Rinck in a video celebrating the SDOT reversal of its reversal on E Union earlier this month.
The city’s reversal on a plan to remove a red paint bus lane from a few-block stretch of Capitol Hill has become a movement.
Wednesday, Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck was on her home neighborhood turf near the busy triple intersection of 12th, Union, and Madison to announce a “coalition-backed initiative” she says will push for improving — and, apparently, preserving — bus lanes throughout the city.
“For too long our city has missed the moment to ensure frequent and reliable bus service on some of our most used bus corridors. Now is the time to fix these longstanding issues head on,” Rinck said in the announcement. “I’m proud to stand with transportation advocates to find a new way forward for Seattle’s bus riders.”
The citywide council member was joined by representatives from Transportation Choices Coalition, Amalgamated Transit Union 587, Transit Riders Union, Aurora Reimagined Coalition, Fix the L8, and Central Seattle Greenways at a stop for the Metro Route 2 bus as traffic roared nearby the busy Capitol Hill intersection along the RapidRide G corridor.
CHS reported here earlier this month as the Seattle Department of Transportation said crews were in the process of reversing a small stretch of E Union changes made under the RapidRide G project, including removing the red-paint bus lane through the area where poor design had left Metro needing to detour the block. After advocates spoke out against the whipsaw decision, SDOT announced it was reversing the reversal and would be installing a pedestrian signal that would make the stretch of E Union safe for Metro’s Route 2 to return to the block.
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Wednesday’s press conference at 12th and Union
Now Rinck, whose solid performance in the Primary Election has her positioned for another victory this November despite a spirited Capitol Hill challenger, is joining with transportation advocates to push for a “Better Bus Lanes” campaign to take what happened around Route 2 and extend the effort to other important and challenged lines on Denny Way, Aurora, and Rainier Ave:
The Better Bus Lanes Campaign prioritizes three near-term safety and reliability improvements on these streets for riders:
- Two-way bus lanes on Denny Way from Queen Anne Avenue to Stewart St.
- Make the temporary 24/7 bus lanes on Aurora Avenue permanent, expand safe crossings, and move Seattle towards achieving Vision Zero.
- Expand bus reliability progress on Rainier Avenue in anticipation for RapidRide R around Mount Baker Station while promoting safety for all.
More priorities will likely follow.
On Denny, Route 8 is a Seattle transit legend in poor performance. “Can they ever really fix the 8?” CHS asked in June as we reported on the challenges. Metro data shows the route to be one of the most used bus routes in the city. But the route consistently fails to meet Metro’s 80% on-time performance goal. During rush hour last summer, its on-time rate dipped below 40%.
SDOT said it was making spot improvements — paving, sidewalk repair, pedestrian ramps, signage — earlier this year. Advocates are asking for more.
“Piloting bus lanes along Denny Way allows the city to test new ways to ensure Route 8 can be as reliable as possible on one of our few east-west bus routes,” Rinck’s office said in the announcement.
The groups may have their work cut out for them. With so much of SDOT’s current-day investments centered around paint, not concrete, city officials face nearly constant temptation to tinker, tweak, and remove.
Mayor Bruce Harrell is not immune. Tuesday night at the Capitol Hill Community Council/First Hill Improvement Association Mayoral Debate, Harrell revealed his office is looking at removing more elements installed during construction of the $144 million RapidRide G line. During the debate, Harrell said he wants to answer concerns from neighborhood businesses and revisit decisions that changed some lanes and eliminated left-hand turns around the year-old RapidRide line on Madison between the waterfront and Madison Valley across First Hill and Capitol Hill to “help small businesses recover” and clear “some bumps along the way” of the bus rapid transit line.
Preserving these elements designed to help speed G Line service may be the next Better Bus Lanes battle on Capitol Hill.
Rinck says the Better Bus Lanes push will start with “assessing budgetary options, code changes, and partnership with SDOT to ensure buses are serving the riders of Seattle.” Rinck is bringing forward a Statement of Legislative Intent “to work with SDOT through the budget process to achieve these goals.”
The council is currently deliberating the 2026 budget through November.
When are they going to fix what they ruined with their “improvements”? The No. 2 bus now has to spew fumes and make a huge detour because of them.
