New bike lanes open on 4th Ave and Broad St, will soon be fully activated when the Thomas St plaza is complete

Facing south on 4th Avenue at Cedar Street.

The new bike lanes on 4th Avenue are now open, providing a protected bike route directly from the downtown core to the Space Needle. Though the bike lanes on Broad Street are also open, they currently dead end at 5th Avenue while crews work on the very cool Thomas Street plaza. The plaza should be open before the World Cup next month, so the wait shouldn’t be long.

The bike lanes used to end at Vine Street. From Google Street View.

I headed down for a rainy tour of the new lanes Friday, and it is just so nice that the 4th Ave bike lanes finally connect to Seattle Center. For years they have ended abruptly in the middle of Belltown, leaving people to fend for themselves in four lanes of mixed traffic. It was not a good situation, especially since biking to Seattle Center is one of those journeys that will attract lots of tourists and first time riders who are giving downtown biking a try during a major event. Now the ride to the Space Needle driveway is seamless, easy and comfortable.

4th Ave also feels significantly calmer now that the extra lanes have been removed. The previous design had a ridiculous four-lane design more appropriate for a highway than a dense neighborhood like Belltown. People driving would then need to merge from four lanes down to two since nearly all traffic either goes straight or turns left at Denny Way (most people turning right on Denny will use an earlier street). The new design maintains two lanes the whole way, which is much simpler and should be safer for all road users, especially people using the now-shorter crosswalks.

The diagonal bike lane crossing from the west side of 4th to the east is still a bit unfortunate, but it seemed to work during my brief observation Friday. I only saw it on a rainy midday, though, so the real test will be when larger numbers use it for a major event, a sunny weekend or even just a busy rush hour commute. I also wonder how many people will continue straight through the green light as they have been doing for years.

The crossing at Denny was smooth and stress-free, which is not something you can say often when crossing that street. We’ll need to wait to see how it works when traffic is heavier, however.

Looking toward the Space Needle from 4th Ave.

The intersection of 4th/Broad/John/Space Needle Drive is by far the most complicated part of the whole project. Heading north, the bike lane curves right and continues on the south side of Broad Street to connect with Thomas Street once that plaza project is complete. However, most people heading to Seattle Center will likely want to navigate toward the Space Needle Loop. “[Bikes] Use Ped Signal” signs are intended to inform people that they should wait until the all-way walk phase, then cross diagonally toward the Space Needle to enter Seattle Center. The basic idea here is sound, giving people a car-free phase to enter Seattle Center. However, SDOT designers are going to need to pay close attention to how people behave in real life. A bicycle signal would have been a big help here. I know what to do because I have covered this project and understand the design, but I will be interested to see if the general public figures it out. The confusing part is that when the light is green for Broad Street, it really feels like people in the bike lane should go because green means go and there is no red bicycle signal to say otherwise. Maybe it will work fine, but I can’t really think of another intersection like this one so I don’t know for sure what to expect.

The Thomas Street plaza is nearing the end of construction but it currently closed completely.

On Broad, the bike lanes should work fine, though I still think two-way bike lanes on the park side would have been preferable. It’s funny that the first person I saw using the lanes as I arrived was a person biking the wrong way in the park-side bike lane. There’s just such a strong natural desire to be on the park side of the street and to make connections into the park, I suspect there will be lots of wrong-way biking here. The good news is that the bike lane is quite wide. Until the Thomas Street plaza opens, the eastbound bike lane on Broad is a little awkward to use, but that’s a short-lived problem.

Looking west on Broad Street at 4th/John/Space Needle Loop.

The westbound lane on Broad is designed assuming people are trying to get to 4th Avenue, and I found that connection to work well. People continuing straight on Broad toward the Sculpture Park and the waterfront bike lanes/Elliott Bay Trail need to merge into the single general traffic lane while crossing the intersection, though if they do this during the green bike signal phase then there should not be any cars to deal with. Seattle really needs to connect the disparate pieces of bike infrastructure on Broad Street, which is not in a good state today despite the impending opening of the new Myrtle Edwards Park and the recent opening of the Alaskan Way bikeway. A full Broad Street project should be a high priority for SDOT so that bike lane connections can be designed into the upcoming Elliott/Western paving project. It probably makes sense to time these two projects together due to all the overlap between them.

