-Good afternoon and thank you everyone for being here.
I'm Angela Brady and the acting director
of the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT).
And this is a really exciting day.
We're here today to mark
an important step to create irresistibly great transit
service on Denny Way one of the busiest
and most challenging corridors in our city
where bus riders experienced delays every single day.
This project responds
directly to Mayor Wilson's first executive order,
focused on improving time performance and transit
reliability along Denny Way for the rally.
I'm incredibly proud of our talented SDOT team
who moved very quickly to turn this mayor,
turn the mayor's direction
into a plan we can deliver on this year.
At the end of the day, this work is about helping
bus riders spend less time stuck in traffic
and moving more people
within the street space that we live in.
I want to also take a minute to thank Seattle voters
for believing in and funding moments like these.
We depend on the Seattle Transportation
levy to redesign
and rebuild our streets
to meet the needs of our growing city.
And we use the Seattle Transit measure to add extra
bus trips to leverage those investment.
And with even more transit service with our partners
at King County Metro. Once changes are in, after
mayor's going to talk to you about more specifics here,
once the changes are in,
people will
have had a chance to use the new operations.
We're committed to monitoring.
Monitoring how Denny Way, the South Lake Union network
and the route
8 is performing and make changes
and design tweaks as necessary.
So thank you again for being here.
We have a lot of really great speakers today,
very excited to be here.
And I'm going to turn this over to Mayor Wilson.
(applause)
-Okay.
Can you hear me? Okay.
If I kind of yell, is that okay for you guys?
Okay.
And good afternoon, everyone. Yes.
So this is probably one of my favorite moments
so far as mayor to be here announcing this
project.
First, I want to really thank
Angela Brady and all the folks at SDOT
who put an incredible amount, a quick work
into figuring out how we can make this project work.
And I want to thank Fix the L8 campaign.
And yes,
and all of the transit advocates
and community members
who have put so much work in over the years
advocating for this to happen.
This is really a personal issue for me.
You know,
before I was mayor, when I was organizing
with the Transit Riders Union. -Yeah. Yeah.
-Back in, I think it was 2018
when we teamed up with other transportation
and climate groups to form the Mass Coalition
and move all Seattle sustainably.
Shout out to MASS people.
And one of our big focuses was pushing
for more dedicated bus
lanes, more transit priority around the city
so that transit riders are not being treated
like second class citizens.
And so, you know, we've made,
I mean, progress, right in the
in the eight years or so since then.
But honestly, it's been a little frustratingly slow.
So I'm just so excited and proud to
be in a position now where I can help to
to move things forward more quickly.
And so this is also personal for me as a transit rider.
You know, I am one of the 20%
and growing proportion of Seattle households
that do not own a car.
I've never owned a car.
And and the Route 8
as someone who lives on Capitol
Hill, it's
one of my favorite buses and one of my buses. Right.
I've taken that bus with my daughter to explore
the tide pools in that direction.
I've taken that bus to Seattle Center to watch,
you know, Shakespeare plays.
You know, I have taken that bus
to take my daughter to daycare
and then, of
course, down to Mount Baker to access so many locations
to the south.
And so, I mean, this is just
like a workhorse route, right?
This is one of our highest ridership routes,
and it has long struggled with reliability.
I was I recently had the opportunity to go
on KEXP and I had to choose a song.
And I chose a song by Tacocat called
“F*** U No. 8”,
which I believe was written in like 2012 or 2014.
So we're talking about like over a decade
since this route has been so frustratingly unreliable
that people write songs about it. So.
And, you know,
I have to say, like being stood up by
your bus is honestly one of the most dispiriting
experiences that you can have.
And I know every transit rider out there here today
and around the city knows exactly what I mean.
There's just nothing that makes you feel like
you're not valuable, like your time is not valuable.
And it's serious, right?
Like you can lose a job
because you're half an hour late
because your bus didn't come.
And, you know, at the very least, it ruins your day.
