This morning, the Seattle City Council's transportation committee was briefed on the top 15 corridors where the city should focus its future light rail and rapid bus service investments, according the Transit Master Plan update currently being drafted by the Seattle Department of Transportation and transportation consulting group Nelson/Nygaard (full, colorful maps in this .pdf).

The results obviously surprised some city council members: instead of focusing on corridors that could link up isolated areas—light rail to West Seattle or Ballard, as Mayor Mike McGinn has famously lobbied for, or beefing up services to other south end neighborhoods like South Park and Georgetown—the plan prioritizes highly trafficked corridors like Capitol Hill's Broadway, Dexter Avenue (from Denny Avenue to Fremont), and Denny Avenue itself for future transit development. These corridors are highlighted in dark, broad lines. (Lesser ranked corridors are lighter in color and skinnier.)

transit_map.png

The next step will be to decide which corridors could benefit from light rail or bus rapid transit development, versus simple street improvements (like sidewalk bulbs). SDOT and Nelson/Nygaard will make these recommendations when they reconvene with the transportation committee in June.

SDOT strategic adviser Tony Mazzella was on hand to give context to the rankings: "This isn’t a map showing the Seattle transit network, this is where we think investments in transit will have the highest return," he explained. "You could essentially take this existing map and overlay it over transit services. White spaces on this map don’t mean existing transit services isn’t already there."

Council members Mike O'Brien and committee chair Tom Rasmussen seemed unconvinced.

"The people would like to get over from West Seattle to the Columbia city neighborhood, that corridor hasn’t been identified," said Rasmussen. "People are saying is it takes too long to get to the southeast part of the city from West Seattle... where are we addressing this?"

"We think the corridor selections are going to emphasize dense and walkable neighborhoods," explained Martin Duke, editor of Seattle Transit Blog and member of the Transit Master Plan task force, a citizen advisory group that's helping shape the update.

The corridors were selected and ranked on a broad range of criteria, including high current and potential ridership, service to poorer communities, and the potential for development in the area.