We’re a grassroots campaign of volunteers working to make Seattle’s bus Route 8 bus faster and more reliable. We are a workgroup of Central Seattle Streets for All and the Transit Riders Union.
Route 8
Route 8 is the only east-west bus between Downtown Seattle and the Ship Canal, connecting nearly all of Seattle’s densest neighborhoods and carrying over 6,000 riders every day.
Despite having the most riders per service hour of any bus in Seattle, Route 8 is consistently the slowest and least reliable route. We’re fighting to get the city to change that.
What have we done?
Since Fix the L8 was founded in 2023, we’ve been drumming up support for improving the route.
| WHEN | ACTION |
|---|---|
| Summer 2023 | Campaign Launched Wrote an op-ed, started flyering, a got thousands of signatures to improve the route |
| Fall 2023 | Denny Way Repaving enters final design without transit improvements |
| Spring 2024 | District 3 councilmember Joy Hollingsworth amends the the Seattle Transportation Plan to improve Route 8. SDOT begins work on studying ‘spot improvements’ for Route 8. |
| Fall 2024 | The Seattle Transportation Levy is approved by voters and includes funding to improve Denny Way. SDOT informs us that the only spot improvements they’ll be implementing near-term are new bus shelters, not bus lanes as we thought |
| Spring 2025 | We wrote more op-eds, launched a new email campaign, wrote a three part series in the Seattle Transit Blog |
| July 2025 | Race the L8 draws hundreds We danced and jumped rope but it took the L8 twenty minutes to go half a mile. See coverage here. |
| September 2025 | SDOT announces new bus lanes in Lower Queen Anne but rules them out for the 8’s slowest section, ‘Dooming’ Route 8. We respond in the Seattle Times and The Urbanist |
| October 2025 | Councilmember Rinck launches the “Better Bus Lanes” campaign to improve Route 8 and others. SDOT must prepare a report by June 2026. |
| January 2026 | Mayor Katie Wilson orders Denny Bus Lane. In her first executive order, SDOT must prepare a “timeline, budget, and implementation plan” for a Route 8 bus lane across Denny Way by April. |
| Next | Bus Lanes Built on Denny Way? We’re still fighting until the red paint arrives. |
Contact Us
On Bluesky @FixTheL8
Contact: fixthel8@gmail.com
Want to get involved?
Join our campaign group to stay updated, help organize, and connect with other Fix the L8 volunteers.