Go check it out and let us know in the comments how it worked for you.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson celebrates new Denny Way bus reliability project to improve Route 8
https://kingcountymetro.blog/2026/04/22/seattle-mayor-katie-wilson-celebrates-new-denny-way-bus-reliability-project-to-improve-route-8/
#KingCountyMetro #Projects #DennyWay #Seattle #Route8 #News #SDOT

Vision Zero update shows that Seattle still isn’t addressing the biggest causes of traffic deaths and injuries

Images from an April 2026 SDOT presentation (PDF) to the City Council’s Transportation Committee.

Seattle is not on a path to Vision Zero by 2030. In fact, the city is still heading in the wrong direction.

The good news is that when SDOT implements safety redesigns of dangerous streets, they work. The fatality counts for people biking and driving are relatively flat, which means the bicycle fatality rate is actually down due to increases in ridership. However, the city does not conduct nearly enough safety improvements each year, and they have not made significant safety upgrades to the streets with the highest rates of serious injuries and deaths for people walking and rolling.

The majority of serious injuries and deaths occur on the city’s high-injury network, and many of the worst streets are the same year after year such as Aurora Ave N, Northgate Way, Denny Way, Rainier Ave S, 4th Ave S, Lake City Way, S Jackson Street, S Michigan Street, MLK Way S (which had an unusually light couple years during 2020-24), Olive Way and more. 80% of pedestrian-involved collisions happen on streets with multiple lanes in the same direction, a design we know to be dangerous in ways that America’s trend toward larger cars with impeded driver visibility only make worse. Our Vision Zero efforts are swimming against the stream because U.S. vehicle standards and purchasing trends are pulling the wrong way. This means that the city needs to significantly scale up its output of safety interventions if we have any hope of meeting our 2030 goal.

Last year, the Vision Zero program conducted one safety corridor project on N 130th Street. This year they have three planned: S Henderson Street, Renton Ave S, and Spring Street. These are all good projects, but only Spring Street is red on the high-injury map (though several are orange). We need, like, 5 times this many projects per year. Maybe 10 times. Scaling up will require changes in how they are delivered, including budgets and timelines. But most importantly, it will require clear political guidance and leadership from both Mayor Katie Wilson and the City Council communicating to the public that they should expect to see a lot more new safety improvements than they have seen in the past because we are making a push to save lives.

SDOT also needs to get its full department on board with its traffic safety goals. It is notable that some of the streets in the updated high-injury network map based on 2020-24 data are streets where SDOT made major investments in recent years but chose not to make safety upgrades, such as N/NE 50th Street. Seattle Bike Blog called this out back in 2019 when the city invested to fully repave the street only to paint back the same senselessly dangerous design with multiple lanes in the same direction, a design we know will result in traffic injuries and deaths. We wrote then, “There is no legitimate justification for double-barrel travel lanes on a city street, yet Seattle has no process through which the building of these dangerous lanes are forced to prove their value, viability and alignment with our other city goals. And it’s time for that to change.”

I already knew that N/NE 50th Street is dangerous because it is the reason my eight-year-old child cannot walk to her friend’s house on her own, and it is by far the most stressful and dangerous barrier when we bike to her school together. It has also left people with no safe way to bike from the U District to Tangletown. However, it is distressing to see that since this repaving project was completed, N/NE 50th Street has become a red line on the high injury network map signifying the highest level of danger. This was a post-Vision Zero paving project. How can SDOT say that safety is their number one priority when they recently built a street that is now among its most dangerous? I’m not a traffic injury Nostradamus! My prediction in that 2019 post was not luck. SDOT knows better than I do that painting multiple lanes in the same direction will result in injuries and deaths while dramatically reducing the rate of yielding to people trying to cross the street, so this result was known before they even built it. If our city truly takes Vision Zero seriously, then the N/NE 50th Street project appearing red on the high-injury network map should be a scandal.