So, you know, this this moment is
this is like our opportunity
to start fixing this problem.
So, yes.
So and this is really also just now speaking less
from the personal transit rider experience, but from
kind of my my role now as an elected official
and a steward of our public funds. Right.
So we invest a lot in our public transit system.
Public transit is something that Seattle voters
have consistently, overwhelmingly supported.
And people want great public transit.
And so when we're raising these tax dollars
to fund our transit system,
we have to make sure that we are using that money
effectively and efficiently.
And so when we have our buses stuck in traffic,
you know, almost motionless
for 30 minutes or 45 minutes,
that's just not a good use of our transit investment.
So this is really also about that.
It's about the climate crisis, right?
It's about
creating the opportunity for people to get around
in the through the mode of their choice.
And, you know,
if you're if your buses and coming like
and you have an option to drive
like you're probably going to take that option.
So this is this is important for so many reasons.
So I know
you all want to know exactly what we're going to do.
So we are going to be doing this in two phases.
And the first phase is going to start
next month, May, which is like a week away.
And so in phase one, we are going to be
installing a south
southbound bus only left turn lane on Queen Anne
Avenue, north on to Denny Way
and an eastbound business access and transit or bat
lane on Denny Way
between Queen Anne Avenue North and Second Avenue.
That is phase one.
Yes, round of applause.
(cheering and applause)
So at that point, we run into
a little bit of a roadblock
because there's this thing called the World Cup
that's going to be happening in Seattle.
And we have
kind of a moratorium on right of way construction
for that period.
So phase two is going to kick off in August.
So we're going to keep
the red carpet rolling and tackle
the most problematic clog points.
So that means we're going to
install an eastbound bus lane between Fifth
Avenue and Stewart Street,
and we're going to be restricting a few turns.
And fixing this is really important.
Fixing the Yale Street choke point
to keep the whole area moving.
So this is actually going to be a massive improvement
in the way that traffic flows in in this whole area.
And this is also being timed to coincide
with additional investments in transit service.
So coming this summer, we're actually going to have
just more and more frequency on this route as well.
So I am really hopeful that we are going to see
just like a massive increase
in the quality of the transit riding experience
on this route and in this corridor.
(cheering and applause)
and we're not stopping there.
So another part of the executive order
that I issued in January was asking us not to come back
with some other recommendations
of routes and areas where bus
lanes are transit priority.
You could really get things moving.
So ESTA has identified many more, nearly a dozen
opportunities to make our transit system work better.
And we're going to be working with them
over the next few years to get those things done.
So I am I'm very, very excited.
And I think with that, I'm turning it over to
Jason and Nick with the Fix the L8 campaign.
Thank you all for being here.
This is an amazing turnout.
(cheering and applause)
-Hello,
my name is Nick.
I founded and helped co-lead The Fix
the L8 campaign,
and for three years
we've been fighting for faster
and more reliable buses here on Denny Way.
Route 8
is one of the slowest and least
reliable buses in Seattle,
and it's also one of the highest ridership.
It's the only East-West bus
in South Lake Union or Belltown.
It connects to over 15 North-South routes across
Denny Way.
You may remember us from last summer
when we raced the bus
by walking,
jumping, rope, dancing, Cha-Cha, sliding,
hopscotching all faster than this bus,
because at Rush hour, it goes two miles an hour,
two miles an hour, up and down.
Anyway, that is slower than walking.
And there are turtles that go faster.
In 2009, the stranger deemed Route
8 as Seattle's crappiest bus route,
and it has held that title ever since.
Since 2009, South Lake Union has boomed.
Capitol Hill and Belltown are some of the
densest places in the state.
And as Mayor
Wilson alluded to, Tacocat wrote their anthem
for you number eight.
Since that headline, we've had
six mayors,
six mayors that haven't acted on making proud eight
the fast, frequent and reliable connection
it deserves.
We've done more studies and more analysis
and more delay, all as we've seen
climate change get worse, our traffic get worse,
and our transit slowly, slowly gets slower.
