Opinion: Give Every Seattle Bus Dedicated Lanes

Writing in The Urbanist, Ryan DiRaimo calls on the city of Seattle to install dedicated bus lanes for all of its bus lines, citing evidence of reduced emissions and shorter bus commute times on streets that have done so.

According to DiRaimo, “The problem afflicting many of Seattle’s dedicated bus lanes is that they disappear right when they’re needed most at congested intersections or are clogged with too many cheating motorists. Deploying dedicated bus lanes widely and then enforcing them would fix that, however.”

DiRaimo writes that Seattle doesn’t need drawn-out public meetings to decide the issue. Painting bus lanes, cheaply and quickly, would definitively help the environment, eliminating the need for a SEPA review. When it comes to traffic, DiRaimo notes, “Well, traffic is constant. Traffic was here before the dedicated bus lanes, and it’s there today. Traffic existed before I-5 and I’m sure we are all aware it has never left. Traffic is a gas, not a liquid. You don’t control the flow by changing the size of the pipe, the gas fills up whatever space you give it.”

For DiRaimo, painting dedicated bus lanes is a no-brainer: “cheap, easy and smart.” DiiRaimo concludes, “The cost of paint is less than the cost of Seattle’s deadly year on the roads. This idea isn’t even that bold. It just makes sense.”