To Improve a STROAD: How One City Is Reimagining an Orphan Highway // Aurora Avenue in Seattle

When the US interstate system was built in the 1950s and 60s, it relegated the previously built state highways to what seems like an eternal purgatory: not that useful anymore for pure speed and mobility, but too far gone to be useful as urban main streets. Just...caught in between.
This is the textbook definition of a stroad: an urban or suburban street that attempts to have the mobility function of a highway, while also trying to fulfill the residential, commercial and community functions of an urban street. Orphan highway all over the US are in this middling state, and you can see why -- all the new federal and state investment went to freeways (and still does), and these legacy highways, which often grew organically from pre-automobile trade routes, were left largely unattended.
So today's video is a case study on an orphan state highway, State Route 99 in north Seattle, AKA Aurora Avenue. We'll do a field visit and look at all the ways Aurora fails the people who live, work, and play there, examine the legacy of north Seattle's substandard urban infrastructure, and look at recent improvements to transit that might be a starting point for a better future.
Finally, we'll talk about how advocacy groups, the City, WSDOT, and King County Metro are coming together to reimagine the street, and how Aurora attracted $50 million in this year's state infrastructure package to make real changes on one of the street's most challenged segments.
Hope you enjoy!
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Twitter: @nerd4cities
Instagram: @nerd4cities
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Previous CityNerd Videos Referenced:
- The Stroad Ecosystem: • The Stroad: A Case Stu...
- Stroad Intersections: • Stroad vs. Stroad: Lan...
- Pedestrian Bridges: • Pedestrian Overcrossin...
- Power Centers: • What Makes POWER CENTE...
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Resources:
- www.got99probl...
- www.seattle.go...
- mynorthwest.co...
- www.seattlepi....
- www.seattletim...
- www.seattle.go...
- kingcounty.gov...
- kingcounty.gov...
- www.seattletim...
- www.zillow.com...
- www.seattle.go...
- seattleforever...
- www.theurbanis...
- www.seattlesub...
- seattlegreenwa...
- www.theurbanis...
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Images
- Seattle Video by Meysam Soheili httpswww.pexels.comvideodrone-footage-of-space-needle-4970296
- I-5 construction through North Seattle By Seattle Municipal Archives from Seattle, WA - Seattle Municipal Archives, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikime...
- Dicks Drive In Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives identifier 168533
- 102nd Pedestrian Overpass Grand Opening Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives identifier 66675
- Aurora 1958 Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives identifier 58170
- Aurora 1963 Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives identifier 44683
- Aurora Bridge construction 1931 Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives identifier 4819
- North of Aurora Bridge 1932 Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives identifier 5818
- Aurora at 41st Street 1936 Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives identifier 10991
- Aurora 1961 Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives identifier 69397
- Aurora Bridge construction no. 2 1931 Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives identifier 139748
- I-5 construction Ravenna Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives identifier 197970
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Music:
CityNerd background: Caipirinha in Hawaii by Carmen María and Edu Espinal (KZbin music library)
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Inquiries: [e-mail]

[@BCNeil]

Challenge your mayor. We did and it worked. We challenged him to walk from one area of downtown to another, roughly 3 miles. He did it. He was honked at by drivers 3 times, even though he was crossing where he was suppose to, and he was almost hit once. That resulted in that driver stopping to threaten him. Sad thing is many people do this walk daily.

[@laurenfarquhar205]

I’ve often thought of inviting my city leaders to walk my neighborhood and see the problems for themselves. I’m happy to hear it worked for you!

[@fsteddy6576]

how did it work? has your mayor redesigned the city? The north american corp lobby has gov't under their thumb. Citizens need a separation of corp's & gov't like we did church & gov't.

[@41052]

I so wanna yell at bad drivers but you can’t cause they have a more then 200 pound weapon 😭

[@sharedknowledge6640]

I had to drop a car off at one of the car dealers along Aurora and had a few hours to kill. I could just make out a crappy restaurant a few long blocks north of the car dealer. But getting there on foot wasn’t easy and also involved crossing Aurora. It’s perhaps one of the most pedestrian unfriendly places in all of Seattle. You also completely left out the southern end of Hwy 99 now known as International Blvd near the region’s main airport. It’s also largely an ugly legacy mess that’s been lightly dressed up with a bit of landscaping mixed in with the strip clubs. Seattle can build one of the most needlessly expensive power substations in the country, relative to it’s capacity, but cannot allocate money to cleaning up some of the most ugly, unsafe, and poorly managed parts of the city.

[@TymberJ]

Seattle *had* a mayor, Mike McGinn, who was a bike and transit activist on the way to becoming mayor, and travelled by bike to his campaign events. That was a decade ago -- I honestly think he helped a bit, but getting a mayor in favor of a walkable, bikeable city isn't *nearly* enough -- our local politics get super messy, and the state has way too much influence over a lot of what the city can even do. As mayor he tried to fight the utterly ridiculous, expensive, and counterproductive downtown auto tunnel, and he lost badly.

[@NotJustBikes]

Thanks for the tour of the stroadiest part of the most stroady stroad in the city. It was stroaderific. That redesign certainly looks like a significant improvement. If they could actually get it down to one lane of car traffic in each direction (and hopefully without the off peak exception for the bus lane), then it would really breathe life back into this place.

[@rossbleakney3575]

That would be ideal, but I think it is unrealistic. The problem is that this project only covers a small section of a roadway that goes for dozens of kilometers. Bus lanes exist in some areas, but not in others. Thus traffic -- including buses -- would funnel into one lane, causing congestion. That is a weakness with this project -- it needs to extend a lot farther.

[@bpcoxkr]

I used to live right on top of this area. A big challenge is it's about the only significant non freeway north south car thoroughfare in seattle west of greenlake / I5. That area is surrounded by low density housing and transit connections from there are time consuming and only really service downtown. There's a ton of demand for thru traffic and a reduction to 1 lane is very likely to displace traffic onto Holman/Greenwood (which are 2 lane 'arterials'). Some sort of a streetcar or dedicated BRT lanes and improvements for pedestrians make sense but I'm not sure any of these changes will lower traffic demand in area. In parallel the bus line is probably reasonably statistically safe and I used it to commute for 2 years but most area residents (I'm a semi-regular at a brewery close to 100th and Aurora) are uncomfortable taking the bus for safety reasons. I get strange looks from people when I mention I take the E line. So almost everyone drives (potentially improvements to pedestrian infra could help?)

[@exrobowidow1617]

@@bpcoxkr In Los Angeles, Metro was talking about making all the buses free, permanently. Everyone who rides them knows that would give free shelter to homeless people, who would have a climate-controlled place to sit all day long. So instead Metro has set up a number of discount or free fare programs; people have to apply for those benefits. They've also started talking about how they're beefing up security systemwide. I hope this ends their on-again, off-again relationship with the Sheriff Department. I don't take public transit often, but I don't want to have to worry about what crazies I might encounter on the bus each time I ride. And they're ditching the cloth seats in favor of plastic. Good to see they're getting real about things. I also hope they go with the Green Line extension down Hawthorne Blvd. Better to run the light rail down our biggest stroad, where people already take buses, than through the middle of a quiet R1 or R2 neighborhood behind people's backyards. Unfortunately, the more sensible option will cost a lot more.

