HPAC skipping October meeting, focusing on Highland Park Way hill project next time

| Delridge | Highland Park | Neighborhoods | West Seattle news

The fourth Wednesday of the month – tomorrow – usually would be HPAC meeting night, but the community coalition for Highland Park, Riverview, and South Delridge is skipping this month:

We hope everyone has been making the most of this beautiful autumn season. HPAC’s October gathering won’t be taking place as originally scheduled. However, we’re hoping to reconvene in November or December for a special session where we’ll dive into the revised design for the Highland Park Way SW hill project with SDOT.

SDOT announced last March that it was proceeding with the project to replace a downhill driving lane with biking/walking/rolling infrastructure

WS Resident October 21, 2025 (3:07 pm)

This is the stupidest idea in a long list of SDOT’s stupid ideas. Regardless of how many people say they don’t want it, SDOT will go ahead and do it anyway. That route is a major traffic arterial. Choking it down to meet some BS “traffic calming” agenda is a huge mistake. Not like that ever stopped them.

K October 21, 2025 (4:08 pm)

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What about those of us that do want it?
- k October 21, 2025 (7:47 pm)
  
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  I’m excited for the changes, too.
- Kyle October 21, 2025 (8:15 pm)
  
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  Based on their own biased survey, you would still be in the minority.
- Kyle October 21, 2025 (9:04 pm)
  
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  From SDOT’s own 2,000+ person survey last year. The highest support for any of the 3 options was only 36%.

Commuter October 21, 2025 (3:58 pm)

Can we get Jesse on this?

Kb3000 October 21, 2025 (5:43 pm)

Highland Way is already packed at peak hours. Removing a lane is going to be a disaster. And all for a bike lane maybe 5-10 people per day will use. Pathetic SAD. HP residents made it clear to SDOT we don’t want this and have shown them how unnecessary it is. They came back to us and said, “we heard you and we are moving forward anyway.” Screw SDOT.

Jay October 21, 2025 (6:57 pm)

The rage and entitlement of car commuters is interesting. There’s no safe bike path down hill in this area and it would get hundreds of riders a day. Plus it’s a hot spot for accidents, there’s always a wrecked car there because drivers do 50mph on the curve in the rain and play bumper cars with each other.

Kyle October 21, 2025 (8:21 pm)

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There is ample room on the shoulder median to build a wider, smoother, gold palace bike path. SDOT already confirmed that. This is a short sighted project to reduce road capacity for cars and trucks on one of the main arterials out of West Seattle. This doesn’t add any more busses and at the same time they are upzoning the entire neighborhood. Just leave the two lanes alone.
- Foop October 21, 2025 (8:51 pm)
  
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  Sadly they are barely upzoning highland park / Westwood in any meaningful way. I for one can’t wait for these improvements. I prefer to avoid driving around the peninsula or downtown and I choose to bike or ebike rather than drive and park. This connection will open up south park and Georgetown to me in a more meaningful way.The sidewalk is not a safe amount of space, especially downhill, it’s lumpy and if there’s someone walking it’s a huge risk of conflict. Uphill is a pain as well with how narrow and uneven it is.As an experienced cyclist I can ride down the hill in the lane but as of late cars still speed past me dangerously even as I ride 40 mph down the hill, the dips from the manholes have gotten deeper and more treacherous. The alternative safer route is a 5+ mile detour to ride up to the low bridge and back down the marginal bike way. This would be a huge benefit to folks who want to bike to Georgetown or Southpark or for Boeing employees and anyone else who can make that commute.
  - Kyle October 21, 2025 (9:18 pm)
    
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    Great, the bike lane can be improved and the travel lanes can be kept too; win win.
  - TC October 22, 2025 (9:38 am)
    
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    As a cyclist who rides down HP Way 2-3 times per week, I can confirm that I still get passed by cars even when I’m going 40+ on my bike in the right lane. I’m already going way above the speed limit, but going any slower would be more dangerous with how cars drive down it.The cycling alternative to this route is a significant detour through Pigeon Point to the low bridge. I can get downtown faster by going down HP Way and riding down 1st Ave to the West Seattle Bridge. Making HP Way safer for biking would be a huge improvement to the community. Personally I’m in favor of keeping the two lanes for cars with some sort of traffic calming, while making a wide bike path for two-way traffic, even if it means that I will have to ride down it a bit slower. The current sidewalk is dangerous to ride down even slowly due to the current conditions.

Derp October 21, 2025 (6:57 pm)

What a stupid project, considering the fact there is already a sidewalk there, that very few people use. Why in gods name would you want to ride a bike or even walk up and down this hill. Way to go sdot, for not listening to the sane people of West Seattle

Sam October 21, 2025 (7:21 pm)

I am going to drive the speed limit and so will everyone behind me. Will be wild.

Look Both Ways October 21, 2025 (7:26 pm)

SDOT just doesn’t care. They have budget and will spend it on their misguided agendas, regardless of community consequences or input. A shameful waste of funds.