City plans to add 150 parking spaces next to too-skinny Alki Trail + An easy way to widen the trail as part of the project

Street View image of a section of Alki Ave SW that already has parking adjacent to the trail. People are using the painted buffer space because the trail area is too skinny.From a May 2025 SDOT project fact sheet (PDF).

SDOT recently updated its plans for changing how parking works along Alki Avenue SW with a note that they now plan to add 150 parallel parking spaces to the water side of the street adjacent to the Alki Trail by mid-June.

The city's current plan, created at the request of Councilmember Rob Saka, is to simply add these parking spaces without making other improvements, which means parked car doors would open onto the Alki Trail. Wheel stops are not here, as these spaces will be adjacent to the curb" on Alki Ave between the 1200 and 1700 blocks, SDOT told West Seattle Blog. Such a design would create new hazards to trail users who are already squeezed into a sub-standard 10-foot-wide space (12 to 14 feet is more appropriate for a heavily-used two-way trail). Trail users often ride in the painted buffer area, weaving around the street signs placed there, because the trail is not wide enough for comfortable passing. Under this design, riders in that space would also be at risk from car doors. Seattle Bike Blog strongly opposes adding curbside parking to the road as it is for this reason (it would also degrade views of Elliott Bay, but that's a different concern).

SDOT is collecting feedback on the plan via a one-question online survey. West Seattle Blog first reported the new plan to add the new trailside parking in a May 29 story, giving anyone opposed to the change very little time to respond (funny how improving bike conditions requires seemingly endless public outreach but making bike conditions worse barely requires any outreach at all).

However, there could be an opportunity to improve the trail and further calm traffic on Alki Ave at the same time. This section of the Alki Trail has a painted line on the street side marking off about four or so feet of space where the city has placed signposts, mostly NO PARKING signs that would need to be removed, anyway. If the city creates a new buffer space on the street between the parked cars and the trail and removes the signs in the existing painted area, they could effectively widen the Alki Trail to a more appropriate 13-14 feet while also retaining 10.5-foot general traffic lanes and two parking lanes. Such a design could also be extended all the way to Alki Beach.

I created some diagrams using Streetmix to illustrate the idea. You can play around with ideas yourself using the existing conditions example I created:

There are also opportunities to dramatically improve the bus stops along the street:

This option shows a covered bus stop, but it could work with just a sign as well.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of all would be the dramatically shorter crosswalks. People crossing the street today are exposed to traffic for at least 28 feet, but sometimes 35 feet if the parking lane is open. We can get that down to 22 feet or maybe even less, which would make the crosswalks much safer and more comfortable.

Note that Streetmix doesn't have a crosswalk bulb option, so imagine the additional sidewalks" on each side of the road are extended versions of the existing crosswalk bulbs.

Alki Ave does need more traffic calming, and parked cars are one way to accomplish that. It's not my favorite method because parked cars create visibility issues, but anything that reduces the extreme width of a 20-foot lane will help reduce speeding. I hope that the city does not use their rushed schedule as an excuse to ignore ideas that could make the street better.