[@jakelondon]

@@bpcoxkr Yes, the E carries on the legacy of the 358, which it replaced. Crazy stuff seems to happen pretty regularly on that bus. My mom used to live up in Haller Lake, so I took it from time to time and was struck by that. So was my mom.

[@LitchAustin]

Cutting down to one lane is simply not viable, that road is packed solid during the rush hours and there really are no alternative options. Seattle is a heavily developed hilly isthmus, water on the east and west sides. In order to get downtown from there are basically 3 options, Aurora, I-5, and Lake City Way and they are all way over capacity. The lightrail northmost point ends at northgate at the moment, they are working as fast as they can to expand it to shoreline but there was a concrete truck strike and covid worker shortage that have delayed things. Even then it is going to take people time to adjust and that won't address the commercial traffic that aurora serves.

[@neolithictransitrevolution427]

This is my favorite topic yet, and I think the most import thing in Urban planning at the moment. These stroads are not only the most dangerous and expensive part of existing infrastructure, but also offer linear corridors with mixed zoning that could evolve to glue our suburban cities together with an urban mesh.

[@btudrus]

Yes!!!

[@bortsynapse3503]

'To improve a stroad' can be a series. Love it

[@neolithictransitrevolution427]

I think this would a great resource. Looking at how different cities have approached this, and if possible what that has looked like fiscally.

[@OopsAllFrench]

I’d love to hear more about the self-storage mystery. As someone who’s lived in both LA and SEA it’s puzzling just how many storage companies seem to always take up dense/historic buildings/areas and overshadow their surroundings…

[@lohphat]

Here in NYC, they take up old multistory pre-war commercial buildings. 1. They brick up the windows. 2. They don't have to heavily invest in climate control. Just keep it tolerable in winter and summer. Low operating expense and they don't have to upgrade the infrastructure.

[@RBzee112]

I'm in Brooklyn and there are many new self-storage buildings in more "affordable" neighborhoods that could've been apartments instead.

[@rosskgilmour]

Self storage is more common in pricey cities because apartments and houses tend to smaller and incomes tend to be higher. For instance in cities like London or NYC, some self storage facilities now offer climate controlled wine storage. Why ? Because even someone making a few hundred thousand a year can only afford a relatively small house (compared to what a few hundred thousand might get you in A low cost city like Cleveland). So people rent extra space for their toys , hobbies etc because they cannot afford a massive house with a garage , wine cellar etc. That’s my observation as why they seem to exist in dense urban areas.

[@Scott.Jones608]

People like to think all of their junk is living that hip urban lifestyle.

[@seaotter42]

Self storage is going up everywhere... I'm in the suburbs and just last year they built a 4 story storage facility across the street for us (our house backs up to an arterial road). I suspect its because its a business with low overhead that has a subscription model of revenue. People put their junk in these places and basically get used to paying for it despite seldom or never accessing the stuff that's stored there. Think of it like a video streaming service you choose not to cancel "just in case"... only at a magnitude or more of the cost. The sad truth is that people overvalue their stuff and will pay $2000/yr to store stuff that has a combined value of $5000... which very quickly becomes a poor financial decision. They don't see it as "I could replace all of this for 2.5 years worth of storage costs" , they see it as "I've had that for years, I don't want to throw it away even if I can't fit it into my current living space". The businesses love it because even the climate control ones have very low cost to operate once they're constructed. They're typically large well insulated buildings with limited windows that only require 1 employee on-site at any given time.

[@marcuselliott9219]

"...the E-Line is an extremely democratic service for a very diverse population on a roadway that's kind of a mess, otherwise." I just stumbled onto your station a couple of weeks ago, and I've been devouring your content in my free time ever since. As both the consultant PM and consultant engineer of record for King County Metro's RapidRide E & F Lines project, I was surprised and delighted to see a creator I admire shout out a slice of my professional portfolio still performing a decade after it entered service. I was and remain incredibly proud of the work we all did to deliver the project; it was truly a team effort backing a mission we all believed in. And you're absolutely right: Aurora Ave N still has its share of challenges to tackle; thanks for amplifying the impact of our work in your own imitable voice.

[@liamtahaney713]

"Stroad on stroad violence" is my new favorite planning term

[@danieldaniels7571]

It's a good description of 44th Street & McDowell in Phoenix, an intersection I've had to walk completely across twice in the last day.

[@marksandstrom4248]

I'm a boomer life-long Seattle resident - this video is impressively thorough, and I didn't catch any sloppy bloopers, well done and thank you. A completely opposite topic this reminds me of, probably not CityNerd's bailiwick so much, is about the formerly-major US-route state highways that have been upstaged in usage by the Interstate highway system, out in rural areas, especially in the middle of our country, the Rockies and the Plains. I'm a road-trip enthusiast and have had many transcontinental trip opportunities trying different routes. I've been pleasantly surprised by taking US routes on these trips rather than the interstates. Examples: US12 Helena MT to Minnesota, US20 Casper WY to Rockford IL, and just last month, US36 from Denver to Quincy IL. 36 in particular was a joy, with very light traffic on a July weekday, almost no one to pass or be passed by. The absence of semi trucks is especially pleasant. You do have to slow down for towns, but they are real towns rather than just gas stations and McDonalds, interesting to look at. I recommend this to other road travelers.

[@ucantSQ]

I can second this. I used to avoid the interstate because my little four-banger could barely keep up with traffic, which towered over me. I found that the US highways travel through more scenic areas, have far less traffic, generate less stress, go through interesting towns, &c. I wonder what the difference is in traffic fatalities between the two.

[@EmanuelBorsboom77]

Some years back, I drove from Everett to Tacoma entirely on the 99, and it was just about solid stroad the entire way, briefly punctuated by a cemetery, a zoo, a park, and the like, and the Alakan Way Viaduct (since torn and and replaced with a tunnel). It's kind of incredible.

[@CityNerd]

Yeah, Pacific Highway South is a whole other universe!

[@jessimatic]

99 from Portland to Salem much more interesting than I-5 too!

[@Trenz0]

​@@jessimaticthe 5 from Portland to Salem is horrible lol

[@carstarsarstenstesenn]

"Street design should account for what people do and not the other way around" Perfectly said

[@katherandefy]

Yes because statistically and in reality traffic-light intersections are the most dangerous for drivers… let alone other modes of travel. That is why people cross anywhere other than intersections. *But!* stroads mean faster traffic mowing people down so it would “seem” safer than it actually is at lights. Roundabouts but single lane roundabouts not double lane ones would ease traffic speed on down for to make intersections safe to cross.

[@ncliffordjr]

as someone that lives in Chicago, my first thought at the beginning of the video was Aurora, IL -- which, funnily enough, is a textbook example of suburban hell and enormous stroads!