That's why I'm so excited today on Earth Day
to be announcing a change to this policy.
For three years,
we've been fighting for better transit,
and since then engineers at the city have been clear
that we need bus lanes
to make our transit system fast, frequent, reliable.
Our planners have been
very clear that we need bus lanes
to live up to our climate goals,
to live up to our livability goals.
And the community has been very clear
that we need bus
lanes to get around fast, frequently and reliably.
At the beginning of this year.
Mayor Wilson saw through that
and cut the red tape,
elevated the solution
and gave direction in the department
that we would build a bustling.
Not because it is hard, but because it is easy
as the other Washington is doing everything
in their power to drive up gas prices and inflation.
In Seattle, we're doing things
a little bit differently now.
People will have an alternative
to driving in South Lake Union today.
The fastest way to get from this spot to
Lynnwood is to get behind your car and drive there.
But after this bus lane goes in, the fastest way in
rush hour is going to be to get on the eight,
go to Capitol Hill Station and take the light rail.
And finally,
people are going to have the freedom
to get around when they want,
how they want to do it and as fast as they want to.
And for all those reasons, I'm so excited
to be standing up here and finally seeing
that this bus lane is going to get installed.
Thank you.
(cheering and applause)
-Hi, everyone.
My name is Jason Li
and I call it Fix the L8 campaign.
Well, I've been advocating for these bus lanes.
I've heard countless times that we can't do this
because Seattle is not like New York,
that our transit network is not good enough
to support a bustling on any way.
The thing is, the city has
done this before and it was a wild success.
Just a couple of miles away, Madison Street used to be
just like Denny, a two-lane arterial with two lanes
in its direction
and is chronically clogged
with both local and I-5 traffic.
And it had a slow and unreliable bus just like Route 8.
But the city decided that enough was enough
and decided to take bold action
to paint bus
lanes up and down that corridor for RapidRide G.
And that has completely transformed the street
and has not only given transit riders
a fast,
frequent and reliable bus,
but it has also convinced drivers
to leave their cars at home
as daily bus ridership has increased by 5000.
Think about that.
Think about what happens
when you replace 5000 cars with a fleet of 13 buses.
Think about how much more space
we have in the city now that we don't need
those parking spots.
Think about how much cleaner our air and water is.
Think about how much safer our streets are.
And despite all the naysayers,
think about how much better traffic is.
And I'm excited thinking
(applause and cheering)
And I'm excited to see the same thing
play out on Denny Way.
I can't wait
to finally be have a bus that is faster than walking.
So to know that I will arrive on time
to finally lose a race against the bus
and to have drivers repeat what happened on
anyway and start flocking to this bus in droves.
But what I'm most excited about isn't this bus lane.
It's about what comes next,
because likely
Mayor Wilson mentioned the executive order
also directed us not to identify
other corridors that could use a bus lane.
And they came back with a list of nearly a dozen.
And after we proved that bus lanes work on a street
as constrained and as congested as the
anyway,
it'll be common sense to add bus lanes on every single
one of those streets.
And it's one point
we do this now than ever before,
as the federal administration
does everything in their power
to keep us moving backward as a country.
So we need to keep moving forward as a city,
and that includes keeping our buses moving.
Thank you.
-Yeah!
(applause and cheering)
-But even with all that I know
there will still be people
who say that Seattle is not New York.
But we don't have to be.
This is Seattle.
This is your city.
And we've shown time and time again
that we are willing to do what it takes
to really invest in our transit network.
In the last five years,
Link light rail has expanded six times.
The only train
running across a floating bridge
in the entire world is not in New York.
It's here.
(applause and cheering)
Seattle is ready for this bus lane and so much more.
Seattle is ready to paint the town red.
Seattle is ready to build the damn trains.
(applause and cheering)
Seattle is ready to finally get the world
class public transit system that it deserves.
And now Seattle finally has a mayor who is ready to.
Thank you.
