Tag Archives: pedestrians

Seattle breaks ground on street, bike, and sidewalk project to make Pike and Pine one-way between Pike Place Market and Bellevue Ave — But no time table for changes on Capitol Hill, yet

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Visualizations from Waterfront Seattle show before and after scenes at locations along the Pike and Pine streetscapes. The city doesn’t have designs for the Capitol Hill portions it is ready to release to the public.

(Image: Waterfront Seattle)

Construction has begun on the $17.5 million street, bike, and sidewalk project that will make Pike and Pine one-way between the waterfront and Bellevue Ave — but don’t expect the change to one-way streets on Capitol Hill any time soon.

A spokesperson for the project that was celebrated last week with officials breaking ground and turning over shovels of dirt trucked into Westlake Center to begin construction on the effort tells CHS there is no schedule yet for the work to reach Capitol Hill though the hope is for the whole thing to be wrapped up by fall of 2024.

“We do not currently have an overall phasing schedule for this project or know yet when work will begin in the Capitol Hill area,” the Waterfront project representative said. “We are working with neighbors, residents and businesses in the area to keep them informed on construction work to reduce impacts, and are also sharing information and updates on our weekly construction email.”

(Image: Waterfront Seattle)

You can sign up to receive email updates here.

The City of Seattleā€™s Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects is designing this project in coordination with the Downtown Seattle AssociationĀ and the Seattle Department of Transportation “to improve east-west connections between the waterfront and surrounding neighborhoods.”

Gary Merlino Construction will take on the $17.45M job on the project that will overhaul the streets, improve crosswalks, upgrade bike lanes, and widen sidewalks on Pike and Pine from 1st Ave to Bellevue Ave.

ā€œPike and Pine streets are at the heart of downtown Seattleā€™s urban core. This improvement project will help people easily reach many of Seattleā€™s great destinations ā€“ Pike Place Market, the Convention Center, Paramount Theater, downtown retail, Capitol Hillā€™s restaurants and coffee shops, and so much more,” Greg Spotts, director at the Seattle Department of Transportation, said about the groundbreaking. “Whether walking, biking, or taking transit such as the light rail and the Streetcar, residents and tourists alike will have a safer, more comfortable trip.”

Officials say the work will improve the Pike and Pine streetscape by adding greenery, new seating, and consistent design from end to end. The improvements will include one-way traffic on Pike and Pine streets from 1st Ave to Bellevue Ave, with Pike being one-way eastbound and Pine being one-way westbound. Continue reading →

Family of woman killed by E Madison hit and run driver asks for public’s help in investigation — UPDATE

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Family of the 80-year-old woman struck and killed by a hit and run van driver Sunday on E Madison has posted flyers at the intersection asking for help.

The posters seeking witnesses to the collision ask anyone with information to contact Seattle Police. Earlier Monday, police released an update announcing the woman had died from her injuries but did not have new information about the investigation or any arrests.

The King County Medical Examiner’s office said the woman would be publicly identified later today. UPDATE: Investigators say Bari Barbara Hill, 80, died Sunday night of multiple blunt force injuries. According to public records, she was a resident of Madison Park where she had a 43rd Ave E apartment.

CHS reported here on Sunday’s just before 5 PM incident. Witnesses reported the woman was struck while crossing E Madison at 22nd Ave in the crosswalk either riding or pushing a bike when she was hit. Police say the driver was turning left onto Madison from 22nd Ave in front of the Safeway when the woman was struck. Continue reading →

Yeah, the Capitol Hill rogue crosswalk was cool but have you tried joining the Seattle Street Fixers to help keep city’s places to walk and bike clear?

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Priest, Cipoletti, and Hoster

In need of clipping along E Madison

On Sundayā€™s cold but sunny morning, eight Seattle residents met on an E Madison sidewalk and began unpacking their bikes and buckets full of tools from home or borrowed from the Capitol Hill Tool Library.

The goal of the Seattle Street Fixers, a small but growing crew of volunteers who meet up via a Google Group and Twitter account, is to take on projects to make the city safer for everybody like clearing pedestrian space and bike lanes from overgrowth of plants, roots, leaves, and debris.

Over the weekend, the group made its mark on Capitol Hill but there are projects it could help with across the city where the Seattle Department of Transportation and other departments either can’t keep up or have other priorities.

Conrad Cipoletti, walks, takes transit, and bikes in Seattle. ā€œWhether itā€™s leaves in a bike lane or not being able to walk across the sidewalk, itā€™s nice to be proactive and do something about it,” Cipoletti said. “I enjoy volunteering and seeing an immediate difference.ā€ Continue reading →

The Capitol Hill Superblock is not dead — It just might not happen on Capitol Hill

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A scene from 2015 when SDOT tested closing E Pike to traffic on weekend nights

The Capitol Hill Superblock is not dead. But the long, winding legislative road ahead might end up far from Capitol Hill.

Seattle City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda is the council’s budget chair so she has her hands full right now wrangling changes to the city’s 2023 spending plan. We’ll have more soon on the budget amendments that made the cut.

But as the prime champion of the superblock pedestrianization concept to transform the core of Pike/Pine to make it friendly to people on foot and bicycles, Mosqueda’s attention was pulled away from the 2023 budget debate last week as Capitol Hill business owners had the mayor’s ear and others around the superblock plan backpedaled on the initiative over concerns about street access and parking in the area.

