City Hall
McGinn: Rail to West Seattle Not a Must
In the wake of news, first reported by PubliCola last week, that demand for transit to West Seattle is among
the lowest in the city, Mayor Mike McGinn told PubliCola he would be open to the idea of building high-capacity transit (bus rapid transit or light rail) in corridors other than Ballard to West Seattle, a plan he initially proposed during his 2009 campaign.
However, his campaign promise to put a measure on the ballot funding rail in those corridors stalled thanks to the economy and opposition from the city council, who argued that light rail should be a regional project, not a Seattle-only one.
McGinn said that SDOT's study has concluded "that the neighborhood-to-neighborhood connections in Seattle are relatively weak. There are certain corridors that are standing out and certain corridors that aren't standing out." He also reiterated his support for a $10 million-$15 million ballot measure this year that would look at the top-five ranked corridors and study what kind of expanded transit would make the most sense in those corridors.
Corridors that ranked highly (meaning that they had high current and potential ridership, served social equity, and had zoning that would promote transit-oriented development in the future, among other criteria) included: Northeast 45th St. from Wallingford to the University District; Denny Way from downtown to Queen Anne; Broadway running down to 12th Ave. to Rainier Ave. S.; and Dexter Ave. N. between Queen Anne and Fremont.
Separately, McGinn also expressed support for the idea of turning MLK Way S. and Rainier Ave. S. into one-way streets around the Mount Baker light rail station to make it easier to transfer from the Mount Baker bus terminal to the rail station, which currently requires pedestrians to navigate a complicated series of crosswalks and a steep pedestrian overpass across Rainier.
However, his campaign promise to put a measure on the ballot funding rail in those corridors stalled thanks to the economy and opposition from the city council, who argued that light rail should be a regional project, not a Seattle-only one.
McGinn said that SDOT's study has concluded "that the neighborhood-to-neighborhood connections in Seattle are relatively weak. There are certain corridors that are standing out and certain corridors that aren't standing out." He also reiterated his support for a $10 million-$15 million ballot measure this year that would look at the top-five ranked corridors and study what kind of expanded transit would make the most sense in those corridors.
Corridors that ranked highly (meaning that they had high current and potential ridership, served social equity, and had zoning that would promote transit-oriented development in the future, among other criteria) included: Northeast 45th St. from Wallingford to the University District; Denny Way from downtown to Queen Anne; Broadway running down to 12th Ave. to Rainier Ave. S.; and Dexter Ave. N. between Queen Anne and Fremont.
Separately, McGinn also expressed support for the idea of turning MLK Way S. and Rainier Ave. S. into one-way streets around the Mount Baker light rail station to make it easier to transfer from the Mount Baker bus terminal to the rail station, which currently requires pedestrians to navigate a complicated series of crosswalks and a steep pedestrian overpass across Rainier.
