Route 7 Transit-Plus Recap

Although the RapidRide R project to replace Route 7 on Rainier Avenue has been postponed to 2031, SDOT (the Seattle Department of Transportation) has continued to implement bus lanes along Rainier Avenue. We'll go over a moderate recap of the changes made of the past decade starting from 2015, focusing on the transit improvements, as well as outline some near term future changes.

Previous STB Articles

Description	Article Link
Ridership Patterns for King County Metro Route 7	https://seattletransitblog.com/2024/10/21/ridership-patterns-for-king-county-metro-route-7/
Work resumption on RapidRide R	https://seattletransitblog.com/2024/07/27/work-resumes-on-rapidride-r/
Metro survey on RapidRide R	https://seattletransitblog.com/2020/02/21/metro-seeks-feedback-for-rapidride-r-to-replace-route-7/
SDOT debating between protected bike lanes and bus lanes on Rainier Avenue	https://seattletransitblog.com/2017/08/24/rainier-avenue-will-decide-between-buses-and-bikes/

Related STB Rainier Ave ArticlesRainier Avenue Improvements Overview

There have been multiple SDOT projects on Rainier Avenue. In 2015, the Vision Zero Rainier Improvements debated between bike and bus lanes and chose bus lanes. In 2023, the Route 7 Transit Plus Multimodal Corridor fixed the sidewalk along the northern portion of Rainier Avenue. In 2022 and 2024, the Rainier Avenue S Bus Lane added bus lanes in two phases from Edmunds Street to Grand Street.

Project Name	Location (Cross Street)	Year	Link
RapidRide R	Jackson Street to S Henderson Street	Future (2031?)	https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/metro/travel-options/bus/rapidride/r-line
Rainier Ave S Bus Lane Phase 2	Grand Street	Future (2025?)	https://www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/programs/transit-program/rainier-ave-s-bus-only-lane
Route 7 Transit Plus	Dearborn St to S State St; S Bayview St to S Walden St	2023	https://www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/programs/transit-program/transit-plus-multimodal-corridor-program/route-7-transit-plus
MLK Protected Bike lane	MLK Way	2022	https://www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/programs/bike-program/protected-bike-lanes/mlk-protected-bike-lane
Rainier Ave S Bus Lane Phase 1	S Walden St to S Edmunds St	2022	https://www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/programs/transit-program/rainier-ave-s-bus-only-lane
Vision Zero: Rainier Improvements Phase 1	S Alaska St to S Kenny St	2015	https://www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/safety-first/vision-zero/projects/rainier-improvements https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/SDOT/MaintenanceProgram/RainierAveS_BeforeAfter.pdf
Vision Zero: Rainier Improvements Phase 2	S Kenny St to S Henderson St	2019-2020	https://www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/safety-first/vision-zero/projects/rainier-improvements
Rainier Beach Pedestrian Enhancements	Seward Park Avenue S to Ithaca Place S	2015	https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/SDOT/MaintenanceProgram/RainierAveS/RainierMar3.pdf

Below the improvements will be listed in detail from south to north, roughly but not exactly in order of construction.

Rainier Avenue: Rainier Beachhttps://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/SDOT/MaintenanceProgram/RainierAveS/RainierMar3.pdf

SDOT added protected bike lanes on a couple blocks of Rainier Ave around Rainier Beach.

Rainier Avenue & Seward Park Ave S intersection google maps

These new bike lanes connect the relatively bike-friendly Seward Park Ave S to the rest of the Rainier Ave S bike lanes connecting further east to Renton.

Rainier Avenue E Henderson St to Kenny Street

https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/SDOT/VisionZero/Rainier_Ph2_Aerial_08-04-2020_SP.jpg (Detailed PDF very large)

https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/SDOT/VisionZero/Rainier_2019_Improvements.pdf

The Vision Zero: Rainier Improvements Phase 2 added BAT lanes and channelized intersections from 2~3 general lanes to 1~2 general lanes with turning lanes instead. (Phase 1 is discussed below)

Rainier Ave and S Henderson StRainier Avenue & S Henderson Street map

SDOT added a new northbound BAT lane and a right turn on S Henderson St rather than two general lanes.