[@danieldaniels7571]

As someone who lived in Denver, my first thought was Aurora, CO, for exactly the same reason.

[@Ganondward]

Party on, Wayne!

[@thexalon]

@@Ganondward Party on, Garth! (yeah, that's where my brain went too)

[@PeterSipes]

I grew up just north of Aurora, IL and immediately thought the same as you. It's an awful place in so many ways. Nor does it need to be. In weird coincidence, I learned to drive manual transmission in Aurora, CO.

[@CityNerd]

I know, I actually thought of going through the various geographic associations people could have with "Aurora" - Chicago and Colorado come to mind, but there are lots. Seemed too long-winded a way to intro though

[@itisnotmeMARCO]

If you ever do the urban cemetery video, you should take a look at Colma, California. Located just outside of San Francisco, Colma is a town with a majority of its land used for cemeteries and complimentary uses. Today, there are 1,500,000 dead people in Colma despite there only being 1,500 alive. San Francisco issued a moratorium on cemeteries in 1901 and began relocating existing graves outside of city limits shortly after. The local politics that led up to this are really interested from a planning perspective. People were fed up with how much prime real estate was taken up by cemeteries in their neighborhoods.

[@CityNerd]

Haha, Colma featured last week! You mean the world's first Power Center is surrounded by cemeteries?? That's...something.

[@itisnotmeMARCO]

@@CityNerd I just watched that video after this one and noticed Colma right away haha.

[@hdevine825]

Also worth looking at New York City for some aspects of this. There is a "cemetery belt" through Brooklyn and Queens that were all developed around the same time as, then, rural cemeteries.

[@dwc1964]

There's a word for Colma that I fell in love with the first time I heard it: necropolis

[@micosstar]

@@dwc1964hmmm

[@ficus3929]

A lot of US cities famous for being walkable and urban are only walkable across an area that is less than the city limits (like this example here). Would be interesting to compare cities (or regions) by the amount of area that is actually urbanist friendly.

[@monovision566]

Yes! I want to see something broader than isolated neighborhoods when I attempt online research. Hard to find.

[@CityNerd]

Interesting idea...I'd have to think about data sources.

[@microcolonel]

@@CityNerd OSM is getting there; but no matter the source, and even with perfect data, it is tough to study something like this.

[@tristanridley1601]

Off the top of my mind you could try an aggregator of a variety of walkability factors, like walkscore.

[@hobog]

Yeah, Seattle's sidewalks are many, but mostly in disrepair, due to many of them being put in adjacent landowner's care. Seattle does have a map displaying complaints on this disrepair/accessibility issue

[@a52productions]

It's really nice to see videos on improvements that are being made, rather than just how things are bad!

[@Emily-xq2px]

As a current resident of the Bitter Lake area - thank you for making this video. I saw a video you made about stroads a while back and immediately thought of 99. I've noticed more community action starting to take place and this is re-energizing me to get involved.

[@bobsykes]

A student in your field at Cal told me "what these large storage rental places actually are storing is the land they sit on, until a better use comes along." A thought to explore if you do look into those things. (Still awaiting your video on why you chose and love living in Las Vegas!)

[@Default78334]

Same deal with surface parking lots in downtowns.

[@micosstar]

@@Default78334wowieee!

[@micosstar]

@@Default78334never thought about that before, thanks a million for sharing, i will think about surface parking lots with a salt of optimism!

[@davidmendelsohn1583]

It's nice to hear about progress being made. We've made so many mistakes over the last 80 years, but here and there we're finally beginning to repair the damage.

[@jeffersonclippership2588]

In the cities, yeah. Rural and suburban America seem like they're still stuck in the 80s and despise change.

[@keaganfarr4938]

quick urban cemetery note: There's three very large urban cemeteries in Philly that I frequent - Mt Moriah deep in West philly, the Woodlands by University City in west, and Laurel Hill Cemetery in East Falls. I'd say without a doubt these are all equal or better land uses than a traditional park since they both function as cemeteries, where people in or with ties to the city can bury and visit loved ones, and as regular parks with quite a lot of trees and other flora. Mt Moriah is large and relatively unkempt but is used as a park quite a lot and the other two are extremely heavily used as parks, even hosting concerts, community gardens, skill shares, school trips, flea markets, and more like any other good park. The old mausoleum and grave and sculpture architecture makes them even more unique places to explore and walk and have picnics than many other parks. I personally hate the idea of using land to just bury dead people in toxic boxes, but these cemeteries are actually really great examples of how death should be treated in my opinion. Death is acknowledged and respected at them but the ecology is still diverse and the setting is open and accessible and useful to the living.

[@bobbidunn8512]

Who knew urban planning was so interesting, complicated, and underestimated in importance? Thank you for making the whole topic interesting/entertaining and for introducing me to new vocabulary (i.e. signalized intersections, urban land use, stroads, etc.). I don't live in Seattle but we have strong connections there. To be fair Evergreen/Washelli Cemetery was probably out in the country when created in 1885. Otherwise, I agree that perhaps cemeteries shouldn't take up so many acres. That might explain why burials there are so pricey these days - way more than when my in-laws were buried there in the 50's and 80's. Do cemeteries pay the same property taxes as residential property in the same neighborhood or are there exceptions for different land uses?

[@CityNerd]

Oh I'm sure Evergreen-Washelli was in the deep hinterlands when it was established!

[@EnjoyFirefighting]

I love how the Bavarian state capital city of Munich managed to replace sections of it's Middle Ring Road: thus e.g. in the south-west the removed the 6 to 8 lane wide arterial road from the surface and put it into a tunnel underneath; On the surface they still have a street, but it's a nice calm street now. One lane + bike lane + a few spots to park in either direction, a wide median strip which even fits another sidewalk, some green and a few benches, and the above ground speed limit is only half the speed which is allowed in the tunnel underneath. Although it sure was quite some stress for the residents in the construction period, the area really got an upgrade and is much nicer now Similar development at the waterfront between the opera house and Gran Central Station in the Norwegian capital city of Oslo. There were 3 roads and highway going parallel with a total of 13 lanes going parallel; They relocated the highway into a tunnel underneath the port area and the new area turned into a modern borough with office buildings, high class living space and public space; In either direction the remaining street has a tram track, bike lane, bus lane and only one lane for all other vehicle traffic

[@pruwyben]

I wish they would do something like that with Aurora.

[@coteries655]

You should do Roosevelt Boulevard in Philadelphia! There's a lot of talk at the moment of building a subway line down it (a plan which was supposed to happen in the 70s) and Alan Fisher has talked about it recently. It's also one of the most deadly roads in the region. The Boulevard Subway would probably be one of the most productive transit projects in the entire country if it were to happen, and save hundreds of lives and millions of car commuting hours.

[@m.newman1091]

I live in Licton Springs, and I saw the E Line stop I take to work several times. You're definitely overestimating the E Line's quality/consistency. It will often come every 10-15 mins around 7:45am to 8:15 am. It's always a fun sight to see 3 E Line's at the same stop after your bus was 10 minutes late. Being an urban bus route in a city with a severe mental health and homelessness crisis has made me witness to several mildly horrifying events on that bus. That being said, it's still much faster than the light rail (including walking to/from stations), and the Seattle freeze helps me disassociate through the commute.

