Harger: Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson has never owned a car. Now she’s taking a Denny Way lane from 30,000 drivers to fix a bus route
Apr 23, 2026, 7:30 AM | Updated: 3:46 pm
Denny Way already crawls. Everybody who drives it knows that. If you commute into Seattle from the suburbs, you know it in your bones. Recent estimates say 30,000 vehicles a day squeeze through one of the busiest arterials in the city. I used to drive it regularly, and my escape route was always Mercer Street because Denny Way was that bad.
Now, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson wants to take a lane away from those drivers and give it to a bus.
Route 8 has been Seattle’s worst bus for over a decade. Something should change
Route 8 carries about 7,000 riders a day along Denny Way through South Lake Union. During peak hours last summer, eastbound buses arrived on time just 31% of the time. The worst performance ever recorded for the route. Riders have called it “the L8” for so long that a local band wrote a song about it. At Wednesday’s press conference, Fix the L8 co-lead Nick Sattele said the bus travels two miles an hour during rush hour.
“That is slower than walking,” he said. “There are turtles that go faster.”
Something should change. The question is who’s making the decisions, what they believe, and whether they’ve ever once considered your commute.
Wilson called Wednesday’s announcement “probably one of my favorite moments so far as Mayor.” Then she volunteered something worth noting.
“I am one of the 20% and growing proportion of Seattle households that do not own a car,” she said. “I’ve never owned a car.”
The mayor of Seattle, making transportation policy for a corridor carrying 30,000 vehicles a day, has never once sat behind the wheel as the person responsible for getting somewhere on time in traffic. She lives on Capitol Hill. She rides the 8 to Seattle Center with her daughter. That’s a lovely life. It is nothing like the commute from Auburn, Lynnwood, or Kent.
She didn’t come to this as a neutral observer, either. Before she was mayor, Wilson ran the Transit Riders Union. She co-founded a coalition called Move All Seattle Sustainably.
“Back in 2018, we teamed up with other transportation and climate groups,” she told the crowd. “One of our big focuses was pushing for more dedicated bus lanes and more transit priority around the city.”
This executive order wasn’t a response to a problem she discovered in office. This was always the plan.
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Councilmember Rinck celebrated 80,000 new residents but only 3,000 new cars. That math ignores a lot of people
Seattle Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck proudly called herself “your only car-free councilmember.” She told the crowd Seattle has “added 80,000 people in recent years, but only 3,000 additional cars. People are choosing to live here in our city and choosing not to drive.”
If this policy were purely about serving Seattle residents who chose a car-free lifestyle, you could squint and see the logic. You could even argue it’s an incentive to move here. But Denny Way doesn’t just carry Capitol Hill residents hopping on the 8. It carries people driving in from Northgate. From West Seattle. From Ballard. People who live inside Seattle city limits, pay Seattle taxes, and still need their cars because their lives don’t fit neatly on a bus map.
And that stat doesn’t count the thousands who drive into Seattle every day from Shoreline, Renton, Federal Way, and everywhere in between. Those commuters don’t vote on Seattle transportation policy. They just live with the consequences.
Eighty percent of Seattle households still own a car. The policy is being designed by the 20% who don’t, and imposed on everyone else.
Your straight shot from Denny Way to southbound I-5 is gone. Enjoy the detour
The city will install eastbound red Business Access and Transit (BAT) lanes on Denny Way in two phases. Phase 1 starts in May, covering Queen Anne Avenue North to 2nd Avenue. Phase 2 kicks off in August after the FIFA World Cup construction moratorium, extending from 5th Avenue to Stewart Street. BAT lanes still allow local business access, so this isn’t a full bus-only lockout.
But what comes with it is significant.
Right now, if you’re heading east on Denny and need southbound I-5, you hang a right on Yale and you’re on the freeway. Simple. After Phase 2, that straight shot from Denny to Yale is gone. Instead, you’ll turn right on Boren a couple of blocks early, left on Howell, then right onto the freeway at the same onramp you used to reach directly from Yale. The onramp itself stays open. You just can’t get to it the easy way anymore. More turns, more lights, more time sitting in your car wondering who designed this.
And where do the rest of those 30,000 vehicles go when Denny loses a lane? Mercer? Have you driven Mercer lately? There is no relief valve. You’re just squeezing traffic harder and hoping people give up.
Harrell’s SDOT ruled out Seattle bus lanes on Denny Way. Wilson overruled them in her first month
Even Bruce Harrell, the moderate Democrat Wilson replaced as mayor, looked at this idea and passed. As The Urbanist reported, his administration specifically ruled out key Denny Way bus lanes, citing the impact on general traffic congestion.
Wilson overruled that judgment with an executive order in her first month in office.
Maybe it’s time to stop pretending there’s no war on cars in Seattle
For years, Seattle leaders have assured us there’s no war on cars. The city just doesn’t have the capacity for so many single-occupant vehicles. We need to be realistic about space. We need alternatives. Fair enough. Most of us accepted that.
But at what point do we stop taking that at face value? The mayor has never owned a car. She built her career advocating for Seattle bus lanes. Her first executive order targeted drivers on one of the city’s busiest corridors. Rinck is celebrating that new residents aren’t buying cars. Li told the press conference crowd that the RapidRide G project on Madison Street “convinced drivers to leave their cars at home.” We saw the same philosophy on Eastlake Avenue with the RapidRide J Line. Take road space. Remove options. Squeeze cars into fewer lanes. Then point at the bus.
Is it fair to wonder if maybe, just maybe, the war on cars is real? And the people waging it are now running the city?
Seattle keeps making it harder for workers to drive in. Bellevue keeps rolling out the welcome mat
Nobody at that podium spoke for the driver. Not one person represented the commuter sitting on Denny at 5:30 p.m. trying to get home. The entire event was transit advocates talking to transit advocates, celebrating a policy that makes their commute better by making yours worse.
And every time Seattle makes it harder for workers to drive into the city, it makes it easier for companies to leave. Bellevue doesn’t eliminate lanes. Bellevue doesn’t close freeway ramps. Bellevue rolls out the welcome mat while Seattle rolls out the red paint. Businesses have noticed. A lot of them have already made the move.
You can improve Route 8 without punishing everyone who drives Denny Way. Signal priority. Stop consolidation. Better scheduling with Metro. There are ways to make the bus faster without permanently rerouting 30,000 drivers and yanking their straight shot to the freeway.
When the only way to make transit irresistible is to make driving unbearable, you’re not offering people a better option.
You’re taking away the one they have.
Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here.
