Moving Forward with the Center City Connector Streetcar Project

September 9, 2019 by Jeanne Clark

: First Hill Streetcar, Yesler Way. Photo by Jeanne Clark.

Over the past year, Seattle Streetcar ridership has increased by 18 percent and we’ve worked to place the Center City Connector Streetcar Project on a more secure financial footing.

In August, the Seattle City Council appropriated $9 million so that we could move forward with essential design work to advance the Center City Connector project.

With this critical funding, we’re excited to be moving this transit project forward so that millions of people will have the opportunity to use a complete streetcar system providing easy connections between South Lake Union, the waterfront, Pioneer Square, Chinatown-International District, and First Hill.

Here are the key next steps moving forward with the streetcar project:

In April 2017, we entered into a contract with CAF USA to build 10 streetcar vehicles. In March 2018, Mayor Durkan ordered an independent review of the streetcar project budget and we issued a stop-work-order to halt production of these vehicles before they were built, while we worked to ensure the project had strong financial footing.

Now that we have a better understanding of the new project timeline, we’re ready to cancel the old streetcar vehicle contract and move forward.

Resuming work now under the old vehicle contract could have significantly increased project costs due to our new project timeline.

The City has the flexibility to terminate the contract at any time which may save the City considerable money in the long run.

First Hill Streetcar up close. Photo by Jeanne Clark.

Seeking a new vehicle contract is the most fiscally responsible option for Seattle taxpayers and will offer several cost-saving opportunities:

A new bidding process will give companies a chance to propose plans to build vehicles that are closer to the size and weight of our existing streetcars.
A new contract will align with our current streetcar design timeline and eliminate financial risk and uncertainty associated with the old vehicle contract schedule.

Today, we informed CAF USA that we’re terminating the old vehicle contract and are preparing to move forward with seeking a new vehicle contract.

In the coming months, we’ll be updating the design specifications for streetcar vehicles to take into account the existing vehicle market in the United States and some of our system’s specialized needs. Once this work has been done, we’ll move forward by issuing an updated Request for Proposals for streetcar procurement.

We’ll also be moving forward with the essential engineering and facilities design work with the resources approved by City Council last month.

This work will help inform the new vehicle procurement and include a variety of necessary steps that align with the potential vehicle design specifications, such as making sure the streetcar platforms, maintenance facility, and roadway structures are ready for the new streetcars because many of the streetcar vehicles currently being manufactured are longer and heavier than our current streetcars.

Passengers preparing to on-board the South Lake Union Streetcar. Photo by SDOT.

We’re preparing to search for a consultant to help complete this facilities engineering work and will release a request for qualifications for engineering consultants in the coming weeks.

Moving forward with engineering work will reduce risk and ensure we’ll be ready to comprehensively and responsibly deliver the entirety of the Center City Connector.

The additional design work will also be essential to help secure the funds prioritized for this project from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA).

Actions we’ll be taking over the next several months will help establish that we have a solid and dependable plan to finish building the streetcar and set us up for FTA’s approval of these federal funds.

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Right-sizing citation fees

September 4, 2019 by Jeanne Clark

If you’re walking or biking to work, busing to school, driving goods across town, or enjoying a meal at a sidewalk café, you’re using a shared public resource known as the right-of-way.

The right-of-way is the space above, below, and at the surface of places like public streets, sidewalks, alleys, planting strips, and alleys. Occupying nearly 30% of Seattle’s total land area, the right-of-way is used in many ways.

Naturally, careful management of these spaces is essential to keep Seattle moving; however, it’s especially important as we work through the Seattle Squeeze – the period of the next five years where private and public construction projects will put pressure on our transportation system.

Issuing permits for activities that impact how the right-of-way is used is to everyone’s benefit.

We have a team (our Street Use Division) that oversee this process.

When we first adopted citations for violations of Street Use permits in 2002, the impacts on the right-of-way, whether construction-related or not, were considerably different from what they are today.

Since then, we’ve made some minor updates to our citation penalties, but we’ve not done an overall review of them until this year.

In our review, we found that penalties are lower than the cost of obtaining a typical permit to use the right-of-way for construction or utility work. Meaning, there’s little incentive to obtain a permit. Additionally, citation fees are the same in all parts of the city and do not account for the higher and lower impact activities.

