Downtown Seattle is facing a massive transportation challenge when buses are kicked out the transit tunnel in 2019. That is not long from now, and the City of Seattle and our region’s transportation agencies need to be taking action right now to keep everyone moving.
Light rail service to Northgate begins in 2021, which will be a great opportunity to restructure transit service into downtown and increase light rail frequency and capacity. But until then, the fate of transportation downtown relies on bold action to prioritize transit, walking and biking. Because if more people start driving, we’re all screwed. Traffic will be worse, busses will get stuck, air quality will degrade, etc.
But we don’t need to just sit back and allow this happen. We can make a choice as a city and region to invest in bold changes to city streets that create more space for reliable bus movements, improve safety for people walking and provide safe and connected bike lanes that make biking downtown an appealing choice for the huge number of people in our region who would love to bike but would never even consider biking mixed with downtown traffic.
Both Cascade Bicycle Club and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways have sounded the alarm, saying that it’s time to act. You can use their handy online forms to tell city and regional transportation leaders agencies you support plans for a 4th Ave bike lane and the many other safety and transit improvements downtown. (more…)
