Transportation is this week’s theme, with SDOT announcing a new pilot program that will allow shuttles for private companies to use regular bus stops for their pick ups and drop offs. This is pitched as an effort to more efficiently use public curb space. The shuttle stops are currently available only to Microsoft and Children’s Hospital shuttles, and the shared stops are concentrated mostly in the dense neighborhoods near downtown and the canal, but there’s also a pilot stop in West Seattle. It’ll be interesting to see how sharing the space will work out.
Sharing space is part of what helped the new 520 bridge bag the prestigious ACEC award for engineering on an infrastructure project. Not only does the bridge float, but it has capacity to support pedestrian and bike traffic and, someday, will support the light rail’s expansion across Lake Washington. That is, in fact, pretty nifty, and it’s great to see our bridge get that level of recognition.
Speaking of congestion and increased capacity…okay this is a stretch, but the Seattle Bubble has a good analysis of the new Case-Shiller numbers for February. We’re still growing faster than we were before. Yay! (This is going to be a long, long summer market.)