Seattle’s South Lake Union street market (Photo by Jeanne Clark)

With this in mind –

We drafted a proposal to update our penalties to achieve a few goals:

Make our citation penalties more equitable.
Create an escalation scale before issuing a stop-work order.
Simplify the penalty sections of the Street Use code.

Now that we’ve completed this work, we’re sending it to the Seattle City Council for their consideration at the Sustainability and Transportation committee meeting on 9/17. Our proposal provides essential updates which we outline below.

A sidewalk cafe is on a public right-of-way.

As part of the legislative package, we’d adjust our citation penalty amounts & create a schedule for violators of Title 15 (Street & Sidewalk Use) of the Seattle Municipal Code.

Penalty amounts are based on the type of right-of-way use and nearby zoning to ensure that the fees encourage people to get the necessary permits and adhere to the requirements, while not disproportionately affecting individuals and small business owners. To keep the proposed fee scale flexible, we’ll ask that the amounts be adjusted annually with the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

A community garden growing in a planting strip (the public right-of-way). Photo by Jeanne Clark

We’re proposing to lower penalties for certain permitted activities (such as vending, sidewalk cafés, block parties, urban forestry, & building maintenance), while increasing penalties for utility permit & code violations.

We’re not asking for any changes to penalties for construction permit and code violations in single-family zones, though we’re requesting an increase in all other zones. With these changes, we hope to help minimize lopsided impacts on small and minority-owned businesses. Here are our proposed changes:

By making these changes, we hope most people will run into fewer un-permitted uses of the right-of-way. Otherwise, only people and businesses working without a permit or outside the terms & conditions of their permit should be affected.

Bicyclists on a bike path and sidewalk (bike paths and sidewalks are public right-of-ways). Photo by Jeanne Clark

We hope to adopt the new fees in early October.

Please send any questions or concerns that you may have to publicspace@seattle.gov.

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Relief is coming for 1st Ave S buses to West Seattle.

August 30, 2019 by Jeanne Clark

We’re nearly 9 months into the #SeattleSqueeze & getting around parts of Seattle continues to be a real challenge.

West Seattle and Pioneer Square have both taken the brunt of construction-related traffic impacts this past year, and so people who rely on buses traveling through both of these neighborhoods via 1st Ave S have felt an especially large burden of long and unreliable commutes.

While there’s no silver bullet to end congestion entirely, there’s some relief coming for these bus riders as we’ve been working closely with King County Metro to reroute these southbound buses to 4th Ave S for the next few months until waterfront construction allows them to shift to a better, permanent route along Alaskan Way in early 2020.

The reroute will take effect on Sept. 9 for southbound bus routes: 21X, 37, 55, 56, 57, 113, 120, 121, 122, 123, 125, & RapidRide C Line.

Map of new route. A new southbound stop will open at 2nd Ave Ext S and S Washington St.

New bus routes through Pioneer Square and SoDo.

Southbound buses will use 2nd Ave to get through Pioneer Square then shift to 4th Ave S to get past the stadiums.

Northbound buses will remain on 1st Ave except for a short-term reroute to 4th Ave from September 12-21 due to Washington State Department of Transportation viaduct demolition which will temporarily close the Dearborn St off-ramps from State Route 99.

See more details and maps on King County Metro’s blog.

We worked closely with Metro to identify a solution to improve transit reliability on 1st Ave S, but ultimately this route posed too many operational challenges.

One option that we considered was creating a transit-only lane on 1st Ave; however, even if we removed parking on 1st Ave, buses couldn’t safely drive in the right lane because there are hollow underground areaways beneath the sidewalk which can’t support the weight of buses. Creating a transit lane in the left lane wouldn’t have solved the problem either because buses would’ve had to continually merge in and out of this transit lane in order to reach bus stops.

Another option which we tried was optimizing 1st Ave traffic signals for transit. On August 12, we reprogrammed traffic signals to aid transit movements, which improved bus reliability and reduced transit delays. However, even with reduced delays, other challenges like large stadium events, construction, and ferry traffic meant 1st Ave is not as effective as using 4th Ave.

We’re working with Metro to make several changes to make this new 4th Ave route as efficient & reliable as possible.