Rainier Ave and S Cloverdale StRainier Avenue & S Cloverdale Street map

At the S Cloverdale intersection SDOT added northbound and southbound bus lanes,

Rainier Ave and S Rose St Rainier Avenue & S Rose Street map

The Rose Street intersection received a new traffic signal and crosswalk. Rainier Avenue was channelized from 4 general lanes to one general lane, new left turns and a new northbound bus lane.

Rainier Ave and Othello StreetRainier Avenue & Othello Street map

At Othello intersection bus lanes were added in the northbound and southbound direction.

2017/2018 Survey2017/2018 Rainier Avenue BAT or protected bike lane survey

2018 Past https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/SDOT/VisionZero/RainierCorridor_Outreach_Report.pdf

Alternative 1: Adds a dedicated northbound bus lane, maintains right turns and business access through a Business Access and Transit (BAT) lane, and retains on-street parking on the west side of Rainier Ave S.

Alternative 2: Adds protected bike lanes (PBLs) on both sides of Rainier Ave S, a left-turn lane at intersections, and in-lane bus stops in both directions.

The Alternative 1 adding BAT lanes was chosen.

Rainier Avenue S Alaska St to S Kenny StRainier Avenue S Phase 1 and Phase 2

In 2015 for Vision Zero: Rainier Improvements Phase 1, SDOT redesigned one mile of Rainier Ave S between S Alaska St to S Kenny St from 4 lanes to 3 lanes, with one travel lane in each direction and a center turn lane. The speed limit was reduced from 30 to 25 mph.

Rainier Avenue 4 general lanes to 2 general lanes with center turn lane

The redesign kept or added a small amount of parking. In other sections rather than keeping the parking a northbound bus lane was added. The retrospective study found the number of annual collisions greatly decrease with the redesign.

Rainier Avenue and Edmunds

For narrower sections of Rainier Avenue with only 4 lanes, left turns were restricted and right-turn only added lanes were added.

Rainier Avenue S Alaska St to S Walden St

For Rainier Bus Lanes Phase 1, SDOT installed a northbound bus lane between S Alaska St and S Walden St, and a southbound bus lane between S Oregon St and S Edmunds St. A travel lane was converted into the new bus lane and no existing on-street parking was removed.

Rainier Avenue and MLK Way

In 2024, the MLK Jr Way Safety project restored crosswalks at the intersection of Rainier Avenue S and MLK Jr Way S. While the intersection has a pedestrian bridge, many pedestrians opted to cross the road even without a crosswalk due the laboriousness of going up and down, and that was leading to unsafe conditions.

Rainier Avenue: S Bayview St to MLK Jr Way S Southbound Bus-Only Lane on Rainier Ave S

For Route 7 Transit-Plus Multimodal Corridor, a bus-only lane was added to the southbound side of Rainier Ave S between S Bayview St and S Forest St.

Rainier Ave: Walden to S Massachusetts StRainier Avenue from S Grand Street to S Walden Street northbound bus lane map

For Rainier Ave S Bus Lane Phase 2, SDOT is adding new northbound BAT lanes along Rainier Avenue from S Walden Street to S State Street. Additionally Rainier Ave / S College Street and Rainier Ave / S Grand Street will receive new stoplights.

Rainier Avenue & S College Street new signal map

The new S College Street signal notably allows for both easier pedestrian crossings and easier left turns from S College Street to northbound Rainier ave and from northbound Rainier Ave to westbound S College Street. Currently S College Street is one of the few east-west streets in the area and crossing on foot previously required detouring.

Rainier Ave S and S Grand Street new signal and crosswalk map

The new S Grand Street signal will serve the new apartments built around the area such as the Grand Street Commons.

