Over the past year CSG has been busy advocating for safer streets in Central Seattle. 

We created a new work group for 10th Ave north of Capitol Hill Station and our existing workgroups for 12th Ave and FixTheL8 have seen progress in the Seattle Transportation Plan and Transportation Levy.

We’ve also seen big wins like our push to maintain the Harvard Connection Tunnel as part of the Roanoke Lid going over 520. WSDOT originally wanted to remove this low stress bicycle connection from the extended 520 trail to Capitol Hill and CSG pushed them to save it. Read more below.

12th Ave Workgroup Update

CSG and other advocates scored a victory when a 12th Ave protected bike lane, stretching from the José Rizal bridge to Aloha St, was added as a late amendment to the transportation levy. With the levy’s passage, we expect SDOT to begin working on plans for the 12th Ave PBL. Separately, the Vision Zero team has identified several spot improvements along this corridor including daylighting intersections and updated crossings and we expect those will be completed in 2025. We’ll be working with SDOT on both projects and look forward to seeing a safer 12th Ave for those walking and rolling soon.

FixTheL8 Update

Last summer, we sent over 1,000 letters to Seattle City Council (who owns the roads) and King County Council (who runs the buses/Metro) and we now know that SDOT is working on Fixing Route 8!

Short Term (next ~year)

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) met with us and agreed to fund spot improvements for Route 8 including turn restrictions, small bus lanes, and bus shelter improvements. We are told that a full eastbound bus lane along Denny Way is in scope but we’re disappointed that improvements aren’t coming sooner and are pushing for westbound bus lanes and more speed improvements too.

Long Term (next ~8 years)

The 2015 “Levy to Move Seattle” expired at the end of 2024 and voters approved a new 8 year $1.55bn levy to replace it that contains money for Route 8.

As the levy was being crafted, it wasn’t obvious that Route 8 would be prioritized. We worked with District 3 Councilmember Hollingsworth who added an amendment to the Seattle Transportation Plan (the master plan document that guides the levy) to have “multimodal improvements” on Denny Way prioritized. Now, the levy calls out “Denny Way / Olive Way” as a signature transit project that will be funded. Unlike the spot improvements, this contains more money and the scope could be much larger to actually fully Fix Route 8.

In 2025, we’ll do more outreach to city and county councils as well as businesses along Route 8.

New 10th Ave Workgroup

Back when we planned our priorities for 2024, we added improving the corridor between Capitol Hill and U District following 10th Ave for people biking and walking. At the time we were worried that we didn’t have enough bandwidth to add another workgroup but have been very excited about all the wins from it!

In June, we had a bike/walk tour exploring the existing challenges with the corridor. To no one’s surprise, the issues mostly stem from high volumes of fast cars, poor pavement conditions, and topography. Luckily, planning (not construction) money is included in the new transportation levy to improve this corridor. We also discussed the proposed Roanoke Lid over 520 that should begin construction next year with people involved in that project speaking.

We also heard from WSDOT that the Harvard Connection tunnel under 10th Ave would be cut from the Roanoke Lid to save money. After meeting with their team, we mobilized to oppose the decision. Sam wrote an Op-Ed in The Urbanist, Nick created a letter campaign, Ethan hung flyers in the neighborhood and after 600 letters to state and local reps, WSDOT reversed their decision and maintained the bicycle and pedestrian promises.

We celebrated by writing thank you letters to our representatives and civil servants who worked hard to make this happen.

Moving forward, we’ll be keeping a close eye on the Roanoke Lid, especially as it faces a budget shortage, and keep up our advocacy with SDOT to build a better bike connection to it from Capitol Hill.

Pike / Pine Update

CSG has been working for almost a decade to get protected bike lanes along Pike and Pine between Capitol Hill and Downtown, which was funded in 2017 with the Community Package Coalition as part of the Convention Center Expansion.

Since then, we’ve monitored the project and pushed SDOT and WSDOT to maintain a full concrete protected bike lane between 1st and Bellevue Avenues, which has been successful. We’ve also voiced concerns over the years about the unconventional crossing of Pike St at Melrose, which has been built.

In 2024, we monitored the operations of Seattle’s first tabletop intersection completed in 2022 as part of the Melrose Promenade, which CSG has pushed for since our inception. Due to almost constant advocacy by one CSG member on social media dubbed a ‘particularly effective citizen‘, SDOT agreed to improve the design (again!) after viewing high vehicle volumes and speeds and crashes.

The construction of the Pike Pine bike lanes has also not been without issue. We’re monitoring the last segment to be completed, Pine St next to Westlake Park, which has yet to get concrete protection. We’re also concerned about how the Pike / Pine bike lanes interact with the rest of the bike network. Because they’re on the left side of the road to avoid conflicts with buses, turning between the bike lanes on Pike/Pine and the ones on 7th, 8th, 4th, or 2nd is not intuitive. Plus, the poorly signed transition at Melrose leaves many bikers going down the uphill lane on Pike.

How to Get Involved

You can join our email group (which has a link to our discord!) or join a meeting on the second Monday of the month.

Have questions about our work or ways to get involved with specific efforts? Email us at centralseattlegreenways@gmail.com.