We’ll be modifying the traffic signal at Second Ave and Columbia St to create a bus-only phase that allows buses to make a left-turn from the existing transit lane on Columbia St.

We also recently painted northbound 4th Ave transit lanes red between Royal Brougham Way and Jackson St. This will help improve reliability for these buses during the temporary northbound reroute in September, and for many other buses which take this route into downtown every day.

The 1st Ave route was never a long-term plan for buses, and we’re supportive of Metro’s decision to shift southbound buses to 4th Ave as a more reliable short-term solution until the new two-way Columbia St transit pathway is completed in early 2020.

This pathway will be located where the southbound viaduct entrance used to be and will offer a new and improved connection to Alaskan Way. Once this pathway is open, these buses will be able to travel south along the waterfront on a route which solves many of the problems affecting 1st Ave S and 4th Ave S.

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Dear Summer, it’s been great knowing ya! School is back!

August 27, 2019 by Jeanne Clark

There’s only one more weekend to soak in those school-free-summer-vibes.

Because classes are back in sesh for Seattle Public Schools on Wednesday, Sept. 4!

Oh my gosh, we know!! Kids are cryin’ – parents are cryin’ (with happiness).

When school begins, more people will be traveling the streets and because we care about everyone, we’re asking you to be all the more watchful, careful/caring, thoughtful, and all the other ‘fuls’ and ‘ings’ when it comes to traveling safely.

Your City is on a Vision Zero mission.

While we live in one of the safest cities in the country, we still see more than 10,000 crashes a year resulting in an average of 20 people losing their lives and more than 150 people seriously injured. These are our friends, neighbors, and family members. Our goal is to end traffic deaths and serious injuries on city streets by 2030.

Traffic collisions aren’t accidents – they’re preventable through smarter street design, targeted enforcement, and thoughtful public engagement.

We have a Safe Routes to School program that works to encourage more kids to walk and bike to school and improve safety in areas around schools.

Safe Routes to School is a national movement to make it easier and safer for students to walk and bike to school.

We partnered with Reel Grrls – a non-profit org that teaches the youth to engage critically and creatively with digital media to create positive social change. Reel Grrls invited the City of Seattle youth to participate in a video challenge to educate people about the City’s Safe Routes to School Program and Vision Zero.

This video program is part of the education component of our Safe Routes to School five-year action plan. The goal is to uplift youth voices and improve our messaging around safety, and what better way to do that than to use content created by the youth themselves?

While a lot of you were summer vibin’,…

We’ve been busy working on traffic calming projects (like installing school zone flashing beacons) as well as sidewalk installations to help kids get to school safely. Here are two featured ones:

In South Park, there’re new 20 mph flashing beacons on S Cloverdale St between 7^th Ave S and SR99. This is a key walking and biking route for Concord Elementary School students – connecting the school, the library, the community center, and playfield.

We’re replacing a painted walkway with a permanent concrete walkway on 8^th Ave S between S Southern St and S Sullivan St. By upgrading sidewalks, we’re creating a safe and accessible place for children to travel to and from school, home, sports games, and other activities.

Together, we can make Seattle’s streets safer for everyone. Remember these 3 things when traveling through a school zone.

👆 PAY ATTENTION

Paying attention is absolutely crucial. Whether you’re behind the wheel, on wheels, or on your feet – please, please put the phone away + anything that will take your eyes off the road. Because taking your eyes off the road for even a couple of seconds could be a life or death decision.

✌️ SLOW DOWN

Speed is a critical factor for how likely someone is to survive a crash. A person hit by a car traveling 40 mph has a 90 percent chance of being killed, but if that car is moving 20 mph then they have a 90 percent chance of surviving.

When you’re passing a school that’s in session, the speed limit is always 20 mph. That’s also the speed limit for residential streets in Seattle. Major roads in Seattle are 25 mph.

🤟 LET PEOPLE CROSS

Every intersection is a crosswalk according to the law, whether or not it’s painted. If you see someone waiting to cross the street, then stop so that they can walk across the street safely.

Find your best & safest routes to school with our interactive Safe Routes to School Walking Maps.

Our maps show walking and biking conditions to help you navigate the best and safest route to school. And on that note, take much care, Seattle. Safe travels to you all and welcome back to school!

The plan to make bike share work better for everyone.

