King County’s Ballard-Uptown Rapid Ride Corridor will be located along 15th Ave NW through Ballard and Crown Hill. The RapidRide program was approved by voters in the 2006 Transit Now initiative to provide better, faster, and more convenient bus service.  The Ballard-Uptown Rapid Ride Advisory Committee recently recommended routing the corridor along 15th Ave NW rather than 24th Ave NW for the following reasons:

• It’s the most direct route and a straight alignment heading downtown.
• It features a higher degree of safety and lights that accommodate pedestrians.
• Routing RapidRide on 15th Avenue NW keeps 24th Avenue NW safer for bicycles.
• Signal prioritization will allow buses to travel faster.
• Most survey respondents residing in all parts of Ballard selected the 15th Avenue NW option.
• It serves Ballard High School.
• It supports development along the 15th Avenue NW corridor.

Of particular interest to Crown Hill are the following decisions:

• Between Uptown and Crown Hill, the D-Line will operate via Elliott Avenue W, 15th Avenue W, and 15th Avenue NW.
• The D-Line will extend to NW 100th Street via 15th Avenue NW, with a preferred terminus in the vicinity of NW 100th Place and 7th Avenue NW.
• Metro accepts the City’s proposed speed and reliability improvements along the corridor, dependent of additional traffic analyses that will be presented to Metro staff prior to our final recommendation.
• Stations and other RapidRide stops will be implemented as described in the public outreach brochure. Additional stops north of NW 85th Street are proposed on 15th Avenue NW at NW 90th Street, NW 95th Street, and NW 100th Street; on NW 100th Street in the vicinity of 11th Avenue NW; and a terminal station stop at NW 100th Place.

The 15th Avenue NW alternative would replace existing routes 15 and 15 Express. It would be faster than the 24th Avenue alternative for riders traveling to or from Crown Hill. Routing for this alternative would use a stop pattern that, for the most part, exists today, including station stops at three transfer points (NW Leary Way, NW Market Street, and NW 85th Streets), a fourth station at NW 65th Street serving Ballard High School, and four other RapidRide stops.

The City of Seattle designated 15th Avenue NW as a transit priority corridor, and SDOT is currently designing traffic signal and roadway improvement to enhance the speed and reliability of buses using this street. The D-Line would take advantage of these changes under the 15th Avenue NW alternative.

For more information about Rapid Ride visit King County’s website (http://www.metrokc.gov/kcdot/transitnow/rapidride.stm). The supporting documents for this article are located at: http://crownhillneighbors.org/planningdocs/RapidRideRecommendation-DRAFT-AP-4-9-09.doc and http://crownhillneighbors.org/planningdocs/BURR-preliminary-staff-recommendation-031909.pdf