(applause and cheering)
-Masha Podolsky, King County Metro.
First of all, I would like to thank Mayor Wilson.
Thank you so much
for your ongoing leadership and advocacy
to make transit more reliable and fast.
Irresistibly good transit service.
Should we make a sticker?
Also, I would like to thank Jason and Nick.
Your voices make made.
the change actually,
and really are greatly appreciated.
Route Eight.
Consistently one of Metro's top
ten routes in the system
with nearly 7000 boardings a day.
It's a huge number, maybe almost New York,
but we're not comparing, right?
Bus lanes are proven measure to help buses most move
faster reliably and also with consistent time.
A travel times.
All day and every day.
Metro has seen significant improvements
in bus operations and also ridership increase
constantly everywhere in Seattle and also elsewhere
in King County where bus lanes are installed.
We welcome the addition of Denny Way bus lane
to the list of locations
where we will see reliable and fast bus service
and a and it's all also and it's only
due to the dedicated dedicated the right of way.
We already have seen some good news.
We already have seen some travel time
improvements of 20% in the PM peak period
due to recently temporary closure
of Yale Avenue between Denny and Stewart.
When this closure becomes permanent
and also the bus lanes are installed,
we're definitely waiting to see
even better performance on the Route 8.
(applause and cheering)
More good news.
As Mayor Wilson already mentioned,
we're looking forward to partner
with the city of Seattle to add infill more service
to Route 8
during the morning hours and during the midday period.
We absolutely want to make sure that we are
utilizing these new bus lanes carefully.
Together, when we introduce
improvements to our transit system,
riders always follow.
They are with us and that helps us
to meet our shared climate goals.
This red carpet today, it's
actually the moment for our riders and we're
waiting and
and anticipating to come back and celebrate
with all of you together when this project is done.
Thank you.
(applause and cheering)
-All right.
Good afternoon.
Good afternoon. Awesome.
You know, I'll share that.
I've never
personally been super partial to Red.
The color red, but
it looks damn good on our streets
in key corridors like this, doesn't it?
(applause and cheering)
Red looks good.
Red is beautiful.
As an aside, my personal favorite
color is purple or offshoots thereof.
Lavender.
Wondering if maybe there is an opportunity.
Madam Mayor, SDOT Director to incorporate
purple into our streets or design at some point.
I maybe. If.
Maybe if the manual on uniform traffic control
devices that the feds publish,
maybe there'll be some purple there.
I'm a geek. In any event.
Excited to be with you all today.
I want to start by thanking Mayor Wilson
for your leadership
in helping us get to this point today.
I want to thank SDOT
for designing and soon to be implementing
the vision of our city,
of our city's leadership.
I want to thank my elected official colleague,
Councilmember Rinck for your leadership
and your partnership in helping to get this done.
You and I have had
Councilmember Rinck and I have had multiple
strategy sessions where we've discussed how to best
bring something like this to life, how to how do,
how to obviate the need for folks
to walk alongside the bus and beat the bus.
And it is so great to be here today
to be in a position to actually do that.
I also want to thank
the transit operators, especially our bus drivers
and members of ATU Local 587
who you'll hear from in a moment.
There are sense of work that they do every day
to keep Seattle moving on time.
I'm strongly supportive of this effort.
If we're truly serious
about getting more people to choose transit,
then transit has the work.
It has to be reliable, fast,
frequent and safe.
And it part of that means
it has to be on time.
So I say that
not just as a policymaker.
I say that as a daily transit rider.
One of the worst kept secrets in my district
in West Seattle is my daily transit route.
And I'm proud to be a transit rider
and commute to work, to city hall, to big events
wherever.
And I strongly encourage more people
to take advantage of our transit network.
But that's how
I personally experience our transportation system.
Along tens of thousands of Seattleites every day,
we know that when buses are delayed,
people feel it
in missed connections, longer commutes
and compounded stress.
