Fix the L8!
The King County Metro 8 bus is among Seattle’s most popular routes, yet it’s also one of the most delayed. 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 5,000 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. This consistent delay has even earned the route a nickname: the “L8”.
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 the 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. 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.
You can help! Email the city and King County officials to make this happen!
Take Action!
Updates:
-
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…
-
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!
-
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…