Michael Smith

One of my goals for 2026 is to ride every mode of transit from each agency in the ORCA pod. I counted 29 modes after excluding paratransit, school routes, and carpooling/car sharing services.

Sound Transit just published Link ridership data for September 2026. Overall ridership dropped 3% but a South Bellevue and Mercer Island each had a 20% increase in boardings due to the August 29 bus network restructure. Routes 215, 218, 269 now stop at MI and routes 111, 556 now stop at S Bellevue.

Using new ridership data, I took at look at how the 2 Line impacted the ridership patterns of routes 271, 542, 545, 550, and 554. While most Issaquahians remained loyal to Route 554, many people in Bellevue switched to Link for trips across Lake Washington. seattletransitblog.com/2026/10/26/h...

The only reason e-biking isn't the fastest way around South Seattle is that Rainier ave and MLK Jr Way S are unsafe to bike on, so you have to go super roundabout back ways that have absurd hills.

Happy to report that SDOT has decided to stick with concrete modal filters and is installing one at MLK & Alder.

The new bike connection on S Henderson St is now open. We'll see you at Sunday's Rainier Beach Harvest Fest to celebrate. We'll also have free helmets! We'll be at the Rainier Beach Community Center from 2-5 PM on Sunday, 10/25. Project info: www.seattle.gov/transportati...

SDOT is testing a new type modal filter: two cars parked in the road.

More ferry trouble at Kitsap Transit. 2 or 3 of the smaller ‘foot ferry’ boats are down, knocking out the Brem-Annapolis service. The Waterman is just a few years old. The Carlisle II is the oldest working boat on the Puget Sound, build over 100 years ago.

Car tires actually do kill salmon that orcas eat. This is 9 acres of car parking on the shoreline of our city’s most-watched salmon run location. If one were to actually protest (or file an environmental suit) against a city policy on behalf of orcas, why not here?

Route 8 finished September with an 82.2% on-time performance rate. This is the highest monthly on-time percentage for Route 8 since at least January 2019 (the earliest available data).

Everyone deserves to get home safe, and right now too many streets in our city like MLK Jr way S are designed so that people don't get home safely to their loved ones.

I rode the “not officially open yet” 2-way protected bike lanes on South Henderson Street in South Seattle today from east (Seward Park Ave) to west (Chief Sealth Trail). Here’s my footage (downgraded quality to fit on Bluesky) riding the new infrastructure. @rvgreenways.bsky.social

Bike lanes are usually the first to go whenever there is construction, so it is great to see a bike lane detour in place of parking on Beacon Hill.

Forgiving infrastructure assumes people make mistakes. A person on a bike who loses their balance and falls shouldn't pay for it with their life just because there was no buffer between them and a vehicle 100 times their weight.

MAJOR NEWS: The Seattle Social Housing Developer is announcing its first new construction project, in the Central District at 2402 E Yesler Way. The SSHD board is set to vote on property acquisition momentarily. Construction is set to start next year and wrap in 2028.

Newly filed documents show that the updated plans for the RapidRide R through the Rainier Valley restore just two stop pairs compared to designs presented this summer. That's unlikely to assuage transit advocates concerned about excessive stop consolidation. www.theurbanist.org/despite-push...

I’m spending the next few hours on the Northeast Regional diving into Metro ridership data from the spring and summer. This is the first full service change since the Federal Way Link Extension and the full 2 Line opened. I expect to have seattletransitridership.com updated by the end of the week.

this image tells me everything I need to know about who actually cares about road safety.

Did Uber literally reinvent the bus?

Update on S Henderson St protected bike lanes in South Seattle: I checked them out this morning, & the Toronto style concrete mini jersey barriers & concrete curbs all appear to be complete. The bicycle signals are installed & operating but covered up. I think we’re close to them officially opening!

There appears to be another non sound transit involved car crash on MLK Jr way s impacting light rail operations tonight. www.soundtransit.org/ride-with-us...

Turns out having The Ave for All is pretty great.