Comment 94877

By seancb (registered) - website | Posted November 19, 2013 at 13:42:01 in reply to Comment 94870

Yep - another advantage of "second-from-right" is that moving buses don't have to wait behind stopped buses. We can absolutely afford the real estate to accommodate this on the entire stretch of King.

Another idea - how about reworking the side street parking so that people can park at meters on the first block North of King on side streets?

Frankly, though, I still believe this anger is directed toward the wrong spectre. The real problem with King along that stretch is that it encourages freeway-driving-mentality. It's just an extension of the 403 on-ramps. If there was parking on the south side, and a bi-directional bike lane, and a bus lane, and only two lanes of traffic that were a bit narrower, then parking and crossing the street would be no problem at all. Is it the bus lane's fault that King is a nightmare to cross? Do people have trouble parking on one side of the street and crossing to businesses on Locke? No, because Locke is a human-scaled street.

The bus lane is a step in the right direction on that stretch. The real answer is to fight for more positive changes, not against the mechanics of the first step the city takes toward livability.

In the long term, the city really shouldn't get caught up in a fight over parking availability for every single street-fronting business. We need more people living downtown, and better transit/bike/pedestrian infrastructure is absolutely necessary for this to happen. That being said, we DO need a lot more street parking citywide, both to serve residents and businesses and to create buffers between traffic and sidewalks.

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