King County Metro’s Route 8 bus is among Seattle’s most popular routes, but the city continues to allow buses to be snarled in traffic on Denny Way. As a result, buses are slower than walking (we even raced a bus to prove it) and on-time reliability drops embarrassingly close to 30%. This makes Route 8 the slowest and least reliable route in the city and has earned it the nickname of the “L8”. Luckily, the solution is clear, simple, and cheap: red paint. It’s unacceptable that such a vital route is allowed to languish like this and immediate action must be taken to install bus lanes on Denny Way.
Tell the city that it’s time to Fix the L8!
King County Metro’s Route 8 bus is among the top-ten highest ridership routes in the system and even has the highest peak ridership per service hour in the entire system. Serving as an essential east-west link, it connects neighborhoods like Lower Queen Anne/Uptown, Belltown, South Lake Union, Capitol Hill, Madison Valley, and the Central District. Every day, over 6,000 individuals rely on it for commuting, running errands, and various other journeys. However, these trips are becoming more and more delayed.
During weekday peak hours, eastbound Route 8 buses are often delayed by more than 30 minutes by the time they reach Capitol Hill. This transforms a scheduled 17-minute journey into almost 50 minutes. Given that these buses are usually at full capacity, thousands of passengers face extended wait times both for the bus to arrive and for their trips to conclude in both directions.
We can fix this! It’s clear that the majority of delay on this route occurs on Denny Way in SLU, as car drivers funnel onto I-5. Regular riders of the 8 know that they can typically walk faster than the bus until just after Fairview Ave, where a short stretch of bus lane provides some relief. This bus lane clearly works — let’s expand it!
We urge the Seattle Department of Transportation and King County Metro to prolong the eastbound bus lanes throughout Denny Way and install a westbound bus lane. A simple addition of red paint from 1st Ave to Fairview could ensure smoother transit for thousands of passengers and dozens of drivers/buses along this vital route. Importantly, the anticipated improvements in reliability and speed from these extended lanes could encourage many to switch from cars to the more efficient Route 8.
There are even funds specifically set aside to do this as the 2024 Seattle Transportation Levy calls for transit improvements for Denny and Olive Way. Unfortunately, the Seattle Department of Transportation’s 2025 Levy Delivery Plan does not include starting work on this vital corridor and the city must prioritize this transformational and voter-approved project.
You can help! Email city and county officials to make this happen!
Take Action!
Want to get more involved? Join our campaign here!
On Bluesky @FixTheL8
Contact: fixthel8@gmail.com
Logo: Francesca Oaksford
Updates:
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Fix the L8 Fall 2025 Update
Happy fall, everybody! It’s been a busy past few months, here is what we’ve been up to since we hosted Race the L8! SDOT Rules out Bus Lanes In August, SDOT announced that they are ruling out bus lanes for now, saying that the impacts they would have on surrounding traffic would be too drastic.…
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We Raced the L8 and Won!
THANK YOU ALL so much for coming out to support us and race the L8 last week. We are blown away by the support we have received and can’t believe how many people showed up. Our favorite photos are here! If you took any good shots that you want to share, email us or tag us on Bluesky. This…
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Race the L8!
Hey Racers! I hope you’re ready to Race Route 8! Metro drivers have been practicing extra hard at smashing their brakes and beeping their horns to prepare for the race. I know we’re not as well funded or as practiced but I know we can make up for it in determination to go as fast…
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Spring 2025 Update
Organizers are queuing up the next big push to Fix The L8 We need to continue to push the city and county to Fix the L8 — and we need you to do that. Three ways you can help: Last summer, Fix The L8 supporters sent over 1,000 letters to each Seattle city councilmember (Seattle…
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FixTheL8 2024 Update
Last summer, we sent over 1,000 letters to each City councilmember (who owns the roads) and County councilmember (who runs the buses/Metro) as well as directly to SDOT and we now know that SDOT is working on Fixing Route 8! Short Term (next ~year) In January, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) met with us…
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The Urbanist Op-Ed: Route 8 or Route Late? Help Us Fix Seattle’s Least Reliable Bus Route
Check out our op-ed in The Urbanist (by Nick Sattele) asking readers to sign the letter to fix Route 8. That’s why at Central Seattle Greenways, we’re partnering with the Transit Riders Union to launch our Fix The L8 campaign to get bus lanes on Denny Way in Uptown and SLU. Bus lanes have been…
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Denny Way Repaving Passes on “Large Opportunity” To Rethink Key Corridor
Ryan Packer has another great article in The Urbanist about the upcoming repaving project for Denny Way, and how it is failing to make the needed changes to improve the corridor. Please give it a read!
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Read Ryan Packer’s “How to Solve a Problem Like Denny Way” in The Urbanist
Ryan Packer is an amazing transportation journalist in Seattle, and they have published an article in The Urbanist about Denny Way documenting the problems with the street and the Route 8 bus. Data from King County Metro shows that following Amazon’s shift toward more in-person work on May 1, on-time reliability on the Route 8…