SDOT Chief Transportation Safety Officer Venu Nemani told the Transportation Committee last week about how SDOT always goes back after a Vision Zero project to evaluate how it affected both safety and traffic flow. Why doesn’t SDOT conduct evaluations of paving projects that did not include any safety updates? Why hasn’t the high injury rate on NE 50th Street triggered a response from SDOT to intervene and fix the dangerous problem they created? And why is SDOT currently considering repeating the same mistake on Elliott and Western, using the same arguments (PDF) for not building bike lanes past Broad Street or making other safety improvements that they gave during the same phase of their failure on N/NE 50th Street? “It’s not in the bike plan map.” So what? Western is an orange line on that high-injury network map, so the question that matters is: Would it make the street safer for all road users?

Councilmember Rob Saka during the committee meeting suggested a 72-hour response rule for fixing traffic safety issues after a death (or, I’ll add, an injury) just like SDOT has for responding to pothole reports. As Nemani replied, it often takes longer than that for investigations to be completed so that causes can be properly identified, which is fair. But the idea behind a rapid response of some kind is excellent and, frankly, common sense. Identify a problem, announce a fix, accept public feedback, incorporate feedback that is useful, then build it. Use semi-temporary materials like paint, precast curbs and plastic posts that can be installed quickly and adjusted if needed, then bake it all in with permanent curbs the next time the street is repaved or as funding becomes available. SDOT already knows how to do this, the department just is not doing it at the scale we need and typically does not do it on our busier or more complicated high-injury network streets.

As the city is preparing to audit the Vision Zero Program, I urge everyone involved to expand the scope of such an audit beyond the Vision Zero Program itself and instead look at the full department as well as the impact of Washington State’s transportation facilities and policies. The Vision Zero Program gets results when it takes action, but it’s only conducting a handful of significant projects each year. The high-injury network map is full of streets that are either state highways or connect to state highways. Our downtown and our neighborhoods have multi-lane roads and highway access ramps that are killing and injuring people relentlessly and dispassionately.

As someone who has been covering traffic safety issues in Seattle since 2010, the solution has always been obvious. Fix the streets where people keep getting injured and killed. That may at times mean increasing travel times, a trade that is well worth it to save the lives of our friends, family and neighbors. No street should be too large to touch, and all our transportation agencies need to be focused on achieving this goal together.

Below is the video of SDOT’s presentation to the Transportation Committee (presentation PDF):

https://youtu.be/oHD9CNTpQqw&t=2139

#SEAbikes #Seattle

With Seattle on path to miss 2030 goal, CM Saka calls for an audit of the Vision Zero program

From SDOT’s 2023 Vision Zero top-to-bottom review (PDF).

In 2015, Seattle gave itself 15 years to reduce traffic deaths and serious injuries to zero. With four years left, the city is not on track to meet this goal.

With SDOT staff scheduled to present about traffic safety to the City Council’s Transportation Committee Thursday, Chair Rob Saka announced that he will request a performance audit of SDOT’s Vision Zero program.

“This audit will help us take a hard look at what’s working, what’s not, and where we need to sharpen our approach to prevent further tragedies on our roads,” said Councilmember Saka in a press release. Among other things, the audit will focus on “whether resources are being deployed in the highest-risk locations,” according to the press release.

The audit could set up future legislation, Councilmember Saka told Seattle Bike Blog in a phone interview. “Hopefully by this time next year there will be sustantive action to take,” he said. The audit is “in the auditor’s queue” already.

The audit comes three and a half years after previous SDOT Director Greg Spotts initiated a “top-to-bottom review” of the Vision Zero Program. That review (PDF) resulted in a list of 12 key recommendations including points like “Incorporate Vision Zero and Safe Systems approaches into every project and program” and “Be willing to reduce vehicle travel speeds and convenience to improve safety.”

The proposed performance audit would be an outside assessment of the program rather than an internal review.

