What’s a Bus Bulb?
How’s your streetscape?
As a resident of North Everett, I’ve traveled up and down Broadway approximately infinity times.
These days I can pretty much guarantee a rush hour jam headed northbound to Marysville over the flats between 3 and 6 p.m.
So I was excited when I heard about the city’s new “bus bulbs” that are going in on Broadway between 34th and Tower Streets.
This will help connect two developing areas of the city: the Everett Community College campus and the Everett Transit District.
“The $3 million bus bulb infrastructure project will extend 24 existing bus stops into parking lanes on either side of Broadway.”
A rendition/illustration of bus bulbs // Courtesy Everett Transit
The bulbs will allow Everett Transit buses to stop in-lane rather than pulling in and out of the flow of traffic.
This will help to reduce the number of collisions on this congested road. It should also help with those rush-hour backups. But, significantly, it will also make Broadway look better.
Hopeworks Station II is a 67,000 square foot high-rise structure that, along with bus bulbs, will help redefine Broadway Avenue in 2019 // Courtesy Hopeworks
Right now the city is reviewing options for public art installations that will accompany and compliment the bus stops.
I’ve done my share of busing around this town, as well as my share of bicycling, so I was excited to learn that most of the new stops will have new bike racks. They’ll also have new shelters, new benches, and garbage cans.
A bus bulb site under construction // Richard Porter
The city’s road construction crews will be working on the bus bulbs for the next six months or so, starting near 34th and working their way north.
Expect some delays between now and July as bulb builders jackhammer the street and reroute traffic. The city will be working from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays (and also weekends) to try and squeeze construction into non-peak hours.
Your streetscape is about to get a facelift.
Congrats, Everett. You’re gonna look better than ever.
BY THE WAY, WE LOVE EVERETT TRANSIT.
NON-CAR COMMUTERS LOVE EVERETT, TOO.
READ MORE ABOUT HOW NORTH BROADWAY IS CHANGING.
Richard Porter is a writer for Live in Everett.