August 23, 2019 by Jeanne Clark

Parked bike share on 5th Avenue, Seattle. Photo by Jeanne Clark.

We released our Q2 2019 Bike Share Report today, which shows that people took nearly 900,000 trips on Lime & Jump bikes in the first half of 2019.

We’re excited that so many people are embracing bike share as a healthy and environmentally friendly way to get around. We also need to address the problem of improperly parked bikes which are left blocking sidewalks and creating barriers for people with disabilities.

Improperly parked bike share bikes blocking sidewalk access. Photo by Jeanne Clark.

We want the bike share program to be successful, & to do that we must have a program that makes it easier for all groups of people to travel safely.

To address the problem of bikes creating obstacles for residents with disabilities, we’re building 1,500 more bike parking spaces by the end of the year, improving education about correct bike parking, and holding bike share companies accountable for where their bikes are parked.

Here’s the right way to park a shared bike: read a blog post & watch a video.

We’re over halfway to building 1,500 new bike parking spaces this year.

Newer bike share parking installed on Alki.

At the start of 2019, there were parking spaces for about 10,000 bikes in Seattle and we announced a plan to build 1,500 more spaces by the end of the year. We’re over halfway to this goal and have built parking for over 830 bikes as of August 16.

We’ve built over two-thirds of these bike parking spaces in the street, mostly in areas near crosswalks with “No Parking Within 30 Feet” signs. This takes advantage of space that isn’t currently being used and helps keep the sidewalk clear so everyone can get around. It also enhances safety by preventing cars from parking illegally in a way that blocks other drivers view of oncoming traffic and people crossing the street.

We need everyone to their part to park bikes the right way.

Bike share parking installation locations from January 1 to June 30, 2019.

We’re optimistic that most people want to do the right thing but might not realize the right way to park a shared bike or the harm that they can cause by parking bikes carelessly.

To help get the word out, we teamed up with Disability Rights Washington and with Rooted in Rights to create a video showing how real people are affected when bikes are left blocking the sidewalk.

At our suggestion, Jump and Lime emailed the video to every bike share customer in Seattle. So far, the video has been watched by over 50,000 people.

We’re holding bike share companies accountable.

While we’re confident that getting the word out and building more bike parking will help, we also need bike share companies to do their part as well.

One way that we’re keeping companies accountable is by conducting neighborhood audits to measure how bikes are parked. This Spring, we found that 2% of bikes were parked in a way that violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and that 17% of bikes were parked in ways which could block access for people with disabilities under a stricter and more comprehensive standard we adopted earlier this year. This is based on audits conducted between April through June.

In order to keep bike share companies in compliance with their permit requirements, we recently notified Lime & Jump that we’re reducing the maximum number of permitted bikes to about 4,500 each (about 2000 less than originally allowed).

People who are blind sometimes use the walls of buildings to get around. It’s really important that we keep the sidewalk, from the edge of buildings to the “planting strip” clear.

Neither company had deployed the maximum number of bikes, so they won’t need to remove bikes from city streets but this does limit how much they can expand their fleets until they take steps to reduce the number of improperly parked bikes. Our goal is to keep sidewalks clear and accessible for everyone and to encourage bike share companies to take stronger action to address this problem.

Since we notified Lime & Jump, both companies have committed to taking new steps to improve bike parking.

Lime has launched a team of people who will help educate customers and move problem bikes to keep sidewalks clear. Jump is taking steps to encourage customers to lock their bike to a rack at the end of a ride. We’re excited and optimistic that both companies are trying innovative strategies to address the problem, and will continue to keep a close eye on the results.

If we see positive progress then we’ll consider restoring the maximum fleet size. This will allow us to grow a robust bike share program which makes it easier for people of all abilities to get around Seattle.

Correctly parked bike share.

Thank you to everyone who has been doing your part. We need the bike share program to work for everyone.

Many aspects of the bike share program have been successful and are benefiting a lot of people, and we’re optimistic that we’ll be able to work collaboratively with the bike share companies to address parking challenges. We know that most people in Seattle really want to do the right thing, and are thankful for everyone who is already doing their part by parking bikes considerately so that everyone can have an easier time getting around Seattle.

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We’re studying the feasible rehabilitation & replacement options for the Ballard Bridge.

