(Image: SDOT)

There is a new transit friendly feature on 15th Ave E that has added a year-round celebration of Pride to the neighborhood.

As Pride weekend arrived, crews were putting the finishing touches on an enhanced bus stop serving the northbound Route 10 on the street. Moved about 100 feet north, the new stop includes a bus bulb designed to “expand and separate the passenger waiting area from the sidewalk.”

“This provides more room for people moving through the area, and the raised bulb makes boarding the bus a bit easier,” Stephen Cuplin, a planning intern for the Seattle Department of Transportation tells CHS.

Cuplin is learning what matters in SDOT communications when it comes to Seattle neighborhood street issues — the spokesperson assures us that “there was no net loss in parking” as the work shifted previously available parking south, and tells CHS the bulb came “premade from recycled materials.”

We’ve asked SDOT for more information on how the northbound 10 stop was selected. It’s relatively lightly used — especially in comparison to the southbound stop across the street — as it comes only a few blocks from the northern terminus of the line near Volunteer Park. It also fronts a stretch of 15th Ave E that has been darkened by the exit of QFC in April 2021 as the grocery chain’s corporate parent pulled the plug on the location in a tiff with City Hall over Seattle’s required $4 an hour COVID-19 hazard pay.

UPDATE: SDOT says the project was planned after “reports of crowding at this location, which was causing some difficulty for people walking and rolling down the sidewalk.” As for the rainbow pattern, SDOT said it needed to gather more information about how the design originated. SDOT tells us the project was intended as part of the Safe Route to Schools work done in the area to make for a better biking and walking experience between Lowell Elementary and Meany Middle School. That work included new bike route markings, improved crosswalks and crossing bulbs, and other enhancements. It was originally planned as a poured concrete bulb but an issue with the slope of the location required SDOT utilize a prefabricated installation.

The new raised bus waiting area also comes with two important features. First, there’s the raised rest barrier to separate the bulb from the sidewalk. Most noticeably, the bulb is decked out in rainbow colors that echo the community crosswalks found across Pike/Pine. Installed in 2015, Pike/Pine’s rainbow crosswalks inspired a program that has been rolled out across the city including on Melrose.

The new stop does not, however, come with shelter overhead. When it comes to rainy days — and 90 F days — northbound riders will probably still opt for the awnings above the entrances to nearby businesses.

No word, yet, on whether more “community”-colored bus bulbs are coming to Capitol Hill and the city.

UPDATE x2: A few more notes from SDOT clarify that the location was chosen when the grocery store was still open and the area busier. As for the rainbows, SDOT says Zicla, the vendor working on the job, suggested the rainbow color scheme. “For future bus bulbs, there is a possibility that neighborhoods/community could suggest possible bus stop design,” the SDOT representative said. Meanwhile, the project came in with a $65,000 price tag.

A3. Bus platform- $35k Leaning rail – $5k Installation labor + equipment – $25k

Prideful bus stop going in on 15th on the Hill @jseattle @UrbanistOrg pic.twitter.com/gq7Za7xhhP

— CheeToS (@CheeToS_) June 25, 2022

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