[@MrXtachx]

Hey the E line is special.

[@hollymccormack4081]

That's the thing about the E Line (and the 358 before it) is that it is well used and pretty safe during commute times and can get scary really fast in off peak time periods. I'll ride it into the city for games, concerts and events but I won't ride it after dark.

[@sanityisrelative]

I will take a more roundabout route to avoid the E. It's either packed to standing room only or sketch as hell.

[@kellinbonilla3507]

I lived at 145th & Linden when the E-Line came into service! (RIP Line 358...) As someone who lived in that high density zone in Bitter Lake, it's really easy to understand why the E-Line sees such high ridership. For me it comes down to a few factors... the E-Line connects to the north all the way to Aurora Village, which connects regional buses from Edmonds, Lynnwood and Everett. It's also a bus that you can pre-pay for and board at any of the 3 doors, which made it run super fast! The biggest factor, IMO, is crucial for any successful transportation design: it ran frequently enough that it was easy and quick to transfer to other bus lines along the route. Not sure if this is still a thing, but bus drivers would intentionally wait at key transfer points for the passing E-Line, which was an incredible part of Seattle transportation. Your bus was just waiting there for you instead of pulling away as you're running for it (I'm looking at you Trimet....) I definitely see an argument for transforming Aurora, however I think it doesn't need to be fully transformative as it always just felt like the road you take to get places, rather than a nice street to explore and walk along. I would typically use the Interurban Trail for that. What Aurora really needs is better lighting and sidewalks around bus stops and much more frequent crosswalks (maybe with some traffic calming near those crossings?) With that said, as long as there's a median (and there is along inner Aurora), you can just cross one way when it's safe and then cross the other when it's safe. We can't necessarily fix stroads, but having a median is an absolute life saver when you're on foot! Side note about the less savory parts of Aurora.... my partner and I affectionately called Aurora & 85th (specifically the Jack in the Box) the Hellmouth. The things you would see!! 0.0 .... but nothing will ever compare with seeing the Captain Jack Sparrow male prostitute. Legendary.

[@rosshoyt2030]

Great video. That first shot of Aurora must have been taken from the pedestrian overpass up at 130th street. When I was working childcare during the pandemic, we had to take kids on walking field trips from the nearby community center, and we'd use that bridge when we had to cross Aurora. Walking around the area with a group of 30 elementary school kids, it would be hard to feel less welcome as pedestrians. Improvements and investment are definitely needed in this area as there have been some new middle/lower income apartments and housing developed recently, yet it's still terrible for anyone not in a car.

[@ericbruun9020]

I am a Seattle native too. I think a great topic would be the decision process to put Sound Transit LRT along I 5 instead of SR99..

[@bpcoxkr]

Agree.

[@LitchAustin]

IIRC the primary reason for the decision was cost (with speed of construction a close second), they could use the interstate ROW and have easy access to build it. Where as 99 would involve a lot private land negotiation and commercial disruption. Take a look at the discussion going on about the west seattle LR line for an example.

[@ericbruun9020]

@@LitchAustin Yes, I heard these reasons, but I am not convinced. The I95 construction includes a lot of elevated structures whereas SR99 could have been cut and cover under public property.

[@Quartz_Composer]

My high school was only a few blocks off of Aurora and I never ever went there since it was impossible to walk to anywhere useful during lunch. I will say that the branch of the public library at 130th avenue is super underrated. Also the Aurora Bridge feels like a death trap every time I drive over it…

[@HarryLovesRuth]

Out of curiosity, how close are those pedestrian overpasses to various schools? I'm wondering if some of them were built to allow kids to cross the highway without interacting with traffic. The two pedestrian overpasses that are out in the county are right next to elementary schools and connect them to large post war subdivisions.

[@MasonLynass]

@@HarryLovesRuth there's a high school a couple blocks east of the 130th crossing - nothing too close to the lower crossing but it's around North Seattle College and Cascadia Elementary / Eagle Staff middle school

[@haydenbsiegel]

I really love this channel. I became a pedestrian about a decade ago and at first it was hard but once I adapted I found it really made my life better and happier. Since then I have lived all over and a lot of the points being made are exactly how I feel. CityNerd should cover Anchorage Alaska. I took a vacation there and I really liked all the trails that cut through the city. It was a very scenic and pleasant way to get around the city without a car and it was very possible to get around while -in- the city without a car.

[@samgrunsfeld9335]

Would love to see more videos on stroads in general maybe a video on the ideal way a stroad can be transformed. Thanks for the great content.

[@Snoopod]

Here in Pittsburgh we have a tradition of reclaiming urban cemeteries as unofficial public parks. We go for runs in them, have picnics, etc. I've even camped in one!

[@john-ic9vj]

You should look at Mcknight Road north of Pittsburgh, AKA "Mcknightmare". 6 wide lanes, zero sidewalk, very narrow shoulders, parking lots and shopping plazas galore, limited bus service (30 minute frequency if you're lucky, no BRT), many legs of intersections have "no peds" signs, 40 to 50 mph speed limit etc. etc. There is also zero sidewalk (or shoulder for that matter) to any of adjacent roads or housing developments, so its very dangerous to walk anywhere. It would be great to have even some of the amenities in this video.

[@danieldaniels7571]

Sounds like a very stroady stroad.

[@ucantSQ]

jfc, no peds? I've only ever seen that entering the freeway. To be fair though, I wouldn't WANT to exist in that space. It's why I'm about as rural as I can get.

[@g0g0sag0]

Appreciate you covering this topic! I actually live a block away from this road south of your study area. It's heartening to see solutions proposed to this currently crappy road.

[@chanceinman]

Aurora always felt so weird when I lived in Seattle. Like it was just a strip of nasty suburbia.

[@rishabhanand4973]

unfortunately, it is one of the better stroads in the US.

[@thebravesirrobin.]

It's always felt bizarre and abandoned to me too when I traveled it. The story from the Urbanist at least tells us how it came to be: Business owners decided renovations bad so the whole strip has been ignored for decades.

[@bigshotaviation8570]

@@rishabhanand4973 it’s actually one of the most ugly stop roads I have ever seen (and I live in the USA)

[@rishabhanand4973]

@@bigshotaviation8570 having a bus that runs every 5 minutes on it with a dedicated lane is a major step up compared to other US stroads

[@bigshotaviation8570]

@@rishabhanand4973 that’s irrvevelant. I did not see a single bus on that stroud and it looked ugly as hell. I’d say bottom tier even with US standards.

[@londubh2007]

Tucson developed pedestrian crossings they call HAWKs. Can’t recall what the acronym stands for, but it’s a stoplight system to allow pedestrians and bikers to cross Tucson’s many stroads. It blinks yellow, turns red for pedestrians to cross, then blinks red for cars to stop and go if the crosswalk once the crosswalk is empty. The crossing is usually marked with zebra stripes.