Again, the problem we're seeking to solve for is
it's a bit out of hand,
bit of a head scratcher that you can literally walk
and dance and hopscotch right next to a bus
along the same route and beat the dang bus.
That's not our city
or our transit system operating at our best.
That's why projects like this matter,
these targeted quick build improvements,
bus lanes, signal prioritization
and clear separation from general traffic.
These kind of things are exactly the kind of tools
we should be using to make transit
faster, more dependable, more reliable for all.
Last year was proud to sponsor
a budget amendment calling on the department
to study the Denny Way corridor and Route 8.
And that's why I'm especially
partnered with Councilmember Rinck on that.
So I'm especially excited to see our new mayor
bring this to life through your executive
order and leadership.
I also want to just note something.
This is important.
Last week in committee, I spoke about the importance
of allowing our departments
like SDOT to lead on design decisions
where they have the technical expertise.
Elect elected officials, so the full extent possible
should set policy direction and vision.
But we should be careful not to micromanage engineering
and operational details that professionals are best
equipped, best positioned to handle.
That said, this right here
in my
mind is one of those very narrow cases
where political leadership
and coordination are essential
to move a complex corridor project forward.
And I'm glad to see that alignment happening here.
Make no mistake, this is an ambitious plan.
It's indeed a plan to address
our transportation network, transit climate
goals, among other cities, priorities.
But it's ambitious.
I don't want to trivialize
or diminish
the impacts that this is going to have to some,
but this is the right thing to do
and it's the right thing to do Now.
So I also want to highlight the importance of starts,
intelligent transportation systems and adaptive
signal control technology
as we make changes like this.
We need to ensure that nearby corridors
are upgraded as well to minimize congestion.
So we're improving traffic flow,
not just for transit riders and operators,
especially for them,
but for all moving through this area.
At the end of the day, this is about keeping
Seattle moving in the right direction.
It's about making sure our transportation system
works for the future efficiently and on time.
And finally, I just want to thank again
the transit advocates
for bringing this to life.
I remember vividly they attended multiple
the council committee meetings
that I chair sent to multiple community letters.
And this is a win.
This is a win for you all.
So I want to I want us to celebrate that.
(applause and cheering)
Yeah.
But make no mistake, everybody, this is not
just a win for a narrow group of community
who helped champion this effort.
Yes, it is.
But this is
the tide.
This win is.
The tide that lifts all boats.
We all benefit and win
when our transit system
runs on time and is fast and reliable.
So congratulations.
Congratulations to you, Madam Mayor.
And let's
let's paint this corridor red.
Let's go get it.
Thank you.
(applause and cheering)
-Good afternoon.
My name is Greg Waddell and president of ATU 587,
representing 4800 transit workers
in King County and the Peninsula.
(applause and cheering)
As president of the union,
we would like to thank the city of Seattle,
its city council, including our bus lane
champions, a council member Saka and Rinck,
SDOT,
and the Relay
o Transit Riders Union. -Yeah!
-And the relentless grassroots juggernaut
known as
Team Fix the L8.
(applause and cheering)
But most of all, we would like to thank Mayor Wilson.
We'd like to thank you for
your years of passionate advocacy
and unwavering support for public transportation,
transit riders and the thousands of transit
workers who move this city.
You've always stood beside and fought with us.
We appreciate that.
Seattle's residents
have always understood that our region cannot reach
its full potential
without safe and reliable public transportation.
Seattle's unwavering support
for and investments in public transit
haven't gone unnoticed
or unappreciated by our union members.
When buses sit in gridlock, a transit operator's day
rapidly becomes even more difficult and stressful
than it usually is,
as they'll lose their breaks and bear the brunt
of passenger frustration from being off schedule.
Creating dedicated transit lanes on congested
corridors like Denny Way is critical
to keeping public transit a viable option.
Our transit operators
can't wait to try them out yet.
(applause and cheering)
These bold actions announced by Mayor Wilson today will
hopefully change Route Eight’s well-deserved moniker
from the Late Eighth to the Great Eight!
