Friday Roundtable: Race the L8 again… and lose?

Fix The L8 is organizing another race against Route 8, this time eastbound from Dexter to Stewart along Denny Way (Fix The L8)

The L8 is not so late anymore since an eastbound traffic lane was converted to a bus lane in August. On Tuesday, September 8th, Fix the L8 is organizing another race against Metro's bus Route 8 along Denny Way. Unlike the previous event, the group is expecting to lose as the buses bypass traffic via newly-painted eastbound bus lanes.

Across multiple decades and several mayors, it's been obvious that a bus lane is needed on Denny Way, and it only took a few months of Mayor Wilson's leadership to get one" said Fix The L8 co-leader Jason Li. This will transform the lives of the thousands of daily Route 8 riders while attracting countless more as it goes from being slower than hopscotching to being irresistibly good."

Other traffic improvements, including closure of the Yale Street slip lane, have also helped speed up the bus. Although transit projects are often mired in years of design and debate, it's abundantly clear that concerted effort and leadership can shorten this work to mere months. In this case, Mayor Katie Wilson requested accelerated design and construction of the transit prioritization project as her first executive order in January of this year. The improvements were announced in April and the project completed at the end of August.

Riders were quick to notice a vast improvement:

Holy shit we're flying like a bat out of hell. #Acceler8

- Qagggy! (@qagggy.bsky.social) 2026-08-25T00:13:58.201Z

Despite the international media coverage focused on the impact this bus lane would have on drivers, travel times between Queen Anne Ave to Virginia St for cars has remained consistent. The chart below shows the estimated eastbound travel time for a car along the 1.1 mile segment of Denny way at the top of every hour since early July. The stripped blue section is the after the Yale St slip lane was closed in early August. The bus lanes were installed between August 21-23. Explore the full chart here.

Car travel times on Denny Way (Denny Way Traffic History)

The rematch race will begin at 5pm next Tuesday. Anyone interested is encouraged to RSVP to the event, here. The race will be followed by a celebratory gathering at The Pine Box in Capitol Hill.

Bus Plushie

The Fix the L8 campaign is also taking preorders of a tremendously-cute, limited-edition Route 8 plushie with first shipments expected to arrive in early October. The bus plushie (a busie!) is endorsed by STB as a perfect gift for the upcoming holiday season.

Order yours here! Proceeds go toward future campaigns for transit and street safety improvements.

This is an open thread.