That should be fixed soon. It was spar between county and city
Kind of odd there is a bus only lane but then the 60 is still driving in the car lane lol
That’s because the 60 doesn’t have the special vehicles with doors on the left side, so it can’t use the center platforms that the G Line serves.
Should the existing busses that serve the 60 route be replaced with the special ones that have doors on the left side? Would that make the 60 route operate better?
The 60 is a pretty long route with only a relatively small section on the G-line, it probably doesn’t make sense to buy new busses.
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I am a 40 resident of Capitol Hill Downtown, with all the murders, drugs, business shuttered and filth; Rinick get a win with some red paint. I want Capitol Hill alive and vibrant again like pre 2020. I am voting for Savage and I hope you are voting for a clean up too! Take back Capitol Hill from all Rinick fake promises and vote Savage!
I totally agree. Savage knows the history of the neighborhood. Rinke has not been here long enough to understand what happened here. She is just another performative progressive like the ones that got us into this crisis with stop-the-sweeps, reimagine policing, harm reduction ideological bullshit.
No thanks to anyone who would align themselves with the GOP
But they say she knows the neighborhood better on a sciatic self poll of themselves based on what they are told and what they add to it. Or subtract from it.
What makes paranoid delusionals in politics like Savage so attractive? We have vilified education and painted all the usual options in fear and dread leaving only the inmates and criminals.
lol…because she knows better? LOLOL! WHO SAYS THAT? She’s not a road or transit expert. Katie Wilson is though! You are voting AGAINST her! Despite the embarrassingly wealth of experience Katie has.
Savage is a MAGA puppet trying to get noticed to increase sales from like minded Nazi types. The dark money etc. She’s in her own lane and so are you. MAGA talking points that make zero sense at all.
But go ahead and pretend to be some pragmatist. Mass deportation and tax cuts and incarcerations is what you want. Nothing to do with transportation.
Totally sensible platform to be elected in Seattle. Right? That your claim?…lol
Or money schemer like Trump selling snake oil and false promises more accurately. Request the National Guard and coop with HLS and ICE. Flood the city with surveillances and gang stalk the opposition.
Wonderful platform to make America crappier than it is. Take everyone’s food stamps away. Make them starve enough to desperately search for any food. That’s nationwide. The bottom 10 states are all red. They need them food stamps the most. But then the south has crops to pick. So jailing and giving slave labor prisoners to the farmers who grow food and get a federal welfare check as they always have from US. WA. state funds their piss poor govt. CA. too! Yet here we are attacking blue cities while Trump sits at full erection watching insurrection reruns.
Yeah…Rachel is clearly a MAGA darling.
There’s a lot of concrete now I’ll give them that. Not sure it’s much improved for the cost to the neighborhood during construction not to mention the money SDOT spent.
But tech workers in Madison Valley can now get downtown faster via transit on the 3 days they are in office!
I’m not a tech worker and I LOVE being able to use the G Line to get to First Hill for medical appointments and to get downtown easily and reliably. And on the rare occassions that I do need to drive on Madison, it’s honestly not that bad, especially during non-rush hour times.
lol a majority of the people I see on the G-line at any give time are the elderly, young parents, and students. I don’t know who needs to tell you that downtown isn’t evil, and the fast G-line creates a much needed and reliable connection to the north-south running buses.
I’ve lived a couple of blocks off Madison for over a decade, and don’t work in tech. I was skeptical of the G, but I use it all the time. I use it to go to work, to go to medical appointments, to visit friends, and to run errands. The frequency, bus priority, and the removal of left turns (that used to create big backups), have made it more reliable and more useful than any other transit I’ve used in Seattle.
The construction was terrible, but I’d say it was totally worth it.
But these people are road engineers and use it all the time. They know best. sarc…
Tiff is an exceptional learner I am discovering.
It’s awesome for bikes and busses. 1000% improvement.
I live right off Madison, and while construction did create a lot of upheaval in the neighborhood, the G line is great and I’m glad we have it. It’s probably the best bus line in the state. It comes so often you don’t need to think about the timetable; you just go to the stop, and by the time you’ve had a moment to wonder when the bus will arrive, there it is!
I don’t just use it for going downtown, either – with its stop near the Symphony station, the G line is the easiest way to get to light rail if you’re headed south.
