For months we’ve written about possible changes to Market Street and Metro Route 44.
Back in May of this year, the Ballard District Council (BDC) sent a letter to the director of SDOT Peter Hahn, expressing concerns about the proposed changes. So far the council has not received a response. On Monday, the president of the BDC, Catherine Weatbrook, sent another letter to Hahn.
Several Route 44 stops are slated for closure along Market Street, as denoted by the X over current stops (market by green dots.) The red circles indicate where a curb bulb is proposed. The large “T” at several intersections means that buses will have signal priority. A larger version of the photo is here.
In the most recent letter, Weatbrook again outlines the council’s concerns for adding curb bulbs along Market Street and eliminating stops. “In recent years, Ballard has experienced significant residential growth, particularly in its HUB Urban Village,” Weatbrook writes. “Our opposition to transit zone consolidations along NW Market Street is based on current conditions, anticipated growth, and trends in how we get around.”
Here is a link (.pdf) to the most current letter to SDOT director Peter Hahn.
The Ballard District Council is completely ineffective.
considerably more effective than you Cindy
All I can say is, the Ballard District Council doesn’t represent me, a Ballard resident who thinks that having a bus stop every 2 blocks is ridiculous. Don’t they have anything better to do?
Signal Priority at 16th and Market, and at 3rd and Market is no big deal. Signal priority at 24th and Market has a good chance of backing traffic down Shilshole weekday afternoons and evenings. That can’t be a good thing. How about spreading the bus stops out a bit. Having a stop every eighth of a mile is ridiculous. Spread them out to each quarter-mile. The most anybody will have to walk is one-eighth of a mile. Still no problem.
As for curb bulbs…don’t really like them.
While we apologize for the lack of a formal written response to the May letter, SDOT has spoken since then with several Ballard District Council (BDC) members about the potential for bus stop consolidation in an effort to fully understand their concerns.
A formal process to consolidate closely-spaced bus stops (stops that are one or two blocks apart) is planned for the future, most likely during the second half of 2011. The map shown in this blog post indicates stops identified by Metro and SDOT as likely to be proposed for consolidation at that time.
SDOT does appreciate the time that the BDC has taken to consider Market Street transit improvements. We will review their most recent letter and commit to a quick response from SDOT.