June 19, 2019 by Jeanne Clark

Ballard Bridge northern bascule pier

We’re launching a planning study to assess the future of the Ballard Bridge.

The study explores feasible rehabilitation & replacement options & provides a comparison of associated costs & critical metrics, including community priorities.

While the study won’t recommend a preferred option, it’ll help us better understand, prioritize, and look for funding opportunities to reduce our maintenance backlog. The study is funded through the Levy to Move Seattle and will also inform our upcoming Ballard-Interbay Regional Transportation Corridor Study pending receipt of state funding.

Ballard Bridge circa 1957 (Seattle Municipal Archive)

We’re just getting started and plan to work closely with agency partners, modal advisory boards, and community members over the next six months.

To develop bridge options that incorporate the broad needs & values of the community & people using the bridge, our 1st step is surveying people on current & desired bridge use.

TAKE THE SURVEY! HERE!

Share your input on the future of the Ballard Bridge.

The survey will be open until Sunday, July 7. This summer, we’ll host a public event sharing what we heard and how the study is being developed. Later in the year, we’ll return to have you compare and comment on the feasible options.

To receive project updates and stay informed about upcoming opportunities for community feedback, sign up for the Ballard Bridge Planning Study news.

We look forward to partnering with you!

Ballard Bridge facing East.

If you have questions, please contact the outreach team at BallardBridge@seattle.gov or 206.775.8894. Thank you for your interest in the Ballard Bridge Planning Study!

DON’T FORGET, TAKE THE SURVEY! 😉

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Building a connected Seattle bike network.

June 13, 2019 by Jeanne Clark

Today, the Bicycle Master Plan (BMP) 2019 to 2024 Implementation Plan was delivered to City Council.

It identifies projects and programs which, combined with existing facilities, will deliver a robust connected citywide bike network. Using a combination of protected bike lanes, trails, neighborhood greenways, and funding for bike parking, encouragement programs, and safety education, biking will be a healthy, affordable travel option for people of all ages and abilities.

“The number of people biking across Seattle is growing. That’s because the city continues to invest to connect Seattle by bike. This plan has a laser-sharp focus on fixing gaps that have long hampered the bike network – like closing the Burke Gilman Missing Link and completing much of the downtown Basic Bike Network,” said Vicky Clarke, Cascade Bicycle Club’s Policy Director.

“Building from the Levy Reset we appreciate the administration’s assurance to the community that the projects contained in this plan will advance. We’re glad to see the city has responded to community feedback to add bike connections to, and within, South East Seattle. Now we must act with urgency to find the funding for those overdue connections so that these neighborhoods can finally have equitable access to safe and affordable transportation options. We look forward to working together to do just that.”

Over the last 18 months, we’ve invested over $21M in bike infrastructure, including planning, design, & construction & installed 13 miles of new facilities & over 800 new bike parking spaces.

Read the BMP

We took a major step last year to create the nation’s largest permanent free-floating bike share program, which supported two million rides in 2018. In the last year, we saw bike ridership increase by 12 percent over 2017, and we were named the “Best Bike City” by Bicycling magazine. This year, we’ll deliver an additional 11 miles of bike safety projects.

Building on this effort, Mayor Jenny Durkan’s 2019 to 2024 Implementation Plan invests $76 million over six years making significant progress toward connecting our bike network, including 50 miles of new bike facilities and 29 miles and planning. The plan will transform how people move around Seattle, by completing the Center City Bike Network, delivering protected bike lanes with RapidRide H (Delridge) and RapidRide Roosevelt/Eastlake, increasing connections to future light rail stations, and completing the Missing Link of the Burke Gilman Trail.

“We are thrilled that this plan includes critical routes like Eastlake Ave, Martin Luther King Jr Way S, Beacon Ave S, the Georgetown to South Park Trail, Thomas St, and the downtown Basic Bike Network. We look forward to working with the mayor and city council to secure any additional funding that is needed to build these and other critical trails, neighborhood greenways, and protected bike lanes” said Gordon Padelford, Executive Director of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.

“We can, and must, be a city where people, of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds have the choice get to where they need to go by bike.”

Center City Bike Network map

In April, we presented a draft Implementation Plan to City Council.