We already know what many of the core findings of the audit will likely be. People in cars striking people walking is by far the biggest problem sending our Vision Zero trend line in a horribly wrong direction. Most traffic deaths and serious injuries are occurring on streets with multiple lanes traveling in the same direction, and this is especially true for people walking and rolling. Slowing vehicle speeds and reducing the most dangerous types of conflict points results in safer streets. When the Vision Zero team conducts a major safety redesign, it works. But we aren’t doing nearly enough of them.

Hopefully the audit does not slow the department’s Vision Zero work this year. Voters approved an unprecedented amount of money for safety improvements as part of the 2024 Seattle Transportation Levy, and SDOT will need to work hard to deliver it all by the end of 2032.

Below is the text of Councilmember Saka’s press release:

Today, Councilmember Rob Saka (District 1), Chair of the Transportation, Waterfront, and Seattle Center Committee (also known as “STEPS”, called on the City Auditor to conduct a performance audit of Seattle’s Vision Zero program. Adopted in 2015, Vision Zero is the City’s ambitious goal to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2030.

While Seattle has made significant progress in recent years and is trending in the right direction on several key safety metrics, current outcomes fall short of the City’s stated goals. People continue to lose their lives on City streets each year, particularly pedestrians.

“Safety is the highest priority for my office and the STEPS Committee that I oversee. Performance audits exist for a reason; they are one of our strongest tools for accountability,” said Chair Saka. “Vision Zero is about saving lives, and while we are seeing some real progress, the fact remains that too many people are still dying and suffering serious injuries on our streets. This audit will help us take a hard look at what’s working, what’s not, and where we need to sharpen our approach to prevent further tragedies on our roads.”

Managed by the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), Vision Zero is grounded in a federal Safe System Approach that combines roadway design, enforcement, policy, and education strategies to reduce the likelihood and severity of crashes. The audit will evaluate how effectively these strategies are being implemented, whether resources are being deployed in the highest-risk locations, and how outcomes are being measured and tracked over time.

By initiating this comprehensive review now, the City secures a critical multi-year window to implement data-driven adjustments. Chair Saka’s proactive approach ensures Seattle is best positioned to meet its safety milestones and enhance road safety for all residents well before the 2030 deadline.

Results of the audit will be presented at a future meeting of the Transportation, Waterfront, and Seattle Center Committee and are intended to inform policy, budget, and operational decisions for years to come.

The next meeting of the Transportation, Waterfront, and Seattle Center Committee will be this Thursday, April 16 beginning at 9:30 a.m.. SDOT will provide a review of 2025 traffic safety data and an overview of 2026 Vision Zero projects. Immediately following the meeting, Chair Saka will have availability for media interviews.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

SDOT removes the bike map PDF from website ahead of ADA rule change + It’s still on Seattle Bike Blog

This version of the 2025 Seattle Bike Map (PDF) is no longer on the SDOT website.

A reader reached out the other day asking why the PDF version of the official Seattle bike map was no longer on the SDOT website. The kind of ugly interactive web version of the map is there, but not the cleaner (though error-prone) print version.

SDOT says the removal is part of an accessibility overhaul of the city’s website, which is required by April 24 (for governments above 50,000 people) under national ADA rules. “We are in the process of working through our files and remediating them — this means creating a properly tagged PDF document that works for a screen reader,” an SDOT spokesperson wrote. “Some very complex map documents, such as this one, are extremely difficult to make work as a tagged PDF. We have removed this map for now, but if we discover a way to provide this accessibly in the future, we may put it back online.”

I am no expert in ADA rules, but losing access to previously-available resources certainly seems like an unintended consequence of this rule change. On one hand, carving out too many exceptions will lead to governments continuing web practices that are not accessible, so that’s not a good solution. But if the rules require the city to remove documents entirely, that also seems bad. Someone should probably PDR all removed documents so the public at least has them available for reference since the bike map is surely not the only thing that will be removed.

In the meantime, you can find links to various Seattle area bike maps and resources on Seattle Bike Blog’s Bike Maps page. I got in the habit of hosting these documents on our server so that access doesn’t break in case of website changes, so the official city map is available in both JPG and PDF versions (I prefer the JPG version when looking at it on my phone). Of course, these assets do not have accessibility tags beyond my alt text: “The full citywide bike map for 2025.” I have no idea how usable the digital version of the map is for folks using a screen reader, but it apparently complies.