[@anderswennstig5476]

you touched on it briefly, but once you cross into Shoreline Aurora becomes much safer and more pleasant to travel along. It's not close to what we need, but it's still much much better. That has to be the floor.

[@anthonyfox477]

I'd love to see similar Nerd treatment on 82nd Ave in Portland, especially now that jurisdiction has been shifted to the City.

[@CorbinCorbin]

Exactly what I was thinking the whole time

[@CityNerd]

I'll have to see what the latest is -- there was a bunch of money for 82nd in that Metro bond that failed a couple years ago! The jurisdictional xfer is excellent, and 82nd should be the second FX line (after Division opens next month).

[@MyBelch]

Wow. Extremely clever how you appended the prefix "St" to the word "road" to create a unique and marvelously wonderous new word. I stand in awe of such brilliant crafting of language. A masterpiece!

[@bruhkamp]

TOPIC IDEA: Utah Department of Transportation has officially endorsed a gondola as the preferred method for easing traffic going up Little Cottonwood Canyon (home to Alta and Snowbird). What do you think of such alternatives in general and this on in particular. Background, it won out over expanding the road for dedicated bus lane service and in an earlier round over a cog railway.

[@DataLaur]

I wonder if there is enough gondola infrastructure being built for a whole video just on gondolas. Plans are in place to build a gondola between Union Station and Dodgers Stadium in LA. A couple of weeks ago the news reported on what the gondola would look like, and it appears to be a rather small vessel with tight seating and no windows.

[@rosskgilmour]

Gondolas have pretty high throughput, are fairly quick and benefit from a straight path. The peak to peak gondola does 17 mph. While slower then a bus it would be resistant to bad road conditions such as accidents , poor plowing etc. A university in canada is exploring building a gondola from the train to campus as the busses frequently get stuck in bad weather. Added bonus an electric gondola powered by renewables is zero carbon public transport

[@danieldaniels7571]

@@DataLaur I find them fascinating, but have yet to experience one used for transit. I really hoped to ride the one in Portland when I visited earlier this year, but it was closed to the general public.

[@lesliefranklin1870]

@@rosskgilmour Yeah, I hate it when they plow the streets of Los Angeles. Just kidding. LOL! Great point!

[@lesliefranklin1870]

San Diego is investigating using gondolas to traverse the local canyons. I would be interested in this topic being investigated in general.

[@rossedwardmiller]

“Don’t just sue them, Snyder them” - my fave personal injury law firm slogan

[@carm1549]

Re: that aruroa crash study: I did a similar study for TDOT and found similar results for Tennessee's cities (Mostly Nashville and Memphis). There's a small handful of stroads that account for the majority of pedestrian fatalities. (Though, pedestrians can and do die in all sorts of ways and places)

[@HarryLovesRuth]

Tennesseein' is Tenne-believing. Kingston Pike in Knoxville is literally Highway 70. The "reduced speed when lights flashing" for the school zone is thirty five and people run that light right in front of the cops Loading up your car with moonshine and do ninety over Bearden Hill is tradition, I guess.

[@Flames5123]

As someone who just moved to Seattle and started watching your videos this year, this is awesome! I’m good friends with a guy that works in King County Metro that recommended your videos, so I know he’ll love this. Thanks for doing this video!

[@hdevine825]

I grew up outside of Seattle and Aurora brings up two very specific memories: 1. Running cross country at Woodland Park where it runs between the park and the zoo. 2. Visiting Seattle Fabrics which is on Aurora. If you are in the area it is a great place to get outdoor fabrics.

[@hector4065]

(Long term resident of Tulsa, Oklahoma) I don’t see the issue here. This is what every main street in Tulsa looks like… : )))))) Minus the bus lane and trains nearby…. That said Tulsa is built on a grid which is a good base for a city

[@sammyrice1182]

And most of America!

[@whitj7288]

As someone who grew up using Aurora avenue multiple times per week, and as a patreon supporter, thank you for making this video.

[@CityNerd]

My pleasure!

[@heatherharrison264]

I've observed through watching these videos and through my own experience that there are a few different types of stroads, and while none are ideal, some are worse than others. The stroad featured in this video was never purposely planned to be the way it is; it has simply grown organically as the area built up around it and uses changed over time. This is common in older suburban areas and outskirts of downtown areas. It seems like every city in the United States of any size that has been around for a long time has at least a few of these. These hideous stroads are often the worst of the bunch, as they typically have few, if any, access controls and often have a lot of businesses fronting right onto the stroad. Newer suburbs tend to have purpose-built stroads that have more access controls and are therefore closer to being proper highways, but they still have access points (sometimes signalized, sometimes not) for strip malls and apartment complexes. These new style stroads aren't pleasant for walking or biking either, but they usually have better sidewalks. I live along a stroad that, like Aurora, is an old state highway. In this case, the state highway designation has been moved to a divided highway that was built nearby, but the haphazardly created stroad persists. Closer in to town, it is a lot like Aurora, with poor sidewalks and a lot of businesses fronting on the stroad, but farther from the center of town, it becomes more like the newer purpose-built stroads. Whenever I have to make a left turn out of my apartment complex and onto this stroad, at a non-signalized intersection, I feel like I am taking my life into my hands. It is an unpleasant corridor in which to travel regardless of the mode of transportation used. Since it has been replaced by a highway for through traffic, I would hope that it can be improved to make it just a little less unpleasant, but I've seen no sign that this will ever happen. The new highway, unfortunately, has become horribly clogged at certain times of day, so the stroad continues to be used for through traffic. I'm glad to see that there is some movement to fix one nasty stroad, but there are so many that the situation feels hopeless. Every business that fronts onto the stroad will naturally take an interest in any changes and will oppose anything that has an adverse impact. It isn't like the video game Cities: Skylines, where you can just demolish all the businesses and residential areas along a stroad in order to reconfigure it. There may be better uses for the space than self-storage units and car dealerships, but the owners of those businesses aren't going to see it that way. I think most of these stroads are going to be with us, essentially unchanged, for a very long time.

[@jasonreed7522]

To expand your differentiation of stroads, i think they cam be classified both on history (old highway, outer "Mainstreet", purpose built) and construction (number of lanes, existance of a shared turning lane, signalization, walkablity). Obviously the less lanes the better, inclusion of a shared turn lane can be nearly 50% safer than without, and walkablity peaks at a sidewalk about 5ft back and bottoms out at fence against curb. By combining these 2 sets of criteria you can definitely identify the absolute worst stroads vs the ones with potential to be fixed. (Ironically more lanes means you have more room to work with wich can be a plus, but dealing with the backlash of reducing an "important travel corridor" may not be popular or easy even if its necessary to actually increase capacity and safety.

[@CityNerd]

Great comment. I agree not all stroads are of the "misbegotten state highway" variety -- some are built to be exactly what they are!

