 2022 is seen as a big opportunity for the city to create community space and expand housing while serving as a catalysis in a neighborhood oozing potential.
Sound Transit's Sounder N Line between Everett and Seattle will see four round trips starting September 14, finally returning to pre-pandemic levels of service.
A pilot program offering public restrooms at two King County Metro transit centers is in jeopardy of being terminated. High costs associated with full-time security are primarily to blame.
Safety-focused changes to busy Bel-Red Road, an unavoidable corridor for many Bellevue residents, were taken off the table by a 3-2 vote of the Bellevue Transportation Commission last week.
With Bellevue backsliding on many of its prior commitments to improve safety and multimodal connectivity, a coalition of advocates are trying to get things back on track. The group is seeking bigger investments in the city's next biennial budget.
It's official: Voters this fall will get to weigh in on whether Seattle should invest $1.55 billion over eight years to improve transportation infrastructure, with most funding allocated to road and bridge maintenance.
A long-planned RapidRide line on Rainier Avenue has been delayed to 2031, as Metro starts the process of identifying the next round of RapidRide lines to implement. Slow timelines are leaving a daily ridership boost of 19,000 on the table.
For decades, the Interurban Trail in North King County and in Snohomish County have been disconnected, with a state highway between them. There's new momentum to change that.