However, if someone is looking for more detailed bike facility data in map form, the Open Streets Map bike facility data is better than SDOT’s official map in my experience. It includes granular info like where bike lanes exist in one direction but not the other and which side of the street they are on (I have a middle school crush on ❤️❤️OSM contributors❤️❤️). CyclOSM does a great job visualizing it. Unlike SDOT’s map, it does not preemptively note bike lanes before they are complete. The official SDOT online map shows protected bike lanes on Eastlake Ave, for example, though anyone who tries to ride them today will be in for a bad time.

OSM bike data also extends across city and county lines, which makes it the most complete one stop shop for regional bike facility data. If you do find an error, then you can fix it yourself by submitting a change to Open Streets Map (the brand new 124th Ave NE bike lanes in Kirkland have even been added already if you zoom in). OSM is an example of old timey online idealism in practice: Everyone pitches in their expertise and experience to build something so grand that no entity could ever create on their own.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

Turn restriction removed at last minute from 1st/Yesler plan creates bike lane conflict

In our original post about the new Yesler Way bike connection, I noted that something seemed off about the revamped 1st and Yesler signal: The walk signal showed a Don’t Walk red hand when the light was green even though all turns were supposed to be banned across the new bike lanes and the crosswalk. So I went back and checked SDOT’s post announcing that new lanes were open, and it included a diagram showing that both right and left turns onto northbound 1st Ave were indeed banned. I also double-checked the 100% design plan (PDF) posted on the project webpage, and it also showed that both turns would be banned:

From the 100% design plan still posted on the project webpage as of press time. Green are markings to remove, red are markings to add. The red arrows in the general traffic lanes on Yesler indicate no turns in either direction to northbound 1st Ave. There also appears to be a barrier to physically prevent right turns across the bikeway.

Yet in every video I watched, people were making right turns across the bike lane when the signal is green, a dangerous situation that is not supposed to be allowed when there is a two-way bike lane. I assumed that either the signage was poor or people driving were just breaking the law. However, that didn’t explain why the walk signal showed a red hand. If no turns were allowed, why wouldn’t the walk signal show Walk?

I asked SDOT about the signal confusion, and they replied that at some point late in the process (after “100% design” it seems) the plan changed to allow right turns.

“Westbound vehicles do not have turning restrictions during green lights (except for combination trucks which cannot turn right onto northbound 1st Ave due to space limitations),” an SDOT spokesperson wrote in an email. “Some of the early project materials from before we decided to create an all-walk signal did indicate additional turn restrictions, but this was changed during the project design phase in response to community feedback.”

SDOT’s design assumes that people biking will stop when there’s a green light and wait until the all-walk phase, thus preventing the conflict with right-turning cars across the bike lane. “The traffic signal is functioning as intended,” the SDOT spokesperson wrote. “Bikes should cross when the walk signal is displayed during the all-walk phase. At that time, the walk signal will display in all directions at once while cars see a red light in every direction.”

There is simply no way anybody is going to stop when there is a green light. There is no bike signal, so the only indication that someone biking is supposed to stop is a sign that says “Bikes Use Ped Signal.” But does that mean that bikes MUST obey only the ped signal or that bikes MAY use the ped signal to cross? A reasonable person could read it either way, and there are other places in the city, such as the stop-controlled intersections along Bell Street in Belltown, where it presumably works as a “may” rather than a “must.”

Don’t just take my word for it, though. I biked through on the green light when I rode there, and so did Bob Svercl and Hanoch Yeung, both bicycling experts who create city cycling videos and lead rides. Hanoch even provides his stream of consciousness narration and says, “Just follow the green light and go, there’s no specific bike signals here.” We all assumed we were supposed to ride through on a green light. If people highly tuned to bicycle infrastructure did not pick up on the city’s intent that we stop and wait through a green light, then I find it highly unlikely that a regular person is going to stop either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDMWMYlPDlU

“We’re still putting the finishing touches on the intersection and keeping a close eye on how people behave so that we can learn and make adjustments if needed,” the SDOT spokesperson wrote. “We appreciate you letting us know that some people have been confused about when bikes should travel. Our crews are planning to install ‘no turn on red’ signs very soon, and we will consider whether any other signage or adjustments might help clarify the rules for travelers.”

