Lake Forest Park council members oppose rapid transit improvements on Bothell Way

At the June 27 meeting, the Lake Forest Park city council debated a proposed letter to Sound Transit opposing a rapid transit bus lane on Bothell Way.

An arial view from the Sound Transit plan shows the proposed northeast-bound bus lane some Lake Forest Park council members oppose (in blue)

The letter, sponsored by Deputy Mayor Lorri Bodi, called the highway a “green residential corridor and city gateway”, and called on Sound Transit to preserve trees and shrubs between 153rd and 165th by removing a proposed northeast-bound bus lane and shrinking a bus station at 165th street. “No other city will face such inequitable impacts,” the letter argued.

Councilmember Semra Riddle declined to sign the letter because it lacked specifics. “We're not Traffic Engineers and so some of these elements I think are overreaching what we are able to say,” she said. Riddle also disagreed the city has suffered unfairly compared to the impact neighboring cities have experienced from mass transit projects. “Yes, we do have disproportionate impacts right now but that's because those impacts have already been made to our neighboring cities.”

The proposed letter asks Sound Transit to remove a northeast-bound Business Access and Transit (BAT) lane between 153rd and 165th Streets - forcing busses to merge into regular traffic. The city and Sound Transit disagree about how much delay this change would cause for bus riders. Sound Transit says the BAT lane will save commuters 2.3 minutes at rush hour while estimates in the Lake Forest Park letter said removal of the BAT lane will delay commuters by 1.5 minutes.

The Stride S3 Line is part of a ballot measure approved by voters in 2016 to add Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) along Bothell Way and 145th Street. Once completed, an all-electric bus fleet will feature station stops with off-board payment and multi-door boarding. - connecting Bothell, Kenmore and Lake Forest Park to the 145th Street Light Rail Station in Shoreline.

Bothell celebrated completion of its BRT improvements in June 2022 but the project has fallen behind schedule and has yet to start in Lake Forest Park. Some Lake Forest Park residents have fought the project and said it would “deforest” the state highway. Last year, the Lake Forest Park city council asked Sound Transit to pause the project and passed regulations requiring retaining walls to have architectural finishes and aesthetic vegetation.

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