SEATTLE — Starting this week, five King County Metro routes are making it easier for riders to connect to Sound Transit's second-busiest link station with a new designated bus lane and stop at the U-District light rail.
The City of Seattle and King County Metro are continuing to roll out the red carpet for buses by putting red bus lanes like this one on Northeast 43rd street heading westbound.
"It separates buses and cars; we also have bikes that are available to be using this pathway. So, when you got that connection being made purely for people, pedestrians going from vehicles to other transit and you don't have that interaction with other vehicles it makes it safer for everybody," said Jeff Switzer, a spokesman for King County Metro.
The new lane gives riders on King County Metro routes 20, 44, 49, 70 and 372 a new bus stop to get dropped off at or picked up from the popular station. The bus lane also comes with new overhead wires which will power three of five routes, routes which are also zero-emissions.
"When the station opened, we had stops around the block and that meant people had to walk and roll a little bit farther than we had planned for and now that this stop is open it makes it right here at the door step, they can get right to the train," said Switzer.
This comes after nine years of construction of the light rail station that just wrapped up last October, in addition to the construction of this new bus lane that started last August.
"It was a nightmare, the construction on and on and nobody was walking around the street blocked and then the Covid, the pandemic," said Mark Pinkaow, the owner of Mark Thai Food Box.
Despite the nightmare, officials with King County Metro said about 16,000 riders use these five routes every week. They also expect that number will continue to grow as University of Washington students return to campus in the fall, which Pinkaow said could make the last several years’ worth the wait.
"We are really happy about it, we see more people come in and have more customers,” said Pinkaow.