Jane’s Walk is an annual celebration where volunteers in cities throughout the world host group walks in their neighborhoods to honor Jane Jacobs’s birthday. In Seattle, Feet First will host Seattle’s Jane’s Walks between April 26 and May 6. They will all be guided tours: 6 in central Seattle, 1 in West Seattle, and 1 in Auburn. The Seattle Transit Blog will have our own walk April 25 in Mercer Slough, details below.
Jane Jacobs wrote the groundbreaking book The Death and Life of Great American Cities in 1961. It revolutionized urban planning and showed the unique contributions to society and the economy that cities and walkable urban neighborhoods bring. Jacobs lived from 1916 to 2006; she would have been 110 this year.
Both the 1 and 2 Lines have closed segments this weekend, April 25-26.
1 Line trains will be reduced Saturday and Sunday until 9pm. Trains will run every 10 minutes between Lynnwood City Center and Rainier Beach. Then shuttle buses will run every 10-15 minutes between Rainier Beach and SeaTac/Airport. Then trains will start again every 10 minutes between SeaTac and Federal Way Downtown. At 9pm, normal evening service will resume.
2 Line trains will be reduced Saturday and Sunday until noon. Trains will run every 20 minutes between Lynnwood City Center and Spring District. Then shuttle buses will run every 10-15 minutes between Spring District and Overlake Village. Then trains will start again every 13 minutes between Overlake Village and Downtown Redmond. At noon, normal 2 Line service will resume.
This is all for multiple maintenance projects: track and power systems maintenance near Tukwila International Boulevard station, and to install new crossing panels near BelRed station.
Transit advocates and SDOT staff on a red carpet alongside Mayor Wilson, CM Rinck, CM Saka, and Interim SDOT Director Brady following the Denny Way bus lane announcement.
On Wednesday, Mayor Wilson announced plans for new bus lanes on Denny Way to help improve reliability for Route 8. “This is workhorse route. This is one of our highest ridership routes, and it has long struggled with reliability,” Wilson said. This announcement follows the Mayor’s first executive order for SDOT to “design and install at least one dedicated bus lane on Denny Way, with the goal of significantly improving the reliability, speed, and performance of Route 8 and other transit services operating in the corridor.” The new bus lanes will be Mayor Wilson’s first direct addition to Seattle’s growing bus lane network.
Denny Way project map (SDOT)
The Denny Way Bus Reliability Project will be implemented in two phases. Phase 1 will be done in May and include a new southbound business access and transit (BAT) lane in the center lane on Queen Anne Ave N between John St and Denny Way, an eastbound curbside BAT lane on Denny Way between Queen Anne Ave N and 2nd Ave, and a bus priority signal on Denny Way at 2nd Ave.
People walk past the planned site for the Ballard Link station.
On Sunday, hundreds of Seattleites and transit advocates walked from Ballard to Interbay and Smith Cove, roughly following the planned Ballard Link route. The walk was organized in response to Sound Transit’s recent suggestion to defer part of the Ballard Link Extension. “We are here today because close enough is not good enough,” Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck said to a cheering crowd. Along with Rinck, King County Councilmember Jorge L. Barón and Washington State Senator Noel Frame spoke in support of completing the Ballard Link extension. Seattle City Councilmember Dan Strauss and Mayor of Seattle Katie Wilson did not attend the rally, but shared their support with the organizers.
At a Board retreat in March, Sound Transit revealed three approaches it is considering for how to build parts of ST3, given the agency’s severe budget shortfalls. None of the approaches included Link reaching Ballard in the near future.
In December, we took a look at a few incorrect signs in the Puget Sound transit network. Many of these signs have since been fixed, but the region’s quickly growing transit system has resulted in a few more incorrect signs. Mistakes in wayfinding signs are bound to happen with any complex system. The four agencies responsible for travel in Seattle (Sound Transit, King County Metro, SDOT, WSDOT) work closely together, but gaps in communication are inevitable. We are also not blaming the talented designers at these organizations. In calling out these mistakes, all we ask is for the responsible agency correct the issue as soon as possible. Seattle Transit Blog wants transit to be as easy and user-friendly as possible, and factual inaccuracies on official signage go against that goal. While everyday transit riders deserve correct information, the expected surge in visitors to Seattle this summer is all the more reason to ensure all maps and signs are accurate and up-to-date.
Sound Transit
Last month’s much anticipated Crosslake Connection opening introduced two new stations, Judkins Park and Mercer Island. At Judkins Park station, the Area Map and Bike Map are both missing a few key details. On the Area Map, the new bus stops next to the station entrances on Rainier Ave for the 7, 9, and 106 are not labeled. Instead, the now-closed bus stops south of I-90 are labeled. Likewise, the new bus stops on 23rd Ave for routes 8 and 48 are missing.
On the Bike Map, parts of a few new infrastructure projects are not labeled. SDOT completed the Beacon Hill Safety Project in 2025. Among other improvements, protected bike lanes were added to sections of 15th ave S and Beacon Ave S. The Bike Map has the Beacon Ave section labeled, but is missing the 15th Ave section. The Bike Map is also missing the bike lanes on Dearborn St and on MLK Way between McClellan St and Rainier Ave. Both maps have also excluded the new bike path under I-90 along Rainier, near the station entrance.
Looking south on Railroad Avenue with Seattle Municipal Railway streetcar turning east on Washington Street ramp, July 20, 1929 (Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive). This ramp was removed in the 1930s prior to the end of municipal streetcar service in 1941. A similar view in September 2025 (Google Street View).
The FYI Guy found the Seattle census tracts with the highest percentage of residents in each age decade (The Seattle Times, $). Unsurprising: the U-District and UW Dorms are mostly college-age (18-20s); nearly half of residents in tracts of LQA/Westlake and Capitol Hill are in their 30s.
King County Metro’s fixed route bus network provides extensive coverage in King County. To complement fixed route service in some neighborhoods, Metro operates Metro Flex, an on-demand transit service. Metro began operating on-demand service 2019 and has used the Metro Flex branding since 2023. The neighborhoods currently served by Metro Flex include: Delridge/South Park, Issaquah/Sammamish, Juanita/Totem Lake, Kent, Northshore, Othello, Overlake, Renton Highlands, and Tukwila. Passengers can use Metro Flex within the same neighborhood, not to travel between Metro Flex neighborhoods.
Mexico City elevated trolleybus BRT line. Elevated light rail would have cost 2 1/2 times more. (TransitWorld)
Scooby Doo and the Goblin King has a YouTube channel with raw footage of several Metro, Community Transit, and Sound Transit bus models in action on various routes.
