Why the future of Seattle's Lake Washington Boulevard has sparked a heated debate

In the summer of 2020, the city of Seattle closed a three-mile stretch of Lake Washington Boulevard to cars, except to access home driveways. The closure lasted for months.

Some were elated as the street filled with cyclists, pedestrians, and runners. But others, who’ve always driven on Lake Washington Boulevard to get where they need to go, were less enthused.

It was just one of many streets Seattle closed or restricted car access to during the pandemic. As people returned to their previous driving habits, the city weighed whether to make those street changes permanent. On Lake Washington Boulevard, that question got heated.

Terry Holme has lived in the Rainier Valley for about 45 years and often walked the street while it was closed to cars.

“I came to the realization that this was the purest park experience that you could have,” he said. “No roadway noise, the sound of the water lapping on the shore. This is what it is at its best.”

Holme had long been an advocate for parks, but the closure of Lake Washington Boulevard inspired him to get involved with groups advocating for more road space for pedestrians and cyclists.

People advocating to return to the status quo also got involved. One of them was Patricia Killam, who, like Holme, has lived nearby for decades.

“My vision is that we are all able to use Lake Washington Boulevard,” she said. “That [means] everyone, including drivers.”

Normally, changes to streets are hashed out and argued over for years. The pandemic changed that.

“It gave us a chance to experiment with our streets,” said Jim Curtin, who works in Seattle’s transportation department. “We needed some extra space, and that extra space was found on our roadways. Cities across the country and really around the world all did this.”

Many of Seattle’s pandemic-era “stay healthy” streets became permanent, with fixtures like big signs and planters at the intersections.

“We have been working very closely with various different communities to determine whether or not they want to keep these streets basically closed for local access only, or whether we want to revert back to the previous state,” Curtin said.

The park streets Seattle studied for possible changes were Alki Point, Green Lake, and Lake Washington Boulevard.

“At some of these premier destinations in the city of Seattle, these real gems of the Northwest — they’re crowded places on certain days,” Curtin said. “And there’s not oftentimes enough space for people to do the type of recreating that they want to do, the way they were built back in the day.”

Other cities have faced similar dilemmas. In 2019, New York City closed Central Park’s six-mile loop to cars. San Francisco closed several miles of road to cars in Golden Gate Park and by Ocean Beach during the pandemic, then made those changes permanent.

Here’s where Seattle landed: Alki Point became one-way and got a widened sidewalk for pedestrians and bikes. Around Green Lake, cars lost some lanes to make room for a full, protected bike loop of the lake.

Lake Washington Boulevard is the last remaining battleground, and feelings about the street run high. Like the roads that run through Golden Gate and Central Park, it was designed by the famous Olmsted brothers and is part of a park. And people on all sides of the issue say their vision aligns more closely with the original intent for the space.

One possibility that’s been floated: closing three miles of the road to cars permanently, except for driveway access. A city survey in 2021 found that about two thirds of respondents supported that option.

Another suggestion was to make the boulevard one-way, converting one of the lanes into a two-way bike lane and keeping the southbound lane for cars.

Some people advocated for extended Bicycle Weekends, opening up the boulevard for biking and walking on Fridays and holidays.

One group suggested building a bicycle and pedestrian path in the hillside, on the side of the street away from the lake, but that would be difficult due to "steep slopes and lots of vegetation," Curtin said.

“There are no easy answers on Lake Washington Boulevard, and we really don’t have any consensus amongst the community about what the future should look like,” he added.

So the conversation about making substantive changes to the street has been tabled. What the city has settled on for now is making it safer.

The street is curvy, visibility is poor — especially at night, and the median driver goes 10 miles over the speed limit. There were more than 100 crashes on the boulevard between 2015 and 2022, which Seattle’s transportation department says is a “very high collision rate.” In about half of those crashes, a single vehicle veered off the roadway. Seven of the collisions were head-on, and nine were between a car and bicycle.

To solve this, the city has begun installing 24 speed bumps (technically, “speed cushions” that have gaps in them to keep emergency vehicles from having to slow down).

The Lake Washington Boulevard task force recommended installing more stop signs, speed bumps, or raised crosswalks as designed by the city's transportation engineers.

But Patricia Killam, who wanted to keep the street how it was and was on the task force, said she isn’t on board with the exact number of speed bumps the city plans to install.

“I think it’s excessive — every 600 or 700 feet,” she said. “It would be unpleasant.”

Killam said she prefers pedestrian-activated warning lights.

As for Terry Holme, he’s disappointed that Lake Washington Boulevard didn’t get the same kind of street redesign as other destination parks.

“Why does Southeast Seattle not get these significant changes? Why not here?” he asked. “My personal feeling is that Southeast Seattle — they’re the caboose, if they’re on the train at all.”

Update notice, Monday, 11/18/2024: This story has been updated to include more information about the Lake Washington Boulevard task force.