Last week, CHS reported on Seattle’s $286 million plan for a 1st Ave streetcar route (and lots of budget for infrastructure work along the way) linking the First Hill Streetcar to the South Lake Union Trolley via downtown.
We asked city officials about a much smaller $50,000 to $75,000 investment in the existing streetcar resources that has been held up at City Hall for more than a year and finally heard back — changes to speed up the streetcar on Broadway are coming… but we won’t know the details of the proposal for a few weeks.
CHS is told some changes have been made to earlier plans after local business owners and property owners pushed back. The Seattle Department of Transportation and new director Sam Zimbabwe anticipate making the new project proposal available for feedback within “coming weeks.”
Planners put forth early proposals with the Seattle City Council for the project last year to streamline the streetcar’s route with a planned four-block southbound “Business Access and Transit” lane on Broadway between Pine and Madison that would shave off three minutes of travel time and be part of a package of changes hoped to boost ridership by about 10% — 350 riders — per day.
Some business and property owners in the area opposed elements of the streamlining plans including the elimination of left-turns and the addition of red paint for a transit-only lane.
The original SDOT plan also didn’t include enforcement or the addition of cameras at intersections to make sure drivers are not “blocking the box.” While the state legislature allows municipalities to use cameras to enforce speed limits or traffic at intersections, Washington law does not yet allow the technology to be used for transit lane enforcement.
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fantastic!
Uber/Lift drivers do whatever they want without any consequences so I doubt these changes will keep drivers from turning at these intersections.
In this case though, no left turns get added as a rule to Uber’s and Lyft’s navigation algorithms, and they do follow those.
Exactly!!!
Exactly
Not to mention they will stop in the middle of broadway to let passengers in or out.
Hurray! More pleeeez!
Broadway business owners: I am one of the (many?) people who are more, not less, likely to visit your street and patronize your businesses as the area gets faster to access by transit.
There already is great transit access to broadway via the light rail stop.
True, but if you live in First Hill or Central District, this a great way to get to the Hill.
It won’t matter. Motorists disregard most of the traffic control signs.
bullshit. The overwhelming majority of drivers follow the overwhelming majority of traffic signs and signals. But don’t let that get in the way of your “I hate cars” crusade.
Probably not as often as cyclists disregard same signs and signals – and we can also add the illegal blinking headlights, lane splitting, etc etc.
Remove the PBL, remove a lane of parking, put traffic there, where able. Voila. It has its own lane, and the PBL now actually serves more people, and the FHSC doesn’t suck as much.
What is a PBL?
Protected bike lane.
Any changes will be just like “putting lipstick on a pig.” The basic problem is the little-used bike lane…..eliminate it and that will allow a dedicated lane for the streetcar. Problem solved.
100% agree.