[@timliu1912]

I really enjoyed this video! I like the deep focus on a single city/a single road (similar to the LA video). I also liked how you described the ways things are improving, and future plans to change Aurora Avenue. More content like this would be great!

[@TransportSimulatorNationTSN]

Here in the Atlanta suburbs Gwinnett County Stone Mountain Highway 78 really need a huge upgrade. The only thing good about the highway is it has sidewalks

[@AdmiralThumbs]

Being very familiar with this area, I can confirm this video is spot on. Thanks for highlighting this need for improvement!

[@CoryJohnson0424]

Best urban pedestrian skyway systems please!

[@stevengordon3271]

Downtown Minneapolis?

[@KatharineOsborne]

This reminds me of a very long stroad in Kochi, Kerala, India (leading from the airport to the touristy bit on the coast). Just, never-ending, no pedestrian access, and a super weird eclectic mix of car dealerships, big box stores, and jewellery outlets.

[@timgerk3262]

You hit on something with the comment "unchanged since 1962." These stroads are a victim of leapfrog development on one hand, and on the other hand disincentives to upzoning, reuse, and frequent redevelopment. Planning and zoning fail to hit moving targets. Building codes ironically require a useful life beyond the eco omic life; permitting requires consensus of irreconcilable stakeholders; and pointillist historic preservation precludes continuing evolution of built environment. Second best point: up-to-date sidewalk infrastructure at the locations with the absolute least foot traffic (storage centers) AAAACK!

[@KurtHalfyard]

"The STROAD-iest part of the STROAD-iest STROAD" - you kill me.

[@countchocula4855]

You can't drive in the bus lane because businesses park their vehicles there in off-peak hours. Then, at night, the residential streets near Aurora are used as parking lots by those same businesses.

[@suzanneschreiner5145]

Well done! This video was by far the best thing I've seen on your channel. I live in the Seattle area so that does make it personal, too. For what it's worth, I would consider content that explains how an urban failure came to be and what might be done to redeem it and make it more useful/productive/beautiful/humane would be worth a truckload of Top 10/10 Worst lists. Again, excellent work! Now I'm going to watch it again.

[@JustAdelaideRacing]

Hey, I'd love to see a video on the most successful re-developments in America, where 'stroads' have been replaced by transit and people-oriented traffic planning. Surely there are enough places which have completed a transition by now?

[@chrispontani6059]

I like how you explained how we got here instead of just saying stroads bad.

[@wclifton968gameplaystutorials]

imo they should flatten the entire road surface, including the pavement, add a 2-way bike lane on one side of the entire route of the road replacing one road lane and separate it from car traffic with a concrete curb piece on both sides (to also separate the pavement) with a 24/7 bus lane on each side of the road with red coloured asphalt (or use the colour of the most dominate colour of the standard King Country metro or SoundTransit liveries)...

[@Baselle]

Thanks for this. I used to live within two blocks of your video but used Greenwood Ave as my place to shop and transit about 4 blocks west. Now I live about two blocks from Aurora 's cousin, Lake City Way. The LCW now gives mixed signals - stroad-y most spots, semi-street in other patches like 125th. I hope the street patches get larger to cover LCW but it does send mixed signals to cars and for decades.

[@Scott.Jones608]

13:25 I think as simple as developers see bus riders as lower income not able to afford the luxury apartments they want to build while train/trolley riders & cyclists are. You'd think that at least some affordable/subsidized housing places would target Aurora though.

[@rossbleakney3575]

There are plenty of apartments designed for bus riders in Seattle. There are other reasons for the lack of growth. One is that a lot of owners just aren't interested in selling. There are a lot of light industrial properties that are tough to move. Motels are doing really well in Seattle. I'm not sure why, but car dealerships tend to cling to their location. Another is that building apartments in Seattle is very difficult from a regulatory standpoint. But partly it is because Aurora just isn't attractive. I would much rather live on Linden, and just walk a couple minutes to the bus. By the way, there are subsidized apartments on Linden. It is a bit of a chicken and egg problem. Aurora is ugly -- people don't want to live there. It is ugly in part because there aren't many apartments. The project mentioned in this video hopes to break that cycle.

[@rwgrab]

I live not too far from 80th and Aurora over by Green Lake, so I'm glad you chose to cover this part of the city! I can't really argue with any of the content and that reimagining Aurora is a prime opportunity to create a functional urban environment for the north end. But I'd actually suggest that it's not necessary, because there are quite a few parallel streets in the functional grid that would be better suited for pedestrian travel already. For example, when I want to walk N-S, there are many options I have from home (Wallingford Ave N off the lake, feeding in to Meridian Ave N, as an example) with fantastic pedestrian/bike infrastructure already in place. If I need to cross west over Aurora, then I can use the crossing at 92nd or the ped bridge near 100th and continue on. Contrast that to the stroad content from LV where pedestrians really have no other option, it seems. So I'm not sure I agree that we need to pour more money in to revamping Aurora Ave N when it seems to serve the through traffic purposes it's designed for already. Would it be nice if it were less pedestrian-hostile? Absolutely! But the city has done some great things for pedestrian/bike uses just a few blocks over which still give nearby access to the efficient E line. Why not find a way to channel more users over to those facilities to increase use instead? Seems like a better return on investment to me.

[@danieldaniels7571]

Living in Phoenix I always wonder why so many pedestrians and cyclists choose to be on hostile stroads when there are nearby adjacent parallel streets that are pleasant to walk or ride on.

[@yaroslavkrymov9955]

Watching from Edmonton Canada. Love your videos. Please talk about the history of cities from villages to industrial revolution to where we are today. How did the invention of Cars and Fridges change our cities, .... please talk about how cities were chaped by discrimination...

[@garyholt8315]

check out his video on s edmt common

[@yaroslavkrymov9955]

@@garyholt8315 is there a link for it?

[@garyholt8315]

@@yaroslavkrymov9955 the video is called "what makes power centres bad for cities"

[@JulianOShea]

Just stayed here on my transit tour of USA. Great to see some deep analysis. There was a weekend market on and the redevelopment project was there sharing the proposals, getting resident feedback.

[@Szergej33]

Actually park and go in. lol. I never understood how can you eat a full meal in a car? Like sure a wrapped burger you can munch on. But even something as generic as a BigMac, or anything that requires 2 hands to eat is out of the questin, and you cant wash your hands so you'll jsut make everything greasy. Or you drive-thru, take it home and eat the 20 minute cold food? Please enlighten me how the drive-thru functions, I just cannot imagine what happens after you get ur food from a window.

[@danieldaniels7571]

Most usually after leaving the drive thru I go home or to the break room at work to eat, and am often ordering for multiple people.

[@manzell]

Oh man. Walked that footbridge every day :D brings back memories.

[@Pyrochemik007]

Replace 2 lanes with trams. Replace other 2 lanes with tree alley. Remaining one lane is what remains for cars. Pedestrians get islands to cross safely. Re-zone the area for mid rises, mixed commercial, offices and residential. Build bus lanes 90° to tramline, feeding passengers to it and the lightrail showed here.

