Seattle opens bus-only lane on Denny Way

Get ready for changes to your commute. Changes are officially here for one of Seattle’s busiest bus corridors. Several blocks of Denny Way eastbound in Seattle are now bus-only.

The lanes extend from Seattle Center to I-5.

Over the weekend, crews installed the eastbound business access and transit lane between 5th Avenue and Fairview Avenue.

People traveling from eastbound Denny Way to southbound I-5 can no longer use Yale Avenue and are instead directed to turn right on Boren Avenue and left on Howell Street.

Another option is to take Mercer Street to I-5 — which is notoriously bumper-to-bumper during the evening commute.

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Denny Way itself is known for heavy congestion, particularly where buses and cars merge as they head toward the freeway. With the addition of the new lane, the 20,000 other vehicles that take the road each day will now have to squeeze into the remaining lane.

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) said buses carry 7,000 people on that stretch of roadway every day.

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson said the goal of this project is to increase reliability on bus lines in the city, especially Route 8.

Route 8 will also add 50 trips a day, part of King County Metro’s countywide service changes Aug. 29.

Alex Hudson, a senior policy advisor with Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s Office, said previous research showed that separating buses and cars can actually reduce travel times.

“What we saw was contrary to what you might think,” Hudson said. “Travel times for riders and drivers decreased by 15%, so that’s shaving a lot of minutes off your drive time.”

While the ride time may decrease, the traffic likely won’t for those trying to drive to I-5.