Just a few months after adding Ballard on its route, the Microsoft employee bus “Connector” is cutting back from 12 to 8 routes a day due to lower than expected use in the neighborhood. Meanwhile, Microsoft is expanding service to 9 new neighborhoods, including West Seattle. (Full disclosure: Mr. Geeky Swede rides the Connector bus …
Metro bus routes 28 and 44 to Ballard (and 26 to Fremont) will step up their frequency as part of an expansion to handle the 7 percent increase in bus riders over last year. Funded through the Transit Now initiative, the new schedule takes effect on September 20th. Details here.
Tuesday evening’s streetcar meeting quickly became a standing-room-only event as people trickled in after the meeting got underway. Marni Heffron of Heffron Transportation Consulting presented the Streetcar Network Concept. The network includes proposed routes to U District, Lower Queen Anne, Capitol Hill, Downtown and Ballard Commons (through Fremont) for a total combined cost of $685 …
The Seattle City Council is holding a public forum today (Tuesday) to discuss the proposed Ballard/Fremont line for the Seattle Streetcar. It will be held at the Nordic Heritage Museum from 4-6 p.m. In the forum: Estimating the costs of the new streetcar line
The Seattle City Council has announced a series of public forums to talk about the possibility of extending the South Lake Union Streetcar to key Seattle neighborhoods, including Ballard and Fremont. (The original story about the proposed line is here, which generated quite a discussion.) The public forum for the Ballard-Fremont route will be held …
That’s the question from Dave O’Hern in the PI’s “Getting There” section. The answer: “The physical constraints of the roadway, particularly the narrow intersection of North 65th Street and Phinney Avenue North and the natural barrier of Green Lake are the primary reasons there’s no cross-city bus route on 65th, said Metro spokeswoman Linda Thielke.” …
King County Metro Transit today announced that bus ridership is up 6 percent for the first three months of this year, exceeding all expectations. “The ridership trends made Metro the fastest growing large bus system in the nation last year,” reads the press release. (Goes to show how badly we need a mass transit system.) …
The Seattle City Council is considering a plan to expand the South Lake Union streetcar to Ballard, Fremont, West Seattle and the University District, among other neighborhoods. “Ballard and West Seattle have felt somewhat abandoned after the monorail went away and we’ve been looking for a way to get transportation there,” said Department of Transportation …
People who work in Fremont in the shadow of the Aurora Bridge will be glad to know that Governor Gregoire has approved $1.4 million to build an 8-foot suicide prevention fence along the bridge. After the Golden Gate, the Aurora Bridge has the second-highest number of bridge suicides in the nation. And those suicide phones …
The city of Seattle’s pothole patrol was patching up 8th Avenue at 63rd this morning. (Now if only they could tackle 14th next.) See a problem street? You can submit your pothole report to the city here.
Ballard and Kenmore were the first two neighborhoods in the Seattle area to offer biodiesel pumping stations. And now the same company, Propel Biofuels, plans to open a “flagship” station at Westlake and Valley Street in South Lake Union. Ballard’s station opened in October at Bernie’s Automotive on Leary. And by the way, we just …
This Friday, the annual Christmas Ship pulls up to Golden Gardens to spread its holiday cheer from 9:05 to 9:25 p.m. Of course, getting to the park is still a bit of a pain with that washout on Golden Gardens Drive, just west of View Ave.