The Beacon Hill bike lanes are open! + Community celebration Friday

The bike lane project also significantly redesigned the notoriously dangerous block of Beacon Ave S in front of the light rail station, reducing crosswalk distances and giving buses in-lane stops.

With little fanfare, SDOT announced via social media that the Beacon Hill bike lanes on 15th Ave S and Beacon Ave S are officially open. They represent the most significant improvement to southend bicycle safety and access maybe ever, but certainly in the 15 years I have been writing Seattle Bike Blog. They make the already-popular bike ride up the least-steep option for climbing Beacon Hill far safer and more comfortable, and they plug the neighborhood into the downtown bike network.

Join Beacon Hill Safe Streets and SDOT for a celebration at Roberto Maestas Plaza near Beacon Hill Station from 4-6 p.m. Friday (September 19). There will be an all-ages community bike ride at 5:30.

I gave the new bike lanes a test ride over the weekend, then I rode 6.5 miles from Jefferson Park all the way to Fremont without ever leaving a protected bike lane or slow street (though as a tragedy over the weekend shows, there is still work to do to make King Street safer for everyone).

The only mixed traffic sections along this route from Jefferson Park to Fremont are on King Street and Bell Street.

For now, the bike lanes end at S Spokane Street with access into Jefferson Park. This is only one of three planned segments, though the middle and south segments still require more design work. SDOT has focused most their attention for the past half decade on this north segment, which was likely the most difficult of the three. Hopefully the city moves more quickly to complete the rest of the segments.

Once upon a time, the Beacon Hill bike lanes were supposed to be part of continuous corridor to Capitol Hill via 12th Avenue, but the 12th Ave connection was quietly cancelled under Mayor Jenny Durkan so a dangerous gap continues to exist between King Street and Yesler Way. City leaders should reconsider this Durkan-era transportation safety mistake (just one of many). Thanks to persistent pressure from advocates and former Councilmember Tammy Morales, representing Beacon Hill's District 2 at the time, the 15th Ave S and Beacon Ave S bike lanes avoided a similar fate.

From the north, the new bike lanes start at the Jose Rizal Bridge, where SDOT installed protected bike lanes in 2021. The protected bike lanes then head up a couple fairly steep blocks before branching into two. Going right leads to 14th Ave S, which has a lot of apartments as well as Beacon Hill Elementary. Though it is one block from 15th, the two streets are separated for long stretches by a steep hillside with relatively few street connections between the two. For folks heading to a destination on 14th, it will probably still make more sense to go right at the fork. However, the primary purpose of this new Y-shaped design is to make the crosswalk significantly shorter than it was and to slow down people in cars making a right turn onto 14th. The old wide-open design was very uncomfortable, and this should be a significant safety improvement for all users.

Continuing up the hill on 15th, I was surprised by how much less steep it felt. The bike lane obviously does not make the street any flatter than it used to be, but having a protected space allows you to comfortably take your time.

There are two options for turning left onto Beacon Ave. If the signal is green when you arrive, you can continue into a small left turn box on Beacon Ave, then wait for the signal to change to continue straight on Beacon. There is also a new all-way walk and bike phase where people can make whatever moves they need to. Just note that the green bike light and the walk signals will be illuminated at the same time, so be prepared to yield to someone in a crosswalk even if you have a green bike signal. This arrangement sounds odd on paper, but it seemed to work fine in practice while I was there. But I still think I'd prefer something like a blinking yellow bike signal to indicate that people will be in the crosswalks, though maybe that would also be confusing in its own way. Otherwise, the scramble phase is an excellent addition here since there are a lot of people trying to cross catty-corner (I didn't try it, but has anyone tried walking the long NW-to-SE crossing yet? Is there enough time? Let us know in the comments below).

People heading northbound from Beacon Ave to 15th should also be very careful because everyone I saw turning right drove through the green stripes for the bike lane. People on bikes have a red bike signal when general traffic can turn, but I could see people making right turns on red even though there's a sign that prohibits them. I wish there were a floating curb to protect the bike lane space here and slow right turns. Even though I have a couple qualms with this intersection, it is definitely the most difficult and complicated part of the whole route and the improvements like an all-way walk and bike scramble phase make it feel better than it was.

In front of Beacon Hill Station.The same block in 2011. The changes were iterative. A 2014 project added a center median and extended the sidewalk, and then the 2025 changes added protected bike lanes and shortened crosswalks even more.

The section on Beacon Ave in front of the light rail station and through the business district is amazing. SDOT has turned a section of road with an awful history of traffic injuries and deaths into a far more comfortable place with dramatically shorter crosswalks, fully separated bike lanes and in-lane bus stops to prioritize transit efficiency on the two general purpose lanes. It might be the best street redesign in SDOT's history. It puts safety and community access above all else and leaves nobody out. This was the most complicated stretch, and they rose to the challenge and achieved something that feels just right. The department should treat this street design as their guiding star (a beacon if you will), for future street redesigns in neighborhood business districts with frequent transit service. Superb work.

In front of Beacon Hill Library.

The design is also really thoughtful near Milk Drunk, which has a popular on-street dining space the wraps around some street trees. Rather than make them remove this great community space, the bike lane goes around the dining area using temporary materials. So if someday the dining space goes away, the city can easily adjust the bike lane. This is a sign of how thoughtful SDOT's design team was on this project. So often a public works project is drawn on a map, and anything in the way has got to move. But here, the team came up with a great and simple solution to work around something people like even though the department had the power to tell Milk Drunk to tear it down. There's a similar solution near the restaurant Homer. This could be a small innovation to follow elsewhere: On streets with parking-protected bike lanes, on-street cafe space can be located next to the curb and the bike lane can be routed around it. It's a bit quirky, but it is cost-effective and it works.

The project ends at Jefferson Park. For now, those continuing to South Beacon Hill or connecting to S Columbian Way down to Columbia City have the choice of either biking in mixed traffic on Beacon Ave or winding through the Jefferson Park paths to the Columbian Way bike lanes. Those heading toward Georgetown can wind through the park to the neighborhood greenway that starts at 16th Ave S and South Dakota Street.

Though the biggest bike route impact of this project will be for accessing Beacon Hill itself, many people heading between downtown and many parts of Rainier Valley, especially Columbia City, may now find Beacon Hill to be the best bike route option. You can ride from Columbia Park near PCC and Bike Works all the way to downtown without ever leaving a protected bike lane, slow street or park trail. Of course, this is one part compliment to the new bike lanes and one part criticism of how awful the Rainier Ave and MLK Way corridors are for biking. That fact that people would rather scale one of the city's tallest hills than bike on a nearly flat and perfectly direct routes like Rainier and MLK says a lot about the state of bicycle access in Rainier Valley.