There’s a new Facebook group I just learned about from the Pinehurst Seattle blog called People for a Northgate to Lake City Streetcar.
Both the blog post and the Facebook page bring up some interesting points about the future of public transit for our area after the Northgate light rail station opens in 2020:
Buses that duplicate the route of the light rail will likely be eliminated, merged with other routes, or will become local service only (no downtown service by bus). Routes which may be impacted in some way include routes 41, 71, 72, 73, 74, 76, 77, 79, 304, 303, 316, and 355.
It’s already a slog for some Maple Leaf residents to walk to the bus stops that recently moved from 15th Avenue Northeast to Roosevelt Way Northeast, and it’s going to put plenty of people back in their cars if they have to walk all the way to the Northgate or Roosevelt stations instead.
So what’s the solution for the Maple Leaf neighborhood? Since we can’t even get a sidewalk on Northeast Eighth Avenue, it seems unlikely we’d get the funding for a streetcar, but maybe we can get some replacement bus routes to conveniently move us to and from the light rail stations. Stay tuned:
Transit planners will begin public discussions about revisions to bus service about a year and a half before the Northgate light rail station opens and all of us will have opportunities to comment on changes at that time. For those interested in more significant investments such as the possibility of a streetcar or electric trolley bus, conversations and advocacy that begin today insure a higher possibility of having that investment in place by the time light rail arrives in Northgate.
What kind of public transportation would help get you out of your car when the light rail station opens?
I don't see why they couldn't run a local bus line between, say, the 65th Street NE Park and Ride and up to the Northgate transit center.
But given I live about 8 blocks from the proposed Roosevelt station…So even though I could walk to this station, I'm hoping they work on expansive bicycle parking and put bike lanes on NE 11th and Roosevelt Way. These were discussed as part of the neighborhood master plan. This would provide a good alternative to driving and busing in Maple Leaf.
You can pretty much guarantee a NG-LC streetcar would not serve any part of Maple Leaf but the upper boundary. Service in Maple Leaf between the Roosevelt and Northgate LINK stations, downtown, UW, and north county is almost certainly going to come from a different effort.