While the plan’s budget hadn’t changed, the plan was developed in line with the comprehensive reassessment of the Levy to Move Seattle SDOT completed under the leadership of Mayor Durkan based on more realistic assumptions than we used in 2015. The Implementation Plan is intended to provide accountability for our continued investment in bicycle infrastructure and programs within existing committed resources while also identifying additional projects to be developed to a “shovel-ready” state. The Bike Master Plan is funded in large part by the Levy so we also worked with the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board and used the 2014 Bike Master Plan prioritization criteria, grant and partnership opportunities to reprioritize projects over the second half of the Levy.

New this year, we launched an online survey and hosted four café-style conversations in the north, central southeast, and southwest Seattle to gather input and confirm the plan meets people’s needs and values. We heard from over 350 people at our public meetings and through the survey and over 550 via emails. People shared the importance of safety, protecting the environment, and transparency in decision-making.

They’d like increased maintenance of facilities and increased wayfinding. They also highlighted expanding engagement to include the voices of all people impacted, communities of color, and people who might be new to biking. Now that the implementation plan is complete, we’ll incorporate these values and continue to engage community members in the planning, design, and construction of projects. We also worked to clean our protected bike lane network during Bike Everywhere Month in May.

One of four café-style conversations with Seattleites

This Implementation Plan reflects the communities desire and our commitment to fight climate change, support a multimodal transportation system that encourages the reduction of single occupancy vehicles, and supports Seattle’s Vision Zero commitment to eliminate fatal and serious traffic collisions by 2030.

This plan includes projects that build crucial connections & were identified by the community as priorities.

The plan also addresses geographic inequities and prioritizes connections that serve communities located in Southeast Seattle.

New projects

Prior to finalizing the Implementation Plan, hundreds of people provided input and called for a southeast Seattle connection to downtown. As a result, we are advancing to construction a project on Martin Luther King, Jr Way S from I-90 to at least Rainier Ave S and to advance planning for a route along Beacon Ave from the Jose Rizal Bridge to S 39^th We’re also prioritizing planning efforts to consider a Georgetown to Downtown route and completing a connection along 12^th Ave from King St to Yesler Way.

Share benefits

The plan now shows when projects connect to transit, schools, community centers, and urban villages occur, as well as to existing bike facilities, or those planned for construction by 2024. We also acknowledge when a project routes through portions of the city that score in the upper regions of quartile of Seattle’s Race and Social Equity Composite Index.

Improve accountability

Expected costs and challenges such as agency coordination and parking impacts are listed, highlighting where additional effort may be required, or a project modified.

Seek new funding

While the plan builds out 50 miles of bicycle infrastructure over the next six years, additional projects are funded only into design or planning. We are recommitting to seeking additional revenue sources and grants to advance key connections to accelerate progress during the timeframe of the implementation plan.

Celebrating $16M to fund Pike-Pine Renaissance and bike improvements with SDOT, WA State Convention Center, Cascade Bicycle Club and Seattle Neighborhoods Greenways

Thank you! Join us for our presentation at City Council on June 18 at 2 PM or watch it online.

Keep a look out for our upcoming blog posts and as well as other communications to stay current with project updates. We truly appreciate your interest and participation in the 2019 – 2024 Implementation Plan.

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A FREE Rainier Valley style & safety event w/Aramis Hamer

May 28, 2019 by Jeanne Clark

Rainier Valley is a multifaceted collection of communities in southeast Seattle anchored together by Rainier Ave S. The community is home to some of Seattle’s most culture-rich and diverse residents and schools.

Rainier Ave S is also home to Seattle’s highest collision corridor.

On average, Rainier Ave S sees 1 crash per day that takes 45 minutes to clear.

With a grant from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, we’re kicking off the Rainier Valley Safe Streets Project to engage communities of color and youth throughout Rainier Valley with a creative campaign to share safety and mobility information and build awareness. In 2014, we launched a collaborative process to improve Rainier Ave S as part of Seattle’s Vision Zero initiative to end traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030. This year and next, we’re making improvements to make Rainier Ave S safer for everyone!

We want to change behavior that contributes to crashes within the community like speeding, distraction, impairment, and failure to yield to pedestrians. And we’re doing so by kicking off the project with a community event!