Rainier Ave: I-90 overpassI-90 and Rainier intersection new crosswalk map

Underneath i-90, new curb ramps were installed a new crosswalk was added on the north side of the I-90 off ramp. The new crosswalk will allow accessing the future Judkins Park station slightly easier.

Judkins Park Station: Rainier Ave EntranceJudkins Park Upper Plaza Level Rainier Ave Entrance

Judkins Park Station is the first East Link station for Seattle travelers heading towards Bellevue. The final design includes escalators and elevators on both sides of Rainier Avenue. Bus lanes exist on both sides of Rainier Avenue and bus Route 7 and Route 106 will stop in front of the light rail station entrances.

Future ItemsRapidRide RRapidRide R improvements

RapidRide R has been delayed for around a decade. On the other hand, most of the transit improvements listed above have already been implemented.

Segment	Proposed	Current Condition
Segment 1	Construct a northbound center-running BAT lane on Rainier Avenue S. from S. Lane Street to S. Jackson Street Convert the high occupancy vehicle (HOV) bypass lane on southbound Rainier Avenue S./I-90 eastbound ramp to a general-purpose lane2	Not yet installed: Rainier Avenue S instead has southbound bus lanes Already converted: HOV lane to general lane
Segment 2	Installation of a pedestrian half-signal at S. Walker Street	Not yet installed
Segment 3	Remove parking and add northbound BAT lane from S Genesee Street to MLK Jr Way S Convert curbside general lane and add northbound BAT lane from S Alaska Street to S Genesee Street	Already added northbound BAT lane Extra: also added southbound BAT lane
Segment 4	Northbound BAT lane from S Mead St to 39th St Ave	Already added BAT lane
Segment 5	S Henderson Street BAT lanes	Already added BAT lanes

Simplified table of RapidRide R improvements

The other items not yet implemented from RapidRide R would be the adding transit signal priority at the major intersections as well as the large off-board payment bus stops.

Prentice Loop Removal

One other complication is the removal of the Prentice loop south of Rainier Beach. The RapidRide prioritizes connecting with the Rainier Beach link station.

There were two proposals from the Metro Connects plan to replace that removed loop.

1. Replace the Prentice Loop with redirecting Route 107 to terminate there OR
2. Redirect Route 150 to terminate in that loop

Neither are quite the perfect fix for the removed loop, though missing the Rainier Beach connection is probably worse.

Seattle Transit Master Plan and Center Running Bus LaneSeattle Transit Master Plan RapidRide Corridor 4

The 2016 Seattle Transit Master Plan did not plan for bus lanes on Rainier Ave south of Mt Baker Link Station. A rare case of when it was under optimistic, and SDOT was able to achieve much more transit priority. (The corridor shown above is a combination of Route 48 + Route 7)

Seattle Transit Master Plan RapidRide Corridor 3

On the other hand north of Mt Baker Link Station, the Transit Plan called for center-running bus lanes with:

Strategy RR 3.3: Evaluate tradeoffs of converting First Hill Streetcar running way on Jackson Street to center-running transit-only lanes to allow for shared RapidRide/ streetcar operations and Japantown, Chinatown, and Little Saigon center-platform stations.

Strategy RR 3.5: Evaluate feasibility of center-running transit-only lanes on Rainier Avenue including I-90 under-crossing opportunities and constraints

If future RapidRide buses along Rainier Avenue have dual-side doors, Jackson Street could easily have center transit lanes allowing for fast transit speed between Chinatown and Little Saigon.

Conclusion

SDOT has implemented many transit and safety improvements along Rainier Avenue, and the future of the corridor for transit will continue with the introduction of Judkins Park Link Station and RapidRide R. Hopefully the next phase of Rainier Avenue bus lanes are implemented smoothly, and RapidRide R will be expedited. That would help complete both the transit corridor and the safety improvements with better sidewalks and safer signalized intersections.