[@SirKenchalot]

Do speed/traffic cameras reduce accidents or just make money for municipalities? I saw a video just yesterday about LA voting to remove a bunch of rolling right-turn cameras since they were only allegedly put in to raise revenue. As a non-driver I say 'put cameras everywhere' and catch those bad drivers wherever they are but I'm not sure everyone feels the same.

[@jasonreed7522]

Its pretty much so proven that red light cams are just revenue generators for everyone involved. (They are paid for by a revenue share program so 20% of every ticket goes to the company that installed them. And they are frequently timed to give out false tickets and not understand the concept of the "clearance time" where all ways are red at once so the cars can finish clearing the intersection.)

[@sammyrice1182]

They work! Don't believe the anti-racism ideology about them.

[@danieldaniels7571]

Ah yeah.... Shout out to Road Guy Rob!!!

[@stevengordon3271]

It would be great if they were only used to determine what happened in accidents and to penalize only egregious red light running, but then they would not generate sufficient revenue to pay for themselves.

[@michaelkalus7802]

Considering Vancouver often gets mentioned, I think it would be "nice" to take a look at the outlying areas of the rest of Metro Vancouver. Stroads aplenty still and only a little bit of desire, it seems, to change this. Though with the kicking out of the BC Liberals (no relation to the Feds) and the NDP coming in, maybe things will start changing in those areas finally as well.

[@patrickmazza7055]

As someone rear-ended on Aurora at 85th, I laughed when you called this out as the stroad-meets-stroad disaster. I generally try to stay off the street. Appreciate the sense of wry humor you bring to your stuff.

[@arbarrro]

I would love to see something about the impact of a stroad on an area's retail landscape. I just moved to Northgate and I've had to interact with Aurora on my bike way more often than I would like. Need to drop off a UPS package? Gotta go to Aurora. Get my cat's prescription cat food? PetSmart on Aurora. Closest Asian market that has those aloe drinks I like? Aurora. Hardware? Unless I want to venture to the U District or Ballard, the Home Depot on Aurora is really my only option.

[@rossbleakney3575]

I hear you in general, but the Ace hardware on Maple Leaf is excellent and just up the hill from Northgate. A bit steep for a bike, but not a bad walk (depending on where you are in Northgate). The 67 bus will get there as well.

[@Baselle]

If you want a change in stroad, take Northgate to SODO. 5 blocks west is the Lander St Home Depot.

[@VinnieBrazelton13]

Really liked this video. I know this was mainly a critique but I actually learned a lot. There were lots of things I’ve never thought about. Thank you!

[@avareallymeow]

So happy to see a Seattle episode!

[@BaggyMcPiper]

My apartment is right on Aurora and it's pretty audible a lot of the time, though fortunately I'm on a higher floor. It makes the rent cheap, but hearing hundreds of members of a motorcycle "club" thunder past a few times a month gets pretty old. I do, however, delight in the street sweeper's regular visits.

[@rpvitiello]

It’s interesting how NJ handles strodes differently than most of the USA. Here they are usually closer to interstates with a center divider, no left turns at all, right hand exists, and overpasses for almost all cross traffic. If roads don’t have overpasses, and it’s too long of a stretch for pedestrians, they will often put in a pedestrian crossing light that will stop the strode, only for pedestrians to cross. They won’t allow any cross car traffic.

[@hackbug77]

15:40 the cars in the leftmost lane of the right side look like they're facing the wrong way. Did aurora have variable direction lanes back in the day?

[@davidbarts6144]

I believe it did. Years ago, I think I heard someone mention it. Was way before my time (before they built I-5).

[@dwc1964]

tbh when I rode my motorcycle from San Francisco to Puget Sound every year on vacation, I usually took 99 through central Oregon instead of I-5 because I just couldn't stand the superslab. And it's exactly the same stroad. I'd like to see that whole stretch, and every one like it, redesigned so that the fast-moving thru-traffic is isolated from slower, local street-use traffic, with a high-speed BRT and/or tram, protected bicycle lanes and sidewalks.

[@hahnbot]

Topic suggestion: Back to school edition. How do cities' school transportation options (walking/biking, bussing, public transit, parents driving) impact traffic/mobility, and vise versa? I'm shocked every year by how radically traffic changes at the start of the school year. I live in St. Louis and in a relatively short commute (~3 mi) I pass 3 public elementary schools, 1 private religious grade school, 1 charter and a daycare; so I'm probably an outlier. A portion of that stretch includes a bus route and is slated for a protected bike lane. St. Louis like a lot of cities has a complex relationship with public v private v charter schools connected to segregation, white flight, displacement etc.

[@asa466]

Topic suggestion: you should talk more about car dealerships. A big empty lot near where I live in South Salt Lake, Utah, an area which is currently experiencing a housing affordability crisis due to lack of supply, is soon to become a Porsche dealership. Word on the street is the sales tax revenue from luxury car sales is a huge incentive for the city.

[@JBoulter11]

Ahhh! This is amazing, I have lived right next to that Aurora-85th intersection (on Linden) and it's an absolute nightmare getting to and from I5 along 85th. I never wanted to walk that area because it felt so unsafe. Only had to do it once, but that was enough. Now I live near Aurora around 167th and it's much better up north, especially with the bike trial. Now I'm mostly happy to walk in my area. I'm super on board with giving this area some love, and I'm now hopeful that it may improve in the future. Thank you for teaching me so much about my neighborhood!

[@elizabethjoslin111]

So grew up in vegas, lived in Seattle after that, kow coming up on 15 years in Texas. For the love of God, the number of storage units here is WILD. Rivals the numbers of churches per capita but more for land use I imagine.

[@TheTetrapod]

You hit the nail on the head in regards to sidewalks in North Seattle. I had never known the reason, but that makes perfect sense. I live just north of the old city limits and the pavement situation around here is a nightmare, but my walk to work in Ballard is pretty pleasant once I cross 85th. Looking forward to the redevelopment!

[@emhexa4641]

I grew up in shoreline just north of where you left off and definitely felt the sting of car dependency when I was young. I lived in a pretty walkable area for a suburb, but I still needed my parents to drive me pretty much anywhere and sidewalks weren't really a thing unless you were going down one or two specific streets. definitely gonna be using this to help teach this stuff to friends and family

[@mmp0625]

Knowing there's a new CityNerd video on Wednesdays keeps me going through the week 🙃

[@Dogod2]

I grew up on Long Island, New York. It's full of stroads just like this. The crazy thing is, 30 miles outside NYC the density is basically the same as what's shown in this video, which is _inside_ the city limits of Seattle. I understand the NY metro area is so much bigger, but still.

[@jasonhilgefort5184]

as someone who does urban design for a living internationally and used to practice in the US... i very much appreciate this focus on stroads and breaking things down in a fairly detailed manner... but like is often the case international examples are used a bit casually [not a shot at you, but a note on most planning documents in usa imo]... i would suggest a topic of 'best cases' from other places of 'stroads', with a similar breaking down of detail elements to illustrate the points. there are many examples from europe [old examples as reference], latin america [more conversion examples] and asia [new examples with some good practices] that can provide different lessons imo. no matter what, love the channel and appreciate what you do and your tone in these pieces.