Join local artist, Aramis Hamer, as she leads activities, community artwork, and interactive art to empower and inform your travel behaviors.

Contact Mitchell Lloyd, Project Manager, for more details.

Mitchell.Lloyd@seattle.gov | 206.256.5378

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Let’s talk about managing Seattle congestion in a fair and equitable way.

May 23, 2019 by Jeanne Clark

Peak time traffic congestion on southbound 5th Ave. Photo by Jeanne Clark.

Seattle is rapidly changing and growing.

Seattle has ranked among the top four major U.S. cities in growth for five consecutive years. Since 2010, over 100,000 people have moved here– and more are on the way. Seattle–area jobs are projected to grow 28 percent by 2035. This rapid growth will present some challenges, particularly when it comes to traffic and congestion.

With the expected continued growth in residents and jobs, commutes will only get longer. Meanwhile, transportation is Seattle’s greatest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions citywide. Several other cities worldwide have effectively used congestion pricing as a tool to shorten commutes and reduce carbon emissions.

The City is in the early stages of gathering feedback, studying options, and using community perspectives to thoughtfully design a potential program that is equitable, transparent, and responsive to the city’s needs.

As a first step, the City started exploring congestion pricing to address traffic congestion, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, & create a more equitable transportation system.

Congestion pricing is one strategy that cities around the world use to improve mobility by charging a fee or toll for single-occupancy vehicles to use specific downtown streets.

This work will prioritize racial and social justice and explore how a pricing program might improve access to opportunity and reduce current inequities. The Seattle Congestion Pricing Study Summary Report includes highlights of our work to date, lessons other cities have learned, an initial analysis of different pricing tools, potential equity impacts, and next steps for future phases of work.

What we know: In every case, congestion pricing has reduced vehicle trips, reduced CO2 emissions, & lowered travel times.

More than a dozen cities around the world have implemented or are seriously considering forms of congestion pricing, including London (U.K), New York City, San Francisco, Stockholm (Sweden), and Vancouver (B.C.).

View of I-5 looking North. Photo by Jeanne Clark.

Cities with congestion pricing programs show clear results. Stockholm, London, and Milan (Italy) all saw a 30 percent reduction in traffic delays and greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by 14 – 20 percent. Stockholm and London also saw positive economic benefits: Businesses in Stockholm and London saw an increase in sales after the change.

Experiences in other cities also show us that they have successfully implemented congestion pricing by building on aggressive transportation demand management programs and that public and business acceptance typically rises dramatically post-implementation.

The success of congestion pricing abroad has led to many North American cities exploring its potential here. While many are studying various different forms of congestion pricing, work in New York City, Vancouver, B.C., and Washington State is described in the Summary Report.

We’re committed to racial & social justice.

The average Seattle household spends 15 percent of its budget on transportation. That percentage can skyrocket up to 30 percent for low-income households. Lower wage earners spend a disproportionately higher amount of time commuting and a higher percentage of their income on transportation costs.

Meanwhile, approximately 66 percent of greenhouse gas emissions citywide come from road transportation in Seattle, with the worst air quality areas existing in historically underserved communities. Households with annual incomes less than $15,000 experience asthma at nearly two times the rate of households making more than $50,000.

Our neighbors facing the greatest barriers are also bearing the greatest burden of environmental damage. We will need to take decisive action to protect our communities and meet our citywide climate goals.

Helping our working families and the communities historically underserved by our transit system will be critical as Seattle studies how to mitigate growing congestion. As we continue to explore congestion pricing in Seattle, our intent is to advance equitable outcomes through community engagement that will guide the development of a fair pricing program.

The Summary Report includes a comprehensive review of 11 pricing tools that have been used in other cities, including description & examples of each.

To identify the most promising tools for further study, we screened the 11 tools based on four preliminary areas of focus (equity, climate and health, traffic congestion, and implementation) that align with our citywide goals.

Based on our initial screening, we believe four tools have a greater potential to meaningfully influence the focus areas mentioned above and achieve our desired outcomes: cordon pricing, area pricing, fleet pricing, and a road usage charge. Details about all four tools are provided in the report.

All 11 tools screened are valuable and could be used (or used more extensively, in the case of parking pricing) by the City of Seattle to meet our goals. As we work closely with the community and stakeholders in the next phase of this study to refine our goals and desired outcomes, we may re-evaluate the larger set of tools or prioritize others for additional study.

