Support “Full BRT” with Roosevelt HCT

The Seattle Department of Transportation is in the midst of planning a new high capacity transit (HCT) corridor from Roosevelt to downtown. The route would connect some of Seattle's most populous neighborhoods: Roosevelt, UW, Eastlake, South Lake Union and downtown.

The latest official document lists three options. The first is based on the current Metro RapidRide service and is called (of course) RapidRide. This has some stop consolidation, off board payment and transit priority. North of Denny, it would lead to a 26% increase in peak hour (i.e., rush hour) speed. The second option is called "Targeted Investment" and involves all of that plus "Minor roadway geometric changes that may include use of queue jump, business access and transit lanes, or dedicated transit lanes". North of Denny it would be 38% faster.

But the most exciting proposal is called "Full BRT", which would revolutionize transit it in the area. It would have center running buses and have "major roadway geometric changes that may include use of queue jump, business access and transit lanes, or dedicated transit lanes". The result is extremely fast rush hour speeds:

An average speed of 21 MPH may not sound like much, but that is fast for the city, and blazing fast for urban transit (the NYC subway and Toronto subways average less than that). It is also, as the chart shows, a dramatic improvement - south of Denny it is over 10 times as fast as today! To get an idea of the possibilities, here is a chart showing travel time from stop to stop:

These numbers are rounded up to the nearest minute from the rush hour estimates. The stops are the ones that SDOT recommends. This obviously represents a dramatic improvement in transit mobility.

But this won't happen unless enough people support it. Please let SDOT know that you want "Full BRT" on this important corridor.