Tag Archives: parking

Where and when it will be cheaper to park on Capitol Hill in 2020 (and where the appetite for parking is apparently insatiable no matter how expensive it gets)

Posted on by

2020 mornings will bring cheaper paid parking to most of Capitol Hill’s streets — the nightlife crush means prices are rising. Seattle announced its annual adjustments Friday to be rolled out in its regular rebalancing of pricing for the city’s paid parking based on demand studies over the past year.

“Our goal is to make it efficient and accessible for people who need to drive to find a parking space,” SDOT says in its announcement and explainer of the 2020 adjustments. “This reduces how much time drivers spend circling for parking, which provides other important benefits” —

  • Improves safety for pedestrians and cyclists – drivers circling for parking are often distracted
  • Reduces congestion – drivers circling for parking contribute to congestion
  • Improves transit efficiency – less congestion and fewer cars stopping in the bus lane means our public transit is more reliable
  • Decreases greenhouse gas emissions – less circling means fewer emissions

Simplified, SDOT says its goal is to price so that “two parking spaces are available on each block throughout the day.”

It’s not clear how high prices would have to rise across SDOT’s Capitol Hill paid parking regions to hit that “two space” goal at night were capacity is also measured at hitting greater than 100% thanks to creative — and illegal — parking strategies some nightlife visitors deploy. Prices will hit from $4 to $4.50 across most of Capitol Hill at night. Continue reading →

After criticism for route that included riding on sidewalk, city rolls out new plan for E Union ‘parking protected bike lanes’

Posted on by

The proposed layout for parking protected bike lanes between 14th Ave and 26th on E Union — the vehicles inside the outer white lanes would provide a buffer between bikes and traffic

Above E Union at 18th Ave

The Seattle Department of Transportation has responded to community feedback and has a new plan for E Union that will create unbroken protected bike lanes from 14th Ave to 23rd Ave. Construction is now on track to begin this summer.

The updated plans were presented at a community open house Wednesday night at the neighborhood’s Liberty Bank Building. An online survey will be collecting feedback on the updated plans through February 7th.

The updates follow plans shaped last year that drew criticism for trying to maintain area parking and existing traffic lanes by routing a portion of the planned bike lanes onto the sidewalk. The E Union bike lane project is being paid for by the Move Seattle levy to create an alternate for bicyclists away from the coming Madison Bus Rapid Transit corridor. CHS reported earlier this month that the future RapidRide G start of service has again been pushed back — this time to 2023.

The newly released plans would remove some street parking, shift a school bus loading zone, and consolidate Metro bus stops to add the “parking protected bike lanes” to both sides of E Union between 14th Ave and 26th Ave, and then transition to an uphill protected bike lane and a downhill sharrow lane from 26th to Martin Luther King Jr Way. Continue reading →

City says Capitol Hill Uber and Lyft pickup zone will continue and there could be more to come

Posted on by

The test of a new ride-hail pickup zone is achieving its goals and will continue and could be expanded to other nightlife and rideshare heavy areas of the city, the Seattle’s department of transportation announced Monday.

“We’ve seen improved traffic circulation in the area, and the Seattle Police Department has reported that their ability to patrol and respond in the area has been improved and that crowds are disbursing more quickly with fewer disturbances at the end of the night. Additionally, more riders are catching their rides at the curb and not blocking traffic in the street,” the SDOT announcement reads.

CHS reported in November on the start of the weekend nightlife pilot that carves out four pickup areas from existing Pike/Pine parking where customers looking for a ride with either Uber or Lyft are directed by the apps. The geo-fencing is in effect during the highest demand times for the services: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday between midnight and 3 AM and includes a total of 36 legal parking spaces that change to loading zone restrictions during the program’s hours.