[@drivers99]

My old stomping grounds. I used to live (Queen Anne and then closer to that Bitter Lake area) and work (near that cemetery) up and down Aurora. I made the mistake of trying to live car-free once near 145th between Aurora Ave and I-5. I know now that has a very low walk score. Aurora bridge has a lot of problems. It's designed with three lanes in both directions with no divider and there have been a lot of bad accidents. I see they added plastic lane designators; what a joke. I see they also added a high fence along the route. Sadly, my ex's friend's boss jumped off the bridge years ago; I wasn't going to mention it until I saw that they added that fence. In 1998 right after I moved there, someone shot a bus driver on the bridge and it crashed through the barrier and landed on an apartment building. I also used to take the bus up Aurora by bus; it would have been great to have the E line with its (semi-)dedicated lane and 3-5 minute times! And the light rail wasn't built yet either.

[@CityNerd]

Yeah, I remember that bus incident and the fence going up. Aurora Bridge was always a tragic place.

[@_d0ser]

Shoutout to neglected Rt 40 in Baltimore. Awful stroad all the way, awfully maintained.

[@AxisXY]

I have fond memories of when I moved to Seattle in November 1986 and I took the 359 bus to Chubby and Tubby on Aurora Ave to buy a $5.00 Christmas tree which I hung from a hook in the ceiling in my apartment on Belmont Street because I was too poor to afford a stand for it. Chubby and Tubby wrapped my tree with so I could bring my tree home on the bus.

[@rcfanatic2000]

Manchester Rd. in St. Louis is pretty much exactly the same thing. Formerly Route 66 and State Hwy 100, and it’s slowly been pushed into being a massive commercial center and it’s a nightmare. There’s so many traffic lights, and shit right off the street. And then they ran out of space so they started making stacked shopping centers, with two new ones right behind the old one off the same road. Just incredible development. Also random video idea, it might be interesting to find historical aerials of an area as it developed. To document the constant expanding car dependency into the bullshit we have now.

[@ACGreyhound04]

That pedestrian bridge in Seattle reminds me of some of the worst neglected pedestrian bridges in and around Boston. At one of these, crossing over a light rail track at the JFK-UMass stop on the outskirts of the city, a man actually DIED after he fell through a corroded metal stairway. Another such crossing is over a mile long, stretching over the gigantic park-and-ride lot at Wellington, one of the outlying orange line stops. The ancient concrete supports are spalling, exposing the rusted rebar inside. The whole thing rattles and sways when more than a few people use it at once.

[@mrbananaman8032]

Please do Woodward in Detroit. The first concrete "highway" ever made that feels like it was the birth of stroads. Also, Michigan U turns (through the median in the center).

[@fezzyfestoon]

I lived a block off Aurora down by the bridge for a few years and it literally just felt like a blank strip of land through the neighborhood. You’d avoid driving on it, there weren’t any useful businesses, and you CERTAINLY didn’t walk on it. You’d just find your way around or across it and move on.

[@michaelcullinan8705]

Your content is getting way better. This video is awesome.

[@Affalterbach1967]

Fast food on Route 99 needs a mention of the teriyaki place that opened around 1996 (though maybe that was in Lunnwood or Everett).

[@t.a.k.palfrey3882]

Knowing the Pacific Northwest quite well, it always surprised me that Seattle appeared to learn nothing from its neighbour, Vancouver BC, when it came to limiting road construction in the city. This is one area of town planning in which there is no middle road (forgive the pun). One is either pro people or pro automobile. Vancouver took the right path.

[@arabcadabra8863]

Check out the intersection of Hwy 99 & 320th St in Federal Way. If you're into large areas of blacktop, that is.

[@RipCityBassWorks]

The parallels between Aurora in Seattle and 82nd in Portland are astounding.

[@davidbarts6144]

As recently as 25 years ago, Aurora Ave N. in Shoreline used to be every bit as bad as it is in Seattle. The then newly-incorporated City of Shoreline made improvements to it. The current state of affairs in North Seattle is totally on Seattle for sitting and doing nothing for so long. Glad to see they might finally take some action.

[@PalmelaHanderson]

I recently discovered what I think is close to ideal for stroad conversion - N Interstate Avenue in Portland. It runs parallel to I-5 (hence the name, I think), so its necessary function as a road was already questionable. When Portland decided to build the yellow line, they had it run up Interstate to the Expo Center. The middle two lanes got converted into separated tram track. The trams don't get stuck in traffic because cars can't cross over them except at intersections, and even at intersections, the trams get priority. There's also no street parking on most of the road. The result is a transit-friendly experience.

[@PCSPounder]

Also known as 99W. This means it was basically the same US Highway that also includes present-day Aurora. (99E used MLK, of course). 82nd is definitely a good subject, but I also think Barbur Boulevard (99W south of downtown) probably merits a look. It is the next target for the Portland light rail system, but the state of Oregon resists taking a more holistic look at Barbur because they see it as “the easy detour route if I-5 gets clogged.” Meanwhile, since the west side is primarily grid-resistant due to topography, there’s some limitations on what can be done, but you can see the redevelopment opportunities where stations are planned. Then there’s the suburb of Tigard, who has apparently convinced regional authorities that their “downtown transit center” shouldn’t link to light rail, while the despairing west side commuter rail line stops there.

[@Rubycon99]

I wish some of these "stroady" areas would look into more pedestrian bridges like the ones you showed, particularly at big intersections. The times I've made the unwise decision to walk in these sorts of places, it's always been maddening to finally get to a crossing and stand there for 10 minutes while everyone takes their turn.

[@iangorham2247]

Right near that area - live near the bottom end, used to work near the top end, and MAN does this hit the nail on the head. Pretty much impossible to walk or bike until you get to that north most pedestrian bridge. Great bike access 2 blocks west, that somehow struggles to connect to 99 proper. Impossible to walk or bike anywhere unless you have a death wish, and very infrequent ped crossings. It actually gets worse in some ways when you go south. Once you get near West Lake, the commercial density and use-quality in the area picks up drastically (so there's more reasons to cross) even while ped crossings become less frequent, and they put in a big Ole concrete barrier so you can't dart through traffic even if you're ok becoming windshield-dressing Has turned so many 5 minute walks into 20 minute hikes (go 5 blocks up, across a clumsy bridge with a ton of stairs, 5 blocks down because your choice is that or walking just as far and dealing with Mercer). Seriously, desperately needs some love.

[@nkm6789]

Grew up near this section of Aurora, this brings me back. Just appalling how bad it is for pedestrians. With the good bus line, movie theater, and decent frequency of restaurants, it has the potential to be very livable, but instead you have no sidewalk, infrequent crosswalks (and traffic too fast to comfortably jaywalk), and long stretches of car dealerships between points of pedestrian interest. The cemetery somehow felt like a bright spot; at least it's green. Hope the effort to revitalize can have a real impact