DELRIDGE RAPIDRIDE: New SDOT survey is about more than buses

| Delridge | Transportation | West Seattle news

SDOT is circulating what’s titled the “Delridge RapidRide Expansion Survey.” But it’s not just about buses. It asks you to take a look at Delridge, section by section, featuring the graphics you see below, which show how it’s configured now:

The survey asks about your priorities for each of those sections along Delridge Way – including transit, walking, biking, and/or parking. Here’s how the survey is introduced in e-mail from SDOT’s Dawn Schellenberg:

We’re working with our partners at King County Metro to deliver 7 new RapidRide corridors by 2024 to advance the Levy to Move Seattle’s promise of 72% of Seattle residents with 10-minute all-day transit service within a 10-minute walk of their homes.

Delridge Way SW is one of the corridors on which we’d like to make bus service better. We also have an opportunity to make it safer and more comfortable for people walking, biking, driving and delivering goods. Please take a moment to fill out our survey and share your thoughts about how the street could be designed and potential related trade-offs. The survey replicates information shared at an October Delridge Workshop, in case you were unable to make it. Please complete the survey by December 4, 2016.

If you haven’t already received it – find the survey here. (P.S. We covered the “workshop” referenced by SDOT, here.)

flimflam November 10, 2016 (5:00 pm)

I wish they would stop with the “rapid ride” verbiage. its the same routes renamed making the same stops every couple of blocks, etc. – its not ay faster than the bus was before they rebranded it.

Sue November 11, 2016 (2:54 pm)

It actually ends up being less stops than the regular ones – in the 1 mile on the C line between Morgan/Fauntleroy and the Alaska Junction, there used to be 4 stops in between on the 54; on the C there is 1. But I agree that it’s not any faster despite that. It may stop less, but you end up with more people at each stop, and it’s still stuck in the same traffic.

D DelRio November 10, 2016 (5:59 pm)

I agree, I used to ride the former 54 route all the time, then Rapid Ride replaced it with the C Line and funneled it along with my other bus route that I used (21) to the so called transit station at Westwood. Overnight after the change, it took at least 15 minutes longer for my commute. When I am riding home from Downtown, I have to walk a long hike into Arbor Heights since the the 21 or the C Line drops me off at Barton instead of Roxbury. It doesn’t bother me that much, but I feel for the elderly or disabled. If you live near a stop on Rapid Ride, you have it made. For the rest of us, it will end up a much longer commute. Why can’t Metro just keep the 120, and just add buses instead? To me it’s just a waste of our hard earned tax payer money.

Salal November 10, 2016 (8:20 pm)

A continious bike lane on delridge is a no brainer please

New Thinking Needed November 10, 2016 (8:27 pm)

Was using the Metro trip planner today to possibly bus it to south Pioneer Square near the Century Link Field. The rapid ride doesn’t let you off anywhere near the King Street transit hub but drops you off in the middle of downtown at 3rd and Seneca….this isn’t helpful at all! Guess I will look into the 21 route but then from the comment above looks like Metro strikes out again with getting you back to Arbor Heights!

AMD November 11, 2016 (7:40 am)

The mailers and info I’ve seen about Metro’s long-term plan is to have local buses that connect you to express buses (RR or other) or light rail to get you where you’re going. It sounds like their vision is to have more people in general with access to the bus, but in a way that makes fewer able to get from A to B on just one bus. That will continue to be the case when real bus service is restored to Arbor Heights (that looks to be in their plan, but it won’t go all the way downtown. You’ll still have to transfer).

It’s not just one route or the Rapid Ride system, it’s the over-arching vision for the future, so if that’s what you are not in favor of, now’s the time to talk and let them know you’d like them to re-think their whole vision.
- Sunuva November 11, 2016 (9:25 am)
  
  Transferring was what made my commute unbearable by bus when I used to ride from Arbor Heights to Lower Queen Anne. Sometimes I’d hit it right and my commute would be around an hour, other days the timing wouldn’t work or a bus just simply wouldn’t show up and next thing you know I’m taking an hour and 45 minutes to get home or waiting for 30 minutes in the rain for a transfer.
  
  I understand their vision but it simply doesn’t work when the system itself it so unreliable. I don’t commute by bus anymore and now have day care drop-off duties that make the bus a no-go. So, it just isn’t as important to me as it once was, but I imagine lots of other people have the same concerns I once did.

Pete November 11, 2016 (6:29 am)

Everyone should be concerned about this proposal. With each RapidRide line that Metro puts in there is a loss of bus stops and places to sit. The RapidRide busses don’t have as many seats as the articulated (I think that is what they are called) ones do. This is not what the city proposed in the Move Seattle levy for the multi model Delridge route. Be scared. Be very scared of what is in store for Delridge. Now is the time to speak up and let SDOT and other planners what you want to see.

Highland Park November 11, 2016 (9:07 am)

I found this to be a confusing survey because I’m not sure what I’m giving license to. By favoring a spearate bike lane in South Delridge are we being asked if we’d be ok removing two miles of Parking in between Cambridge and SW Kenyon ST (one in each direction)to make way for two directions of bike lane? This would have a huge impact on the neighborhood. I hope there is more discussion including South Delridge residents before this decision is made.

To SDOT -A continuos separate bike lane on Delrdige Way would be a huge improvement but please don’t create more traffic by taking out turn lanes, do invest in parking alternatives along the entire route if parking will be removed and please increase public transit capacity and speed.

Pete, who should we be writing ? I received this survey via Community Engagement Liaison, Project Development- Dawn.Schellenberg@seattle.gov – any other SDOT contact suggestions ?

dcn November 11, 2016 (10:49 am)

I opened the survey, but none of the choices are for more efficient car travel. When I moved here 6 years ago, Delridge was one lane each direction, but opened that up to 2 lanes each way at 2 busy intersections: Andover and Orchard. When they got rid of those extra lanes 3 or 4 years ago, the backups on Delridge during rush hour can be a mile long, especially Southbound in the pm due to congestion at Orchard. I gave up commuting on Delridge in the morning because of the very long backups that would frequently happen due to the Andover intersection, so I don’t know if they mitigated that one with better signal timing.

The 120 bus gets stuck in these same backups, especially the pm southbound one at Orchard. The buses do get bus lanes on either side of Andover (although a lot of cheaters in cars use the bus lane southbound during rush hour). But the backups often start before the bus lanes begin, and so buses are slowed down as well as cars. I’d like to see them put back the 2 lanes each way at those two busy intersections to relieve the congestion they caused when they removed them. But there was no option to preference efficient traffic flow in the survey.

Cars will continue to be the only feasible mode of transportation for many in this city for the foreseeable future. If I could ride the bus or bike, I would already be doing that. I think most people who are driving cars now are in that situation too. There should be at least some consideration given to the flow of cars on our city streets. Frustrated drivers can also become dangerous drivers. I see it every day when people race through red lights because they’ve already sat through several light cycles at inefficient intersections.

Rod Clark November 11, 2016 (2:14 pm)

The bike lanes in this plan disappear along whole sections of Delridge. As someone retired, and not so strong and young any more, I can ride my bike and I want to, but I can’t see fighting the car traffic on this busy and dangerous route. And unfortunately, there’s no alternate parallel route along much of Delridge. 40 years ago I would have been out there mixing it up with the traffic, but as it it now, this proposal is not a safe enough bike route, either for me or for any youngsters going to school either.

Sorry, comment time is over.