Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about Seattle

Transit vs. Highways: Which Came Out on Top in Local Elections?

By Angie Schmitt | Nov 4, 2015 | No Comments

There were several local ballot measures with big implications for streets and transportation yesterday, and results were all over the map. Here’s how three of the most notable votes turned out. Seattle’s property tax increase to fund walking, biking, and transit Voters have spoken and they decided to enact Move Seattle, the $900 million property tax levy for transportation. […]

Can Seattle Stop Its Highway Tunnel Boondoggle Before It’s Too Late?

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 5, 2015 | No Comments

It’s been one year since the world’s largest tunnel boring machine, “Bertha,” got stuck 120 feet beneath Seattle. Before it broke down, the colossal machine had excavated just 1,000 feet of the two-mile tube that’s supposed to house a new, $3.1 billion underground highway to replace an aging elevated road called the Alaskan Way Viaduct. […]

Talking Headways Podcast: Here I Am, Stuck in Seattle With You

By Tanya Snyder | Dec 19, 2014 | No Comments

Stuck in Seattle or Stuck in Sherman Oaks. There are so many places to get stuck these days and so many clowns and jokers making it worse. First, poor Bertha, stuck 100 feet under Seattle. All the tunnel boring machine wanted to do was drill a 1.7-mile tunnel for a highway that won’t even access […]

Seattle Advocates Convince City to Make Major Avenue Safe for Biking

By Angie Schmitt | Nov 25, 2014 | No Comments

A crucial Seattle street is getting the protected bike lane treatment thanks to the hard work of local advocates. Roosevelt Way is a direct and convenient bike route to get downtown, writes Scott Bonjukian at Network blog The Urbanist, but it also has a high rate of cyclist injuries. At first, a proposed redesign did not include a […]

Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct: King of the Highway Boondoggles

By Phineas Baxandall and Jeff Inglis | Sep 26, 2014 | No Comments

A recent report by U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group, “Highway Boondoggles: Wasted Money and America’s Transportation Future,” examines 11 of the most wasteful, least justifiable road projects underway in America right now. Here’s the latest installment in our series profiling the various bad decisions that funnel so much money to infrastructure that does no […]

Over Time, Will More Streetcars Get Their Own Lanes?

By Angie Schmitt | Sep 24, 2014 | No Comments

Atlanta’s 2.7-mile streetcar system is expected to start doing test runs in November. Image: Atlanta Streetcar CityLab ran an article yesterday describing how Seattle’s new streetcar addition breaks the mold of its peers in one key way: It runs on dedicated lanes, rather than in mixed traffic. The new wave of streetcars are often criticized […]

Ex-CDOT Deputy Commissioner Scott Kubly Named Head of Seattle DOT

By John Greenfield | Jul 2, 2014 | 4 Comments

Chicago’s loss is Seattle’s gain. This afternoon, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray named former Chicago Department of Transportation deputy commissioner Scott Kubly the new director of the Seattle DOT. The appointment will require City Council confirmation. Kubly served as a lieutenant to forward-thinking ex-CDOT chief Gabe Klein, and also worked under Klein when Klein was head […]

Talking Headways Podcast: One More Freeway Without a Future

By Tanya Snyder | Feb 26, 2014 | No Comments

So, Bertha is stuck digging an enormous highway tunnel underneath Seattle. Jeff Wood and I ask the essential question: Does Seattle really need to spend $2.8 billion on a new traffic sewer, when traffic on the Alaskan Way Viaduct has been plummeting? We also highlight this week’s public conversation about CNU’s big report calling out […]

Traffic Plummets on the Highway Seattle Is Spending a Fortune to Replace

By Angie Schmitt | Feb 21, 2014 | No Comments

For months now, the largest tunnel boring machine in the United States has been broken down under the city of Seattle. Meanwhile, traffic on the highway that the tunnel is supposed to replace has plummeted, raising more questions about whether the project is worth the enormous expense. The state of Washington intends to spend $3.1 […]

Talking Headways Podcast: Bikes of Ill Repute

By Tanya Snyder | Jan 28, 2014 | No Comments

eff Wood and I are back with episode 8 of the Talking Headways podcast. We talk about Los Angeles Metro’s decision not to extend light rail all the way to LAX (and what they’re doing instead), plus some analysis of what rail can really do in a city as spread-out as LA. Then we head […]

The Beginning of the End for Level of Service?

By Angie Schmitt | Oct 4, 2013 | No Comments

There are three little words that will make any livable streets advocate groan: Level of Service. Level of Service, simply put, is a measure of vehicle congestion at intersections. Projects are graded from “A” to “F” based on how much delay drivers experience. That’s all it measures: the free motion of motor vehicles. And that’s […]

Seattle “Bikelash” Largely Invented, Poll Finds

By Angie Schmitt | Jan 24, 2013 | No Comments

Like a lot of cities, Seattle has seen a much-hyped “bikelash” against efforts to make the city safer for cycling. But it turns out that this bikelash might be just that: hype. A recent telephone poll of 400 Seattle voters [PDF], conducted via landlines and cellphones, found strong support for cycling — despite what a local […]

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