Comments on: 23rd Ave is a Festering Gash Through the Central District: Put That Road on a Diet !

by: COMTE

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 23:09:54 +0000

I’m not sure converting 23rd to two-lanes/turn lane/bike lanes makes a lot of sense, particularly since 19th already has bike sharrows.

On the other hand, reducing the transit lanes and adding a center turn lane does make some sense, since there seems to be an on-going issue with cars needing to make left turns primarily from the north-bound lanes, which can cause some significant backups along 23rd, north of Madison.

IF the bike lanes could be incorporated into that kind of a structural modification, I could see some benefit, although I have to say, as a daily commuter along 23rd, I seldom see more than a handful of bikes along that corridor between E Union and Boyer, so I’m not sure if this would be more a matter of “if you build it, they will come”, because there doesn’t appear to be, from my observations at least, a pressing need for this currently.

by: Bike Lanes on 23rd Ave: Patience Grasshopper | hugeasscity

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:15:27 +0000

[…] As previously reported, the City of Seattle’s new Bike Master Plan shows bike lanes on 23rd Ave south of Madison St. Since 23rd Ave is so narrow, the only way this could happen is if the road loses two motor vehicle travel lanes. But because 23rd Ave is such an important north-south arterial, I have always thought it highly unlikely that the City would follow through on the plan and sacrifice car capacity for bike lanes. There has already been one case in which the plan was watered down, on Stone Way in Fremont. […]

by: So Un-Seattle | hugeasscity

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 20:56:31 +0000

[…] Pb Elemental is also adept at doing more with less, as the Trophy Building project demonstrates. They have a knack for finding overlooked parcels and turning oddities into opportunities, as in this project on a steeply sloping site just off the south edge of I-90. And they are taking risks with innovative projects in challenging areas, such as this live-work development or these townhouses, both on 23rd Ave in the Central District, an area has had ongoing troubles with street crime and gang activity. […]

by: davebordoley

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:04:56 +0000

Whats the benefit of making the 48 BRT? I could see the benefit of an express route with limited stops to make travel to/from the U-District faster, but in my experience on the 48 the problem is not central district to the U-District, but the U-District to/from greenwood which is painfully slow.

Personally I would much rather see bike lanes.

by: dan bertolet

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:48:32 +0000

Adam, SDOT’s maps show 20,900 per day on 23rd north of Madison, and 15,100 south of Madison. Broadway (and 10th E) has 15,500 and MLK has 14,700.

Agreed about bike blvds being more pleasant. But if you want to go fast an arterial with a bike lane is better. And many people ride bikes to get places rather than just for recreation.

I’ll take BRT on 23rd if it means the outer lanes are only used by buses. That would at least give some relief to peds on the sidewalk most of the time.

by: zilfondel

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 03:57:51 +0000

This looks exactly like 39th avenue in Portland - 35 mph speed limits, 4 lanes of traffic, measly little sidewalks with no buffer between them and the road.

by: davebordoley

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:41:28 +0000

I believe at some point I was tasked with writing this article, but luckily enough Dan beat me to the punch, and is obviously more eloquent than I ever could be.

Mr. Nickels tear down this wall…

by: Ben

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:12:09 +0000

I would love to subscribe to your blog, but both the RSS feed and ATOM feed have errors according to IE7.

Have you heard about this problem before?

by: Adam

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 07:57:20 +0000

Hmm. Really? Are the volumes really low enough that they could reducing it to two lanes plus a turn lane and two bike lanes? Just from observation I would think that volumes north of Madison are lower than volumes south of Madison.

I think that sometime it makes more sense to separate bikes from major arterials by make “bike boulevards” a street over. I know that portland has done this with success. Even if you give bikers a dedicated lane it is much more pleasant to ride on a neighborhood street rather than a major road.

A pet project of mine is that the 48 should be upgraded to BRT, and as much exclusive ROW should be set aside for that. I know that there are no plans for that to ever happen but I think that in Seattle we have very few arterials that allow transit to move quickly throughout the city so we just need to be careful what we do with them.