We hung out in southeast Seattle last night talking to community members and listening to their thoughts about a number of projects in Rainier Valley:
- extending safety investments south on Rainier Ave
- making buses more frequent and reliable with RapidRide
- planning for a new light rail station at Judkins Park
- making it easier to walk and bike around the Mt. Baker station
- creating safe routes to schools, managing parking
- making residential streets more family-friendly
Community forum on Rainier Ave S.
Yeah, there’s a lot going on. So, instead of having 25 separate meetings, we joined forces. And with the help of our colleagues at the Department of Neighborhoods and community liaisons, drew in people who might not normally come to a city meeting.
Metro staff was also on hand to enroll people in ORCA LIFT. We even had a kid’s activity station focused on teaching the rules of the road, instilling some city planning tidbits in young minds.
One of the near-term projects is the Rainier Ave S Corridor Improvements project. It’s a key corridor in our Vision Zero efforts to end traffic deaths and serious injuries on city streets by 2030.
In August 2015, we redesigned a 1-mile stretch of Rainier through Columbia City and Hillman City. The great news is speeding is down and we’ve seen zero serious or fatal crashes in the past year plus (read all the before/after deets).
We’re now moving into Phase 2 of the project, which looks at Rainier from S Kenny to S Henderson streets. If you couldn’t make it last night, no worries. We’d still love to hear about your experiences on Rainier to help inform our Phase 2 efforts. Take this survey, open through March 26.
Rainier Ave S and S Orcas St.
Whether it’s Rainier Ave, Accessible Mt. Baker, or our Safe Routes to School efforts, we look forward to continuing these conversations! Stay up to date on all these efforts at www.seattle.gov/transportation/southeastseattle.htm.