This study provides a starting point for discussions about what a pricing program might look like for Seattle.

Read the Study.

This report is the beginning of a series of conversations and research around congestion pricing. As the City focuses on equity, more work will need to be done to prevent disproportionate impacts on historically underserved communities. In the next phase of the study, we will build a pricing model that allows us to take this high-level analysis and estimate the magnitude of impacts and benefits on specific areas and communities.

Congestion pricing has the potential to provide benefits and address the negative impacts of growth. The City of Seattle will move forward with extensive community engagement with residents and stakeholders to find solutions that address congestion, mobility, climate protection, and the health of our City.

Please stay engaged for upcoming opportunities to weigh in on this study and the future of congestion pricing in Seattle.

Read the draft Seattle Congestion Pricing Study Phase 1 summary report.

Resources:

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Magnolia Bridge Study Results

May 22, 2019 by Jeanne Clark

Magnolia Bridge

The Magnolia Bridge was built in 1930 & has stood watching over Elliott Bay for nearly 90 years.

The Magnolia Bridge has seen a lot over the years. No, we’re not talking about the stunning view you enjoy while driving along the bridge (arguably one of the best viewpoints of downtown in Seattle); we’re talking about the bridge itself.

Ninety years is a long time and the bridge is showing its age. While the bridge is still safe to drive on, it’s not going to last forever. So in 2017, we launched a planning study to look into possible alternative scenarios for when the bridge needs to be replaced.

Image courtesy of Seattle Municipal Archives, Image 4582

We’ve been working on a planning study of 4 alternative transportation scenarios for when the bridge needs to be replaced.

: Alternative 1: New Armory Way Bridge & Western Perimeter Road

: Alternative 2: Dravus St Improvements & Western Perimeter Road

: Alternative 3: New Garfield Bridge & Dravus St Improvements

: Alternative 4: Replace Magnolia Bridge

We weighed alternatives based on factors such as:

environmental impact,
ease of mobility and access,
cost,
construction duration and impact, and
how well each alternative would meet the needs of the community.

We also created an emergency transportation plan for unexpected closures. Read more about the results of this Magnolia Bridge Planning Study.

The Magnolia Bridge Planning Study was the first of ten studies funded by the Levy to Move Seattle to help us assess and manage roadway structure maintenance needs and maximize future investments. The studies are a part of our effort to better understand the size of Seattle’s maintenance backlog, which requires long-term attention.

With cost estimates spanning from $190M to $420M, bridge replacement and alternative options considered in this study far exceed available Seattle Department of Transportation funds without significant outside investment from our State or Federal partners.

Snapshot of community input.

We’ve briefed community organizations, worked with a stakeholder group, hosted drop-in sessions and launched an online survey to inform neighbors of the planning study, to understand their mobility and access needs and to gather input on alternative options to consider along with replacing the existing bridge. Throughout the process, we received a lot of valuable input.

We’ll continue to work with the community and elected officials to be creative in examining funding opportunities for the Magnolia Bridge and will also be launching a study of the Ballard-Interbay Regional Transportation System pending state-funding.

We’re also hosting a community engagement meeting to share the planning study results and answer questions on Thursday, June 6, at Catharine Blaine K-8 school in the cafeteria, from 6 to 7:30 PM.

Safety is a top priority. Our City & regional partners continue to examine potential mobility solutions for Magnolia.

And as we do so, we remain committed to maintaining the safety of Magnolia Bridge by conducting regular maintenance and frequent inspections in coordination with the Port of Seattle. We perform 24/hour monitoring to ensure the safe use of the Magnolia Bridge. Ongoing maintenance work includes repairing damaged concrete, as well as performing spot repairs.

Part of our planning study included an emergency bridge closure transportation plan in the event of a major earthquake or other events that make one or more of the bridges unusable. The intention is to consider the safety and resilience of mobility into and out of Magnolia in the event of a catastrophic earthquake. The short-term focus in the event of an unexpected closure would be on W Dravus St and W Emerson Pl, two bridges that have received extensive repairs in the past few years.

Read more about the study by visiting the Magnolia Bridge Planning Study webpage.

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SDOT Blog Department of Transportation