To Improve a STROAD: How One City Is Reimagining an Orphan Highway // Aurora Avenue in Seattle

When the US interstate system was built in the 1950s and 60s, it relegated the previously built state highways to what seems like an eternal purgatory: not that useful anymore for pure speed and mobility, but too far gone to be useful as urban main streets. Just...caught in between.

This is the textbook definition of a stroad: an urban or suburban street that attempts to have the mobility function of a highway, while also trying to fulfill the residential, commercial and community functions of an urban street. Orphan highway all over the US are in this middling state, and you can see why -- all the new federal and state investment went to freeways (and still does), and these legacy highways, which often grew organically from pre-automobile trade routes, were left largely unattended.

So today's video is a case study on an orphan state highway, State Route 99 in north Seattle, AKA Aurora Avenue. We'll do a field visit and look at all the ways Aurora fails the people who live, work, and play there, examine the legacy of north Seattle's substandard urban infrastructure, and look at recent improvements to transit that might be a starting point for a better future.

Finally, we'll talk about how advocacy groups, the City, WSDOT, and King County Metro are coming together to reimagine the street, and how Aurora attracted $50 million in this year's state infrastructure package to make real changes on one of the street's most challenged segments.

Hope you enjoy!

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Twitter: @nerd4cities
Instagram: @nerd4cities

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Previous CityNerd Videos Referenced:
- The Stroad Ecosystem:    • The Stroad: A Case Study // Intended ...  
- Stroad Intersections:    • Stroad vs. Stroad: Land Use, Traffic ...  
- Pedestrian Bridges:    