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.
Whether allowing new detached dwelling units on most lots in the state's rural areas would undermine decades of growth planning is a question that's been put front-and-center by House Bill 2126.
A vocal critic of highway expansion, Mello's urbanist vision includes "parks and open space trails, a good transportation network, safe places to walk and bike." He's running for County Executive to seek to implement that vision.
King County is falling behind on its climate goals due to a reticence to tackle transportation emissions, the top source of climate pollution in the region.
The project has gone out to bid, but business and freight advocates continue to campaign to pause and scale back Route 40 speed and reliability improvements.
2023 saw serious injuries and fatalities involving people who walk or bike skyrocket in Kent. The City has small improvements in the pipeline, but systemic changes may prove more elusive.
Washington State could see more small neighborhood cafes opening up within short walking distances of homes, under a proposal advancing at the state legislature....
House Bill 2191 would allow -- not require -- around two-thirds of the transit agencies in Washington State to appoint two designated rider representatives to their boards.
The Shoreline City Council adopted an ordinance that blocks operation of most bus bases within the city, jeopardizing the future of Metro's paratransit bus base in Ridgecrest.