Help Us Tell SDOT to Fix Route 40!

Now is the time to let the city know that while businesses, residents and property owners in Ballard, Fremont and along Westlake are strong transit supporters, it is equally important that changes to our already congested streets are carefully made with input from neighborhoods and using post-pandemic ridership data. 

Please send an E-mail Right Away to: 

SDOT Director Greg Spotts: greg.spotts@seattle.gov
Mayor Bruce Harrell: bruce.harrell@seattle.gov
City Councilmember Sara Nelson: sara.nelson@seattle.gov  
City Councilmember Rob Saka: Rob.Saka@seattle.gov
City Councilmember Robert Kettle: Robert.Kettle@seattle.gov
City Councilmember Dan Strauss: dan.strauss@seattle.gov
Deputy Mayor Adiam Emery: adiam.emery@seattle.gov
Deputy Mayor Tim Burgess: tim.burgess@seattle.gov
SDOT Sr. Deputy Director Francisca Stefan:  francisca.stefan@seattle.gov  
SDOT Public Engagement Lead Jules Posadas: jules.posadas@seattle.gov 

Copy and Paste list of emails into the TO: line of your message:

 greg.spotts@seattle.gov, bruce.harrell@seattle.gov, sara.nelson@seattle.gov, dan.strauss@seattle.gov, Rob.Saka@seattle.gov, Robert.Kettle@seattle.gov, adiam.emery@seattle.gov, tim.burgess@seattle.gov, francisca.stefan@seattle.gov jules.posadas@seattle.gov 

Craft Your E-Mail Message:  

E-mail messages are best when they are in your own words. It’s important for City Leaders to hear why you are concerned and how the Route 40 plan impacts you. But to assist you in the process, please consider including any of the following message points: 

• Route 40 ridership in September 2023 is still only at 55% of the ridership in September 2019. 
• The traffic analysis presented by SDOT provides data on only corridor-wide transit travel time and reliability benefits. The data never included a street-by-street analysis to determine where the bottlenecks are and how to solve them. 
• Creating bus-only lanes throughout Ballard, Fremont and Westlake will not necessarily move buses faster and creates serious problems for businesses and residents all along the route.  
• SDOT’s analysis shows that, because a general purpose lane would be replaced by a bus-only lane, traffic congestion will increase so much that vehicle queues will extend through multiple intersections, increase side street traffic queues and cause even more back-ups in our neighborhoods. 
• Our small and independent neighborhood businesses would be adversely impacted by removal of needed short-term parking, delivery loading zones and an overall increase in traffic congestion. 
• The proposed Route 40 improvements will impact travel time and mobility for truck access and egress for the industrial areas along the corridor.  
• The plan does not account for rapidly increasing public safety challenges on transit that significantly impact ridership. 
• SDOT needs to press pause and revise its Route 40 plan. This includes gathering new data based on current conditions and creating a plan that strategically identifies where the bottlenecks are and create new ideas about how to solve them. 
• SDOT must do a better job listening to this impacted by the proposed changes and make a new plan that works for everyone.