Mosqueda tells CHS the superblock is not dead but its path forward after a community tour she helped lead with new Seattle Department of Transportation director Greg Spotts is a legislative process that could end up far from Pike/Pine. Continue reading →

Officials backpedal on Capitol Hill Superblock plan — UPDATE

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Mayor Bruce Harrell was at the Capitol Hill Farmers Market Sunday as part of a tour of the neighborhood (Image: CHS)

City officials and the Capitol Hill community advocacy group behind the initiative are backing off a report that any plans for a so-called Capitol Hill Superblock pedestrianization plan for Pike/Pine are moving forward.

Mayor Bruce Harrell was dispatched to the neighborhood Sunday for meetings with local businesses to hear from some of the bars, restaurants, and stores that would be impacted by the plans. Harrell’s office said the visit was part of the mayor’s new “One Seattle Community Connections” efforts with stops in more neighborhoods to come.

Erin Fried, deputy director of the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict advocacy group that organized a late October tour with new Seattle Department of Transportation director Greg Spotts to discuss the Superblock concept which would transform the core streets of the Pike/Pine nightlife and retail district around venues like Neumos and stores like Elliott Bay Book Company into a car-free, parking-free walking zone, says a report from development and safe streets advocacy and media outlet The Urbanist detailing plans for the Superblock has set off conversations — but little else, at this point.

Fried said talks about pedestrianization in the Pike/Pine core are ā€œa need being surfaced over and over againā€ but said her organization and backer affordable housing developer Community Roots Housing “need to connect with small businesses” to make the initiative happen. The EcoDistrict ā€œdoesnā€™t use the term superblock,” Fried said. Continue reading →

Garfield Super Block selected in catch-up round of Neighborhood Street Fund grants

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(Image: Garfield Super Block)

Backers of an effort to improve the public space around Garfield High School and the Garfield Community Center are celebrating another funding win for the Central District project.

A Seattle transportation levy oversight committee has chosen the Garfield Super Block program for a $475,000 grant in the latest round of the Neighborhood Street Fund. Unlike past years, this year’s process focused on clearing a backlog of NSF nominations. The project was one of nine selected by the committee on the basis of community support, equity, safety, and cost, and the only one in the bunch located within Kshama Sawant’s District 3.

The funding joins past financial infusions into the effort including $188,000 to help support planning in last year’s city budget. Estimates of the full cost of planning and construction for the Garfield Super Block project range around $6 to $7 million. Continue reading →

Off the Hill: Seattle Council Public Assets and Homelessness Committee hears plan on a new ‘vision’ for challenged 3rd Ave

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The DSA writes: “Third Avenue should be a welcoming retail experience with buildings that foster public life.”

The issues are far from new but there is something not quite right with Seattle’s 3rd Ave. Now the city is considering a plan to address “the pedestrian environment” along the street that has been reconfigured over the years as a transit corridor while concerns about street disorder and crime have grown.

The Seattle City Council’s Public Assets and Homelessness Committee received a briefing Wednesday afternoon on the plan from the business-focused Downtown Seattle Association.

“Very few of us choose to spend any free time on Third Avenue, though,” the DSA’s task force writes about the situation. “The sheer number of vehicles, weaving traffic and bleak pedestrian environment discourage recreational activity.” Continue reading →

Council approves new Seattle Department of Transportation director

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“Fun morning walking by the Streetcar maintenance facility, grabbing a quick breakfast sandwich šŸ„Ŗ and then hopping on the streetcar headed towards Municipal Tower,” Spotts posted Wednesday morning

Greg Spotts’s social media skills are strong. The City Council agrees with Mayor Bruce Harrell that he will also make a good leader for the Seattle Department of Transportation.

Tuesday, the council approved Spotts as the next SDOT director in a unanimous 9-0 vote. Continue reading →

Schedule a streets tour with mayor’s pick to lead SDOT

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A Spotts tour this summer included this stop at a neighborhood’s ghost bike. “Safety will be my number one priority,” Spotts wrote.

While Mayor Bruce Harrell’sĀ pick to lead the theĀ Seattle Department of Transportation works his way through the confirmation process, nomineeĀ Greg Spotts is scheduling listening tours “where Greg can walk, bike, roll, or take transit with folks to build relationships, experience your community, and understand what Seattle’s complex transportation system means to you.”

You can request a tour here.

The nominee is calling on individuals and groups to call out for the tours as he moves forward toward taking on the 1,200-person, $700 million a year department that has struggled against safety goals and ongoing traffic and transit woes. Last year, the city hit its highest number of traffic-related deaths since 2006.

CHS reported here on Spotts and his work as chief sustainability officer in Los Angeles.

Harrell included a change at the top of SDOTĀ as he launched his new administration earlier this year saying the department needed to take a more ā€œbalancedā€ approach that better recognizes ā€œthe role of cars and new electric vehicles.ā€

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Harrell’s nominee to head Seattle Department of Transportation has ’15-minute city’ aspirations

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Greg Spotts

Calling him an innovative and inclusive leader “committed to designing, constructing, and maintaining sustainable transportation infrastructure to meet the evolving needs of communities,” Mayor Bruce Harrell has named Los Angeles transportation official Greg Spotts to lead the Seattle Department of Transportation.

The choice must be confirmed by the Seattle City Council.

Spotts currently serves as the executive officer and chief sustainability officer at the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Services, overseeing 1,500 staff positions, and an annual budget of $230 million, plus a capital program of more than $350 million, according to Harrell’s office.

Harrell says Spotts has led efforts to make Los Angeles “more walkable, bikeable, transit-friendly and sustainable.” Continue reading →