I hope SDOT does go out and observe behavior. They will see that people walk and bike on the green light. This is just how people naturally engage with the intersection. They could try to add more signs in an attempt to get people to learn how the engineers want them to use the intersection. Or they could figure out how the design can be adjusted to embrace and protect people’s natural use of the intersection. A safe road design is one where people intuitively interact with the road in a safe manor. An engineer can design a method for everyone to be safe, but if people do not intuitively act the way the engineer would like them to, then it is still a dangerous road design. Vision Zero, Safe Systems, both these concepts are built on the assumption that people will make mistakes, so safe road designs must account for people’s actual behaviors rather than a set of hoped-for behaviors.

SDOT should put the turn restriction shown in the 100% plan back in place due to this clear safety issue. I’m sure whoever convinced them to keep the turns will be upset, but they tried it and as at least three videos immediately demonstrated it didn’t work. So let’s fix it now before someone gets hurt. People’s safety is more important than making it easier to drive cars. If they want to safely allow turns, then they are going to need a lot more infrastructure, including bicycle signals. I cannot see how the “Bikes Use Ped Signal” signs can ever work at this intersection where there is only one green light phase. If there were turn signals, then people might be more likely to figure out that they should wait for the ped signal to avoid those turns. But for a general green dot phase, the most obvious conclusion is that you should go.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

The Yesler Way bike lanes are open, connecting the downtown network to the waterfront and ferries – UPDATED x2

UPDATE 4/2: See our latest post about the confusion around the 1st and Yesler intersection. SDOT removed a turn restriction late in the process (after “100% design”), so they are hoping people on bikes will stop on the green light and wait for the all-walk phase. I don’t see that happening and called on them to reinstate the turn restriction to keep everyone safe.

UPDATE 3/31: The kid and I rode the new bike lanes Monday evening. They already feel as though they have always been there. It’s hard to imagine the city has been forcing people to merge into traffic for these blocks all these years. For the most part, things were obvious and uneventful. It was simple and low-stress to get from the waterfront bikeway to the 2nd Ave bike lane, which is the way it should be.

The updated signal at 1st Ave and Yesler Way may need some signage and timing adjustments. People were still turning across the bike lane even though those turns are no longer allowed. SDOT staff should monitor these turns and make signage changes as needed. Also, because no turns are allowed across the bike lane, it seems like the walk signal for the adjacent crosswalk should show a Walk phase rather than the Don’t Walk hand during a green light. People were treating the green light as a walk signal anyway, since that’s how it has been forever. I didn’t have time to stick around and observe it longer. There is a new all-way walk phase, but I can’t figure out why the north crosswalk shouldn’t also show Walk during the Yesler green phase. This would also clear up confusion for people biking since there is a “Bikes Use Ped Signal” sign. So if the signal is on the Don’t Walk hand, does that mean bikes are supposed to stop even though there is a green light? I think just about everyone on a bike would go on a green light if there’s no bicycle signal to instruct otherwise.

Moments after this photo, the person driving tried to turn right even though no right turns are allowed here. Several people made the same turn in Bob Svercl’s video. SDOT will probably need to do something extra to make sure folks know not to turn here, especially since this will require a lot of people to change their habits. It also doesn’t help that at least as of press time, Google Maps is still instructing people to make this turn. I have questions out to SDOT and will update if I learn more.

Original story:

Photo from SDOT via Bluesky.

Thanks in part to Mayor Katie Wilson spraying some of the construction markings herself, SDOT has completed and opened the short but vital stretch of bike lanes on Yesler Way. People can now bike from the waterfront bikeway to the 2nd and 4th Avenue bike lanes without ever leaving a protected biking space.

