Here’s some great news for people who walk or bike to and from West Seattle: SDOT has completed work on the Spokane Street Swing Bridge in just half the time they originally estimated. The bridge is now operational, and the vital trail it carries is open.
The bridge was closed October 7 to install a repaired turn cylinder that was removed during the closure last winter, and it was not scheduled to reopen until Saturday. So crews were able to reopen in the bridge in less than half the time originally estimated.
This news means a lot of people will be spared the long and stressful detour to the 1st Avenue Bridge and through SoDo. The department did not say how crews achieved this early reopening, but perhaps they have gotten very good at fixing this odd pivoting bridge because it breaks down so often. Regardless, the crews deserve major kudos.
More closures will be needed in the somewhat near future to repair the other cylinders and the control system, though dates have not yet been announced.
My presentation includes a lot of little interesting bits that aren’t in the book. My hope is that you’ll leave with a perhaps unexpected understanding of how our city’s current bicycling movement came to be. There will also be a Q&A afterwards.
Speaking of book news, did you catch my interview in the Seattle Times? Fellow Seattle-area bike author Bill Thorness and I had a great conversation about the history of biking around this place. He also posted some bits from the cutting room floor over on his Substack.
Also, the book is currently one of Seattle Public Library’s Peak Picks!
Seattle needs to make it easier, not harder, for the Department of Transportation to improve safety on our streets. To that end, the City Council should not pass Resolution 32097, which is scheduled for a vote Tuesday.
The resolution, which was passed unanimously out of the Land Use Committee rather than the Transportation Committee, contains some language that is either very unclear or conflicts with existing city policy and the best design practices for safe streets and accessibility. The resolution requests that SDOT present to both the Freight Advisory Board and the City Council Transportation Committee before making safety improvements to streets designated as Major Truck Streets so that SDOT staff can “demonstrat[e] that adjacent land uses and through traffic will not be compromised.” It also requests that Seattle “prioritize freight movement on streets classified as Major Truck streets in planning, funding, and developing street improvements within and near the Manufacturing Industrial Centers and surrounding areas.”
The problem is that safety is Seattle’s top priority on Major Truck Streets, or at least it is supposed to be. SDOT just published their full “Vision Zero Top-to-Bottom Review” a couple months ago, and it states as its top recommendation: “Incorporate Vision Zero and Safe Systems approaches into every project and program.” There are no asterisks or exemptions for truck streets here, nor should there be. Even Seattle’s Freight Master Plan, which was developed along side freight interests and approved by the City Council, states, “The Seattle Department of Transportation’s top priority is safety. It is crucial that our freight network provide freight facilities that ensure people driving delivery vehicles and trucks, both large and small, can travel safely among people walking, riding bicycles, taking transit, or driving other vehicles.” As the Pedestrian Advisory Board notes in a letter opposing the resolution (see below), “Major Truck Routes are already responsible for more than half of all pedestrian fatalities.” This is despite these streets making up only 8% of the city’s streets.
SDOT should be empowered to act quickly whenever the department has an opportunity to improve safety on these streets. SDOT has never “compromised” any freight routes through the implementation of safety improvements. If anything, the city has done freight a disservice by allowing so many major and minor truck streets to continue operating without safety improvements to reduce conflicts with other road users. Operating on streets with an increased risk of injuring or killing somebody is not in a truck driver or freight operator’s best interest.
Safety advocates and freight interests are not enemies. This resolution has caught people off-guard, which is creating unnecessary friction. Seattle needs to better coordinate safety and freight work so that everyone is on the same team, and this resolution ain’t the way to do that. Instead, look at the plans for E Marginal Way, a major road project on a vital freight street that has been designed from the start with safety at the forefront. Likewise, the emergency 1st Ave S bike lanes during the January Spokane Street Bridge closure were a great example of SDOT moving quickly to successfully address an emerging safety issue while also keeping freight moving on a Major Truck Street. These are not opposing interests. We are all in this together.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell will join SDOT and Sound Transit leaders as well as community members to celebrate the start of the MLK Way S safety project 10 a.m. Friday (October 6) where the I-90 Trail crosses MLK.
The project includes protected bike lanes from S Judkins Street/I-90 Trail to and, importantly, through the intersection with Rainier Ave. The lanes will connect to Mount Baker Station and provide a much-needed bike route to the northern Rainier Ave area. It will not make a complete connection to the rest of Rainier Valley, but it’s a big step in that direction. The project faced a few extra months of delays because contractor bids came in a bid higher than expected. But SDOT was able to scrounge up the extra funds to make it happen.
As we reported previously, the project will not only create a bike connection, but SDOT also did not shy away from making much-needed crosswalk improvements to the intimidating and complicated intersection with Rainier Ave S. Perhaps the most important element of this entire project, SDOT will build the two missing crosswalks at the southwest and southeast legs of the intersection. These will make a big difference for walkability in what is currently one of the worst intersections in the city, and it a major improvement for Franklin High School students.
Come join us for the East Lake Sammamish Trail Grand Opening! It’s time to celebrate the long-awaited opening of this amazing trail. Get ready to explore the scenic beauty from Redmond to Issaquah as we gather at the EastLake Sammamish Trail Parking lot in Redmond on the big day. Whether you’re a walker, cyclist, or simply a nature enthusiast, this event is perfect for you. Bring your friends, family, and furry companions to enjoy a day full of adventure and fun. Kids encouraged! Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity to be part of the grand opening of the East Lake Sammamish Trail!
People are injured and killed in preventable traffic collisions on Denny Way every year, yet Seattle is planning to invest more than $5 million in the street without addressing its dangerous street design. Instead, the project is moving forward without regard for the city’s Vision Zero goals and without addressing needs specifically called for in the city’s Pedestrian and Transit Master Plans.
The project has strayed from Seattle’s existing transportation policy and needs a reset so it can be brought in line with the city’s safety and transit mobility goals.
If you had not heard about this project until this post or Ryan Packer’s recent story in the Urbanist, that’s part of the problem. While projects investing to improve safety get bogged down in enormous amounts of public process and delay, projects investing to maintain dangerous streets like Denny Way seem to get a free pass from the Seattle Process. Had there been a proper public process earlier, the team would have heard loud and clear from residents that we expect safety and transit improvements to be included. There’s even a whole community-led campaign to Fix the L8 that is focused largely on making improvements to this section of Denny Way so that the packed and unreliable Route 8 bus can better serve its 5,000+ daily riders (a count that would surely be higher if the thing ran on time). Now the city is left with the frustrating decision of pausing a project that is already in the design phase, sending it back to project development so safety and transit mobility are included. This could mean that it would not be ready for paving in 2024 as currently planned and that the budget may change, but pausing it is the right thing to do.
Excerpted from the Seattle Pedestrian Master Plan.
Denny Way is listed in Seattle’s Pedestrian Master Plan (PDF) as part of the “priority investment network,” noting that much of the project area scores a “high” safety prioritization, meaning it is in the top 20% of all streets in the city in need to safety improvements. Denny Way is also one of eight “priority bus corridors” highlighted in Seattle’s Transit Master Plan (corridors section PDF), which notes that “investments in the corridors identified through the TMP have the highest potential benefits to Seattle and its residents.” The plan specifically recommends:
