Transportation in Seattle
State Route 99 is also a major arterial in the western half of the city; it included the now-defunct Alaskan Way Viaduct along the Seattle waterfront.
Two public transportation agencies are based in Seattle: King County Metro, which operates local and commuter buses within King County, and Sound Transit, which operates commuter rail, light rail, and regional express buses within the greater Puget Sound region.
In recent years, as Seattle's population and employment have surged, transit has played an increasingly important role in transportation within the metro area.
Seattle is also served by three Amtrak routes from the King Street Station: the Cascades, Coast Starlight, and Empire Builder lines.
[2][3] Yesler Way and Jackson Street got their cable cars (from Pioneer Square to Lake Washington) in 1888, allowing public transportation on routes over hills too steep for horses.
At the turn of the century, the streets were so bad that a boy named Joseph Bufonchio drowned in a sink-hole at the corner of Third and Jackson.
When the city received a US$10.2 million federal grant to pay off transit-related debts and modernize its transit system, rails on city streets were paved over or removed, and the opening in 1940 of the Seattle trolleybus system brought the end of streetcar service in Seattle in the early hours of April 12, 1941.
This left an extensive network of buses (including 188 miles (303 km) of trolleybus lines) under an independent Municipal Transportation Commission as the only mass transit within the city and throughout the region.
Even with the lesser population of that time and fewer major highways, difficulty parking downtown had already become "practically an institution".
The city was seeking (and failing to get) state permission to use the right of eminent domain to acquire property for multi-level parking lots.
[15] Later, in the mid-1960s, the historic Seattle Hotel building was torn down for just this purpose; the reaction against that sparked the preservationist movement for the revival of Pioneer Square and made it clear that the city would not solve its problem by demolishing a ring around downtown.
Since the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, the replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct has been the source of much political controversy demonstrating the Seattle process.
WSDOT uses variable message signs to let travelers know if there is an accident, to tell drivers how long their drive will be to certain areas, and for Amber Alerts.
After going through Federal Way and the west side of Kent it passes by a major shopping mall, Southcenter in Tukwila, where it connects with the south terminus of Interstate 405.
In the early 1950s, an interchange was built at Rainier Avenue and the highway extended 1 mile closer to Seattle's city centre along "Corwin Place".
In the early 1960s, traffic congestion forced the Department of Highways to institute a tidal flow system, in which three lanes, controlled by overhead signals went into Seattle in the morning, and toward Bellevue in the afternoon.
The Washington State Department of Transportation is currently widening the freeway on the Eastside, modifying interchanges, and moving the HOV lanes to the inside of the roadway.
The agency provides a number of regional express bus routes connecting Seattle with neighboring suburbs and cities.
[18] Further light rail extensions are planned to connect to Lynnwood and other areas to the north; east across Lake Washington to Bellevue and Redmond; and south to Federal Way.
The Sound Transit 3 ballot measure, passed in 2016, will further expand the system both regionally and within the city, with service to Tacoma, Everett, Issaquah, south Kirkland, and to the neighborhoods Ballard and West Seattle.
[19] Above the tunnel, 3rd Avenue through downtown serves as a major bus arterial, with access restricted to buses only during peak commuting hours.
[citation needed] The proposed City Center Connector project would connect the South Lake Union and First Hill streetcars into a single line with a routing along 1st Avenue in Downtown Seattle.
[citation needed] Since 2022, all transit agencies in the Puget Sound area have waived fares for passengers under the age of 18 as part of a statewide program.
It was one of the few major transit systems to gain ridership in the 2010s, in a period of increased ride-hailing services and lower gas prices.
[28] Following the COVID-19 pandemic, transit use by downtown commuters declined by 55 percent and was largely replaced by remote work according to 2022 statistics from the American Community Survey.
[32] The city opened its first protected intersection in May 2024 at Dexter Avenue and Thomas Street in South Lake Union, which was used by a daily average of 680 cyclists in October 2023.
It is operated by the Port of Seattle and is served by a number of airlines connecting the region with international, national, and domestic destinations.
In 2005, Southwest Airlines requested permission to move passenger operations from Sea-Tac to Boeing Field but were rejected by the county.
The Kenmore Air Harbor Seaplane Base on Lake Union, immediately north of downtown, is used by two airlines that operate floatplanes to the San Juan Islands and British Columbia.
[45] The commission was dissolved by the legislature in May 2023 due to public backlash and is planned to be replaced by a new working group that would monitor and review statewide aviation needs on an annual basis.