Awesome. More bus lanes please!
The City has also installed far too many, completely unnecessary “No Right Turn on Red” signs in the recent past. What is the climate footprint of that nannying excess?
SDOT literally has a memo that shows how No Turn on Red policies are shown to significantly reduce vehicle-pedestrian and vehicle-vehicle collisions. Seems like a fair trade off, especially as more and more vehicles are electric or at least equipped with automatic engine turnoff while idling.
I am for the “No right on red” signs at busy intersections where there are frequent pedestrian crossings, or if poor visibility makes a right turn a safety risk. But they have been put up at hundreds of intersections where it is perfectly safe to turn on red. It’s overkill, and it understandably makes drivers mad.
Most of the drivers in my quiet neighborhood simply ignore them.
Thats concerning. The signs might not be particularly necessary, but since they are posted, they cannot be ignored.
The signs should be modified to say “No Right on Red if Pedestrians Present”. That would mean that right turns on red would only be banned if pedestrians are present at the intersection. If they aren’t, the turn would be allowed.
You make me want to tear my hair out… “No Right on Red if Pedestrians Present” is ALREADY the law for EVERY intersection with a light… no sign needed.
Modern cars turn off the engine (or better yet are electric) when stopped at red lights. This whole “we need to be able to turn right on red for emissions” thing was like back in the 1970s or whatever — times have changed. And restricting those turns has been shown to keep people in crosswalks safer. https://sdotblog.seattle.gov/2023/05/04/new-right-turn-on-red-restrictions-increase-safety-at-downtown-intersections-i-vision-zero/
Right on red was done as a safety issue, moving traffic while pedestrians are not allowed to walk across the lane prevents the safety issue of the blind pedestrian stepping off the corner and being hit.
Restrictions on no right on red have a list of conditions that Seattle is ignoring, including sign posting requirements. The exception to signage is when the signage is not posted per legal requirements.
The whole point of NTOR is that drivers often don’t see pedestrians and cyclists at those intersections – that’s because of road design, not inherently because of negligence on the drivers part, but it does kill people – like kind of a lot, this is a policy that slows cars down a tiny bit but saves lives. Change is hard and better road design (daylighting, making pedestrians more obvious, further separating bike lane users from traffic) would probably be a better solution, but not killing people is good.
A liberal use of Tow Trucks would solve a lot of these problems. Let them go wild, pick up all of those RVs which make it hard to see around, the cars that keep the streets from being cleaned, let’s enforce those laws!
How many tow trucks are there in Seattle? Probably not enough, because I am sure there is a 100, more likely 200+ cars which could be removed from Capitol Hill tomorrow. A few days of full of enforcements would work as a jobs bill for tow truck drivers.
Find it, forget about it? Reporting anything involving parking, etc is just useless via the app.
Double the number of parking enforcement people, bring back the meter readers.
Right Turn on Red is a 1970s joke to make driving more convenient during the oil crisis stupidly thinking it would save gas all while endangering pedestrians.
We do not deserve Alexis Rinck. She is amazing.
Fixing bus lanes and adding more homes is the easiest way to keep your job in Seattle as a politician. Not the easiest to deal with all the NIMBYS, but you’re sure to get a great following by the people living in the downtown core.
Personally I don’t want either of the people running.. Why can’t Seattle field some reasonable candidates..
Have to go to Bellevue for that. Blows me away how normal the politicians and candidates are over there, that said I couldn’t live there.
Just don’t screw up the RapidRide G. It’s the best bus line in town, reliable almost like a subway. I use it all the time.
Still needs more signal priority, manages to hit just about every red light despite the bus lanes.
Why didn’t Seattle just adopt the international convention, normally found in large cities, where there is a separate phase in lights to allow pedestrians to move all ways at once?
This separates traffic completely, better enables emergency vehicles by removing hesitancy in getting cars to move out of the ways, enables shorter paths for pedestrians by allowing to move diagonally in intersections.
Make traffic safer by simplifying and separating, instead of just making it more complicated and frustrating.
Why is it that it is so difficult to go from Broadway to Madison. The busses and trolleys on Broadway stop two blocks from Madison, and the G stops two or more blocks from Broadway. I’m a senior with mobility problems. Every extra step means pain.