Ryan Packer
Ryan Packer has been writing for The Urbanist since 2015, and currently reports full-time as Contributing Editor. Their beats are transportation, land use, public space, traffic safety, and obscure community meetings. Packer has also reported for other regional outlets including Capitol Hill Seattle, BikePortland, Seattle Met, and PubliCola. They live in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle.
Seattle's three official bike counters recorded more riders in January 2019 than any prior January on record. Now that's worthy of the pomp and circumstance of a ribbon cutting; instead the local political brass were cutting the ribbon for the SR-99 tunnel this weekend--which opened to cars this morning--and...
After Ian Frazier
Greetings, friends! We've gathered hereto cut the ribbon, give a cheer-it's time to open, rise and shinethe buried tunnel ninety-nine.
Oh, the group is large and grandbut we must know who to raise our handwith thankful gesture, sing it loudthe highway-funding political crowd?There's Washdot Secretary Millar,Sam Zimbabwe, new...
Next week, when the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) opens its new tunnel underneath downtown Seattle as a new SR-99, the northern exit from the tunnel will dump high levels of traffic onto one of the busiest bike routes in Seattle. And the situation will be compounded by...
The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is spending $4.4 million begging you to drive under Downtown Seattle. A marketing campaign with expensive TV spots and billboards wants to ensure that the new tunnel is full of motorists when it opens. KIRO 7 reports that the $4.4 million will...
One of the central promises made to voters who passed Seattle's ambitious 2015 "Move Seattle" transportation levy was a robust commitment to expand Seattle's sidewalk network into neighborhoods where there are now significant gaps.
When the levy was sent to voters, the Murray administration was so confident that they...
After nearly a year of interim directors, Mayor Jenny Durkan on Tuesday announced her pick to lead the Seattle Department of Transportation. Sam Zimbabwe, who will start work in early January, has spent seven years working at the District Department of Transportation, in the other Washington, most recently as...
Seattle's streets are not getting more traffic volume, and vehicle collisions on the citywide continue to decline, but it's more dangerous to be walking on Seattle's streets than at any time in recent history. That's one of the big takeaways from Seattle's 2017 traffic report, released this month.
For the...
Last week, the Seattle Department of Transportation released an updated work plan for the remaining years of the Move Seattle levy: 2019-2024. In doing so, it also provides a bigger picture of work has already been completed so far than we have seen yet.
The workplan lays out exactly how...