Business owners and citizens from the Junction Neighborhood Council met with Seattle Department of Transportation officials on Jan. 11 to hear the latest in the evolving plans for RapidRide C Line and provide feedback.

RapidRide C Line, planned for completion in 2012, “will replace Metro’s Route 54 along Fauntleroy Way s.w. and California Avenue s.w. between Westwood and downtown Seattle via the Alaska Junction,” according to SDOT’s website.

It is SDOT’s solution to “keep people moving throughout the day in this heavily used transit corridor” with planned stops every ten minutes.

The catch is that SDOT needs to provide as much unimpeded travel time for the buses to keep to the ten minute pickups and quick transit times. This means alteration of the route from Westwood to the West Seattle bridge, often times taking out parking, bike or current traffic lanes and converting them to BAT (business access and transit) lanes, which will be dedicated bus lanes.

“It should be a lot quicker than current bus systems,” said Christine Alar with SDOT. “We want to try to keep the buses moving and keep it reliable so you know when it says ‘every ten minutes’ we can keep to that schedule.”

Business owners and community members have been meeting with SDOT officials periodically to provide feedback on the ever-changing plan, voicing concerns over lost parking and traffic congestion and the Junction Neighborhood Council meeting was the latest forum.

The meeting, held at the West Seattle Senior Center, was focused primarily on the route as it affects the Junction area and s.w. Alaska St.

Council members discussed the removal of traffic lanes along Alaska St. as it passes 41st Ave s.w. Many vehicles turn left onto 41st traveling westbound and the current plans have no room for a dedicated left-turn lane. Since there will only be one westbound lane of traffic on Alaska, people turning left could back up traffic often.

Alar, with SDOT’s Transit Planning and Policy division, said there is no room for a dedicated left turn lane and they would look at that issue further. One suggestion from the crowd was to make it illegal to make a left turn onto 41st.

Another area of concern is the bus stop at the intersection of Alaska and California Ave (west of the intersection). SDOT currently plans to have two lanes: a left turn only lane (onto northbound California) and a through lane at the bus stop. Council members were concerned that most vehicles will be headed eastbound continuing on Alaska and anytime a bus is stopped congestion will occur.

SDOT officials also provided an update on the BAT lane planned for s.w. Avalon Way as it heads to Spokane St. Business owners along Avalon have expressed worry over the loss of parking along the east side of the road leading to a loss of business.

SDOT plans to meet with the Luna Park Merchants Group on February 2 at 10 a.m. to discuss the latest information resulting from a parking study they did the first week of January.

As the plan currently stands (but always up for revision), SDOT has reduced the center turn lane to maintain 15 parking spots on the south end of Avalon, past s.w. Bradford St. 15 current parking spots are planned for removal to make room for the BAT lane.

The parking study also revealed “poorly used two hour parking” along the west side of Avalon where Alar saw vehicles abusing the system and parking in two-hour zones all day. She said SDOT will look at better parking enforcement along the west side of Avalon to encourage more vehicle turnover.

SDOT’s goal for RapidRide bus stops is to keep them to 20 seconds at a maximum, a goal aided by the bus design which has three doors people can use to get on and off.

“It’s a challenge because what we are looking at is facilitating RapidRide and keeping the ‘rapid’ in RapidRide and reliability is really what we are looking at,” Alar said.

“We do listen and we do really want to work with everyone,” she said to the 24 people in attendance.

To see a map of the RapidRide C Line route, please click the PDF link at the top of the story. For more information on SDOT’s RapidRide plans, visit http://www.kingcounty.gov/transportation/kcdot/MetroTransit/RapidRide/AboutRapidRide.aspx.