Crews began work on the historic underground elements of the project in early March. The crux of the three-block bike lane project was reworking and updating the traffic signal at 1st and Yesler, one of the oldest intersections in the city. Pioneer Square was famously constructed with an old street level about one floor down from the current street level. The result is some very interesting and quirky old “areaways” underneath the street, some of which you can see for yourself on the Underground Tours. But for public works projects, this means the street is really more like a giant bridge, and even something as seemingly simple as changing out the traffic signal can get complicated. Three blocks is not very far, but the project hinged on updating the traffic signals at that one intersection.

The old signals at 1st and Yesler did not even have walk signals. People walking were expected to go with the green light, which was very old school and fell short of all kinds of accessibility laws and best practices. For example, a yellow light does not give people as much warning as a blinking Don’t Walk signal, so people who move more slowly could easily find themselves in the middle of the street when the light changed. Now, not only are there walk signals, but people walking and biking in the area should expect to find a new all-way walk and bike phase. Because it’s a spot where the grid shifts and there is a high-demand plaza on one corner, this should be a pretty good spot for an all-way walk phase.

I have not yet had a chance to try the new bike lanes myself (hopefully I can do that later today). But it’s very exciting to see this long-awaited connection get prioritized under Mayor Wilson’s administration. The bike lanes on Yesler between 2nd and Occidental have ended abruptly for more than 11 years. Now that they finally extend to the waterfront, people will find it difficult to imagine it any other way.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

In response to feedback, SDOT proposes a new Highland Park Way design that preserves lanes while building a complete bike lane

SDOT’s new option 2B does not reduce the vehicle lanes while maintaining the bike lane. An existing median island would be removed.

In response to pushback on SDOT’s first two options for a safety project on Highland Park Way SW, staff have developed a third option that preserves both the bike lane and the existing number of eastbound lanes as the street approaches the W Marginal Way SW intersection.

The new concept, dubbed Option 2B, would remove an existing traffic island wedge to create the extra space needed. SDOT hopes it will be a win-win concept. “In response to feedback about wanting Highland Park Way SW to be both safer for everyone and not increase vehicle queues getting through West Marginal Way SW, our team has developed a new hybrid alternative,” Project Outreach Lead Ziqi Wang wrote in an update email. You can submit feedback on the new option via their online form.

Look at that, a department listening to feedback and creating a new option based on what they heard. To think there were folks accusing them of being “jackboots” over this! I am not familiar with the type of jackboot that listens to community feedback while working to improve walking and biking safety and install better street lights.

Option 1. Safety advocates were offended that SDOT was even considering an option that would spit bike riders out of the protected bike lane and into a busy mixed traffic lane. The traffic island wedge is an existing feature.Option 2 would have continued the bike lane to the intersection but reduced the number of eastbound lanes.

The biggest trade-off in the new Option 2B is the loss of that center island. It was setback from the crosswalk already, so I am not sure how much of a crosswalk safety feature it was. It looks more like it was designed to force left-turning vehicles from northbound W Marginal Way SW to make a wider turn, except that the way it was designed allowed for a rather wide turn anyway. I don’t immediately see any major loss from getting ride of it, though I invite your comments below.

The bigger question is more about why this roadway has so many lanes to begin with. It only carries fewer than 20,000 vehicles per day west of W Marginal Way, which is within the range where a reduction in the number of lanes would reduce serious collisions without significantly impacting congestion. None of the options studied would have reduced the number of lanes on both directions. The new B2 option would still limit the eastbound (downhill) direction to one lane, which is the way it is at the top of the hill. It will not create a new merge point. The second uphill lane could be seen as a slow-moving vehicle climbing lane, as are common on more rural highways. It seems that not moving the island was part of the original design constraints, which meant not moving the center line. A center turn lane also isn’t really useful on this street since there’s nowhere to turn. So the compromise result is to keep all the lanes while also widening the path and building the bike lane.

By widening out to two lanes at the intersection, people will be less likely to get stuck waiting for a second light cycle during the busiest driving times. This was among the biggest complaints during previous outreach.

