Public Transit Works for Seattle

Doug Trumm for The Urbanist on 2025-09-07:

Seattle’s human population is growing fast, but its car population has stalled out. Between 2017 and 2023, Seattle added 35,000 households, but just 3,300 cars, new Census data has revealed — in news that is music to urbanist ears.

It is really heartening to see Seattle embrace public transit. I bet some of the later numbers are partially due to ST3, which I was happy to vote for, and I'll be looking forward to even better numbers as ST3 joins the Eastside to Seattle via light rail.

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) also recently sought to rule out expanding bus lanes on Denny Way due to fears of huge delays to car traffic, tied to their faith in nearly bottomless demand for car travel, even if alternatives are greatly improved. Seattle has managed to cut car ownership rates and grow carless households even with most streets remaining car-centric. Imagine what would be possible with a more balanced approach with more focus on alternatives.

As someone who used to ride route 8, I was really annoyed at that ruling, and of the same frame of mind as Trumm here — Denny isn't so important to cars that it can't be made to prioritize public transit. The car-oriented doom and gloom for New York City's congestion pricing feels similar to SDOT's car traffic fears here. Prioritize public transit, like we did for 3rd avenue, and watch as more people opt to use it instead of cars.