The “ridehail zone” comes amid a continuing boom in the Pike/Pine nightlife economy where huge crowds can gather as last call approaches and revelers head for home. Police have long sought strategies to better manage the 2 AM rush to help cut down on traffic issues as well as assaults and fights that can break out in the crowds. Continue reading →

MISSING: This Capitol Hill ‘streatery’

Posted on by

On one hand, the City of Seattle’s dabbling in relatively lightweight experiments in tactical urbanism should be lauded for its ability to test small, relatively inexpensive and unobtrusive concepts on the fly. On the other, it can make it look like nobody gave a shit about the principles behind the experiments in the first place when they are removed — poof — without a trace.

On 15th Ave E, one of those installations meant to reshape and help us rethink city streets has disappeared. Continue reading →

Clock is ticking for Pine lot where nightlife crowds like to park — and people keep shooting guns

Posted on by

This parking lot is a goner (Image: King County)

While neighbors around 21st and Union are looking at so-called Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design efforts in addition to the mayor’s plan for curbing gun violence in the Central District, an environmental problem spot at the base of Capitol Hill is on its way to a CPTED solution of a different sort.

Key permits have finally been issued for a project to create an eight-story, 70-unit apartment, and office building on the land currently home to the parking lot near Pine and Melrose that is popular with nightlife crowds but has attracted more than its share of assaults and gun play over the years. Continue reading →

North Capitol Hill neighbors appeal Holy Names underground parking decision

Posted on by

Homeowners near Capitol Hill’s Holy Names Academy have filed an appeal to halt approval of a planned 237-car underground parking garage below a new, two-story gymnasium on the school’s 21st Ave E campus on environmental grounds.

The appeal based in State Environmental Policy Act requirements follows last month’s decision by the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections allowing the project to move forward. Continue reading →

Insatiable demand for open spots means another Capitol Hill nighttime parking price hike

Posted on by

Driven by data and a goal to put market forces to work to open up spaces on every available block, the Seattle Department of Transportation 2018 round of parking price tweaks is targeting a couple key areas of Capitol Hill — including the neighborhood’s most challenging parking environment where even extending payment hours to 10 PM hasn’t helped.

This month, SDOT is recalibrating its meters along southern Broadway and Pike/Pine streets for a new high in the area’s evening parking rates — $3.50. Last fall, SDOT extended paid parking until 10 PM near the area’s restaurant and business cores. $3.50 around the south end of Broadway will be a bargain — evening rates along northern Broadway are hitting $4 per hour. Continue reading →

‘Pay by plate’ will mean no more parking stickers in Seattle (and you probably still won’t be able to find a spot to park at night on Capitol Hill)

Posted on by

The end of the stickies

Parking on Capitol Hill should be more convenient under a new “pay by plate” system coming to Seattle that will allow people to enter their license plate number to pay for parking rather than print out a sticker and put it on their window.

“People just won’t have to walk back to their cars,” said Margo Polley, strategic advisor to the Seattle Department of Transportation’s Parking Projects/Transit & Mobility Division.

“What we’re doing is changing the pay stations on the street to mirror our pay-by-phone system.” Continue reading →

Seattle cuts parking requirements near transit, ‘unbundles’ costs for carless tenants in new buildings

Posted on by

The City Council approved legislation Monday that will give developers fewer reasons to create large parking structures below streets already choked with traffic, providing a new avenue for the ongoing march toward affordability in Seattle.

“It’s unfair for us to have a city where parking is abundant and free and housing is scarce and expensive,” council member and lead on the parking reform bill Rob Johnson said prior to Monday’s 7-1 vote. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill and Central District high school population boom has Garfield looking for extra classroom space

Posted on by

Garfield, the Seattle public high school serving Capitol Hill and Central District area students, is growing so fast it will need portable classrooms to make space for its students.

The City of Seattle is looking for citizens to join advisory committees that will help determine recommendations for possible zoning changes to allow the 23rd Ave high school and a set of other Seattle Public Schools campuses to “provide less than required on-site parking” so they have space to add portable-style classrooms. Continue reading →