More details from SDOT’s email:

Hi everyone, 

Thank you to the community members who joined our virtual public meeting on Wednesday, March 4, to discuss early design options for the Highland Park Way SW Connection Project. 

We appreciate the robust discussion and the detailed questions shared during the session. We heard there is support for improved safety and better walking and biking connections, and concerns about how these changes will affect vehicle traffic. We have summarized the key themes from the meeting below: 

What We Heard 

Based on the feedback shared during the meeting and through our project inbox, we have identified several key themes: 

• Traffic Wait Time: Residents are concerned that removing one downhill lane will increase average wait times, especially during peak hours or if there are future issues with the West Seattle Bridge. 

• Safety Priorities: We heard questions regarding the placement of Jersey barriers. Some neighbors suggested that barriers should be used to separate uphill and downhill vehicle traffic in the centerline rather than (or in addition to) protecting people walking and biking on the path and bike lane.  

• Local Access: Residents on side streets, particularly SW Othello St, shared concerns about the difficulty of turning onto Highland Park Way as traffic is consolidated into fewer lanes. 

• Emergency Response: Questions were raised about how emergency vehicles will navigate the hill during periods of heavy congestion. 

• Project Rationale: Community members asked for more data regarding current bike and pedestrian counts and questioned the prioritization of this project over other ones.  

Introducing Option 2B: A Direct Response to Feedback 

In response to feedback about wanting Highland Park Way SW to be both safer for everyone and not increase vehicle queues getting through West Marginal Way SW, our team has developed a new hybrid alternative: Option 2B. 

Design features of Option 2B: 

• Increased Intersection Capacity: At the bottom of the hill, the single downhill lane opens into three vehicular lanes (one left-turn lane and two through-lanes). 

• Downhill Bike Lane A downhill bike lane remains protected by Jersey barriers to the intersection with West Marginal Way SW. 

• Adjusted Channelization: We are removing the center median to accommodate the extra through-lane. Additionally, we are removing one of the westbound left-turn lanes at the W Marginal Way SW intersection to make space for the three eastbound vehicle lanes and the protected bike lane.  

#SEAbikes #Seattle

Seattle chooses first 3 ‘Low-Pollution Neighborhoods’ to pilot | LEVY DOLLARS AT WORK

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://sdotblog.seattle.gov/2026/03/18/first-low-pollution-neighborhoods/

SDOT is shrinking Airport Way bike lane by one foot

From Adam Bartz via Bluesky.

People biking between Georgetown and downtown were surprised yesterday to find construction crews tearing up the concrete barrier protected the bike lane on Airport Way S between S Alaska Street and the bridge. There was little to no notice about the work, though at least there is a sidewalk to help folks get around the closure.

We asked SDOT what was happening after receiving several notes from readers surprised by the work. All of this work is to move the bike lane barrier one foot, reducing the width of the two-way bike lane, to “correct a design error” at a skinny point in the street, according to an SDOT spokesperson. “The center lane needs to be wider so that large trucks and buses have room to turn without hitting the bike lane barrier.”

Rebuilding the barrier will require dry weather, so it is not yet clear when it will be complete though SDOT is hoping to finish next week. The bike lane “will remain at least 8 feet wide,” which is about the minimum width for a two-way bike lane.

The bike lane was created as part of the Georgetown to Downtown Safety Project, which officially opened in September.

The full statement from SDOT:

We are adjusting the bike lane and center turn lane on Airport Way S between S Alaska St and S Edmunds St to make room for buses and trucks. Our plan is to rebuild the concrete curb protecting the bike lane by the end of next week, but this work requires dry weather. We will then return to this area when there is warmer and dryer to put the finishing touches on the striping. 

This work is to correct a design error at a narrow section of the street. The center lane needs to be wider so that large trucks and buses have room to turn without hitting the bike lane barrier. 

The rebuilt bike lanes will remain at least 8 feet wide. Flaggers will be on site during construction to direct people biking and driving. We will tidy up the work zone so people may use the bike lane with caution when we aren’t actively working.

#SEAbikes #Seattle