(applause and cheering)
I'd like to end here today as a great example
of the power of individuals banding together
to demand solutions for our neighborhoods
compact, complex problems.
We'd like you all this coalition here
to please consider joining our union
in advocating
for the neighborhood around 12th and Jackson.
A concerted public advocacy
for restoring their safe access to public
transit is long overdue and should be a right.
Thank you.
(applause and cheering)
-Hello
transit riders.
(applause and cheering)
I'm going to give it up to the amazing
crowd over here for turning out today.
Thank you for being here and thank you
for your continued advocacy.
Hi, everyone.
My name is Alexis Mercedes Rink.
I am your Seattle City
councilmember representing the Office of Position
eight, or as we call it, the People's Office,
but also your only car free council member
proudly representing the 20% of Seattle households
who do not own a car.
(applause and cheering)
And I could not be more excited to be here today.
I almost can't believe it.
Can we give it up again for the incredible folks
that are a part of this effort today?
Thank you, Mayor Wilson.
Thank you SDOT,
all of our advocates, our union partners.
Busses are the backbone of Seattle's
transportation system.
They connect our neighborhoods.
They get people to work and school.
They reduce traffic congestion, cut emissions,
and are the most affordable way for thousands
of our neighbors to get around town.
Busses are how the waitress working
and getting off a double shift gets home safe.
Busses are how the home
health worker gets to her client on time,
how the kid gets to school
without asking anyone for a ride.
That's who we're talking about.
That's who we're here for today.
Busses aren't just transportation.
They're climate action and community connection.
And when our buses work well,
our entire city works better.
And last October,
me and many of the partners here before you today
joined together to save a bus lane
serving the route to.
(applause and cheering)
And so it's a little surreal and exciting for me
to think about how just a few months ago
we were joining together to just protect a bus lane.
And now here we are a few months later
now announcing an expansion to them.
That is an exciting development.
What a difference
some leadership changes can make in this moment.
And so
when we join together,
we announce the Better Bus Lanes campaign.
And one of the top priorities
and that
initiative was to add bus priority lanes on Denny Way
to make the infamous late bus, the great bus.
And in that announcement, we also announced a action
to bring before council
the budget action, as mentioned
by my colleague, Councilmember Saka,
to direct SDOT to study
this effort of putting bus lanes on Denny Way.
And that budget action
was unanimously approved by council.
And I want to thank my Council colleagues
for similarly seeing the importance
of studying this
and moving forward on making the late
bus the great bus, because for too long
the city has neglected the writers of Route 8,
one of our only East-West bus routes, connecting
some of our most vibrant neighborhoods.
The riders of Route 8 have been patient
too patient,
and this East-West corridor that connects Capitol
Hill, the Central District to Uptown,
it's been stuck in traffic. We can do better.
We must do better.
And today we're taking that
first step together and doing better.
And here's the best part.
Bus lanes are a smart, affordable investment.
They're cheap, proven and effective
for a fraction of the cost
of our other infrastructure projects.
We have the power
to transform how our busiest routes perform.
And our city is growing.
Our population has hit over 800,000 people.
We've actually added 80,000 people in recent years,
80,000 new neighbors, but only 3000 additional cars.
(applause and cheering)
People.
People are choosing to live here
in our city and choosing not to drive.
The least we can do is make that choice work.
This is about more than bus lanes.
This is about the city that we're building
together. A city that works for everyone.
A city that delivers on the basics.
A city that takes climate action seriously.
And a city that puts people first.
So thank you again
to SDOT and the mayor's office for moving swiftly
and showing leadership on this issue.
Thank you to our advocates.
I know Seattle Streets Alliance,
Transit Riders Union,
Transportation Choices Coalition, Fix the L8
for your tireless advocacy on this work.
Thank you to ATU Local 587
Our bus drivers who get us where we need to go.
And thank you to every single person
who rides transit and our bus riders.
Now, let's paint the town red.
Thanks!
(applause and cheering)