While the plan for expanding Seattleâs bicycle network remains headed for a near-complete halt on new facilities in just a few years, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is set to make up a bit of lost ground with a flurry of new protected bicycle lanes downtown in the
The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has been without a director for more than a year, having had four different interim heads while a national search was underway. That changed on Monday when the Seattle City Council formally appointed Sam Zimbabwe, a former for chief project delivery officer for the
Yesterday morning Mayor Jenny Durkan announced she had hired retired Air Force Major General Michael Worden to a newly created positionâDirector of Citywide Mobility Operations Coordinationâat a salary of $195,000. After his 30-year military career, Worden worked as a defense contractor for Lockheed Martin for six years
On Thursday, officials from the City of Seattle, Washington State Department of Transportation, and King County Metro held a joint press conference to discuss upcoming traffic impact responses that agencies will make in the wake of imminent closure of the SR-99 viaduct and long-term mega-construction projects happening in Downtown Seattle
This week we learned that the Alaskan Way Viaduct will close permanently on January 11 of next year, with a three-week gap between the closing of one highway and the opening of another, the long-delayed deep bore tunnel connecting SoDo and South Lake Union. Weâve known this has been
Over the weekend, Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) crews were busy marking twelve blocks of 3rd Avenue âbus onlyâ and adding signs up and down the corridor alerting drivers not to enter between the hours of 6am and 7pm any day of the week. These changes were originally planned for
On a Thursday evening in early June, at the top floor of King County Metro Transitâs building on South Jackson Street, the One Center City advisory group quietly met after a nine-month hiatus. Notice for the meeting had only been posted to the obscure website for One Center City
The voter-approved Seattle Transportation Benefit District (STBD) is getting its first big policy reform since the passage of Proposition 1 in 2014. The tax measure was devised as a response to imminent countywide cuts to transit, saving the city from apocalyptic service reductions and eventually allowing for overall transit service
The news on One Center City has not been very uplifting. The effort to keep Seattle moving during coming transit logjams got a re-brand to âImagine Seattle,â but it appears to still be lacking for bold imagination and timeliness. The problem, dubbed the âPeriod of Maximum Constraint,â stems from convergence
On Monday, the Seattle City Council approved the street and alley vacations requested by the Washington State Convention Center (WSCC) for its forthcoming $1.7 billion expansion. In the process, they accepted largest public benefits package in Seattle history, and cleared a key hurdle toward allowing the project to start
Yesterday Mayor Jenny Durkan came out in support of road pricing aimed at decongesting traffic in Downtown Seattle and delayed implementation of key Basic Bike Network elements until 2021. The mayorâs announcement comes on the heels of her pausing the Center City Connector streetcar project Friday. Pausing the streetcar
In case you missed the Friday afternoon news dump, Mayor Jenny Durkan announced she is halting work on the Center City Connector streetcar because of mounting costs, but delay would have a high cost in its own right. Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) Interim Director Goran Sparrman revealed at a
In a surprise move, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan halted construction work on the Center City Connector streetcar today. She cited rising costs and an error estimating the cost of streetcar vehicles to justify her pause and reassess move. âThere are too many questions about the true costs of this project
Just a few years ago, the Seattle Mayorâs Office, eying a confluence of construction events getting scheduled downtown and an uncertain timeline for buses to exit the downtown transit tunnel, pulled back on needed safety projects downtown for people on bikes. In classic Murray administration fashion, a taskforce was
When the One Center City Advisory Board delivered its recommendation last September, we applauded the gains for transit priority and the Downtown Basic Bike Network. Five months later, not much else has happened. The advisory group hasnât met since, the project website has barely been updated, and Seattle Department
Beginning shortly after New Yearâs Day, the Seattle Department of Transportation will begin working on a new segment of the Center City Bike Network, built upon a segment of bike lane already in place on Amazonâs campus. As early as January 2nd, work will begin to install a
On October 14th, former Seattle City Councilmember Nick Licata wrote a blog post that may mislead enough people to stop an excellent local transit project that Seattle Subway has supported since its inception. Since publishing his post, âThe Center City Connector StreetcarâA Solution Looking for A Problem,â the Seattle
One of the biggest questions swirling around the new $1.6 billion expansion of the Washington State Convention centerâapart from whether it will actually get used, and who benefits from itâis how much the developer, Pine Street Group, will have to compensate the citizens of Seattle in exchange
On Tuesday night, Seattleâs Office of the Waterfront and the Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) presented their concepts for what is being called Pike Pine Renaissance: Act 1. This is an intensive reinvestment in the downtown retail district of Pike and Pine Streets between First Avenue at Pike Place Market
Mayoral candidate Cary Moon added some meat to the bones of her transit plan at a press conference this afternoon in South Lake Union. Not far from the Mercer Messâa traffic-choked street that serves as a testament to Seattleâs car-centric priorities, Moon outlined a more balanced vision with
In June, I wrote about how the One Center City stakeholder group was heading toward a downtown where the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel could no longer accommodate buses, but where no additional street space had been allocated on the surface for public transit. A quick recap: in either March or
The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is moving ahead quickly with a plan to install protected bike lanes (PBLs) on Pike and Pine Streets in Downtown Seattle by the end of this year. As we have been reporting this summer, the fact of how far up Capitol Hill the proposed
This past Saturday morning, The Urbanist held a walking tour focusing on the central topics around transportation and the public realm involved in the One Center City mobility plan. In addition to interested members of the public, we were lucky to have a number of advocacy groups that are involved
When the three transportation agencies involved in the One Center City planâKing County Metro, Sound Transit, and the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT)âpresented their recommendations for near-term improvements in Downtown Seattle, one of the most hopeful items was a clear plan to connect Downtown with Capitol Hill with
On Monday, the King County Council voted unanimously to sell the land that is home to Convention Place Station. Convention Place will make way for a $1.7 billion addition doubling the size of the Washington State Convention Center (WSCC), as The Urbanist has covered extensively before. While few doubted
In late January, the four organizations involved in the One Center City planâKing County Metro, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), Sound Transit, and the Downtown Seattle Association (DSA)âpresented a set of options intended to alleviate the pressure on Downtown travel during what they are calling a âperiod
Downtown transportation impacts loom large as policymakers grapple with the appropriate size of the Washington State Convention Center (WSCC) Additionâs public benefits package. One Center City is the project intended to rescue Downtown Seattle from big traffic delays when Addition construction displaces commuter buses out of the Downtown Seattle
Last week King County announced a tentative deal to sell perhaps the largest remaining undeveloped property in Seattleâs city center. The 4.1-acre Convention Place Station will be sold for $161 million to the Washington State Convention Center (WSCC) for its major expansion project. The move heralds the long-expected
Last week we outlined the different proposals to address the âcongestionâ crisis that our transportation agencies, in conjunction with the Downtown Seattle Association, are trying to prepare for in September of next year. That is the date of the King County Metro service change that will bring all Downtown Seattle
The Urbanist Editorial Board endorses the Basic Bike Network plan proposed by the Cascade Bicycle Club and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, and championed by Seattle Bike Blog. We must build out a safe bike network as soon as possible. Advocates waited and waited as One Center City dealmaking delayed the Bike
Note: the article below separates transit proposals in the One Center City recommendations from the bike lane proposals. I am devoting an entire article next week to the issue over bike lanes and Vision Zero in the One Center City plan. Therefore, I have not discussed the bike lane aspects