At the City, we have lots of plans. Almost all of them have somewhat boring names that don’t really tell you what the plan might do.  And, most Seattleites don’t even know they exist.

Which is too bad, since they plan out how we will invest in Seattle. And some of them, like the Transit Master Plan, have the potential to raise our quality of life on a daily basis.  It can make it easier and cheaper to live and work in the city. It can also help us achieve a long-term vision of a city that’s efficient, serves peoples’ needs, and reduces our negative effect on things we might like to have around for a while (air, a stable climate, etc.).

So listen up! And then check out the map to see what could be coming to your neighborhood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This plan could mean several things depending on where you live and work in Seattle. This map shows the long-term vision for high capacity transit corridors. “High capacity transit” options include bus rapid transit (bus with some bells and whistles to make it faster), enhanced bus (bus that is prioritized to make it more efficient and faster), or rail (rapid or frequent streetcar). Your current bus route, should you have one, could be faster, more reliable, hold more riders, and could be in rail form.

Here’s the short story of how we got to this place: 1) extensive background information was collected (see my previous blog post on this), 2) 15 corridors were analyzed using a large variety of factors (economy, efficiency, environment and human health, community, and social equity and environmental justice), and 3) the cream of the crop (five corridors) were analyzed further—these were the corridors with the most need and biggest opportunity for high capacity transit.

Some potential benefits to you:

• Travel time savings—you could save 11 minutes off your trip from North Ballard to Downtown
• Greenhouse gas savings—on one route, 267 metric tons of CO2 would be saved annually
• Increase in ridership—after improvements are made, some routes could receive over 12,000 new riders per day; these high capacity routes will become cemented as a city priority for fast and reliable service
• The ultimate goal is for transit to be a very easy and reliable tool for you to use every day, whether it’s for school, work, entertainment, or errands

Sound good?

The Transit Master Plan is not yet finalized. Any comments can be directed to jennifer.wieland@seattle.gov. You can also visit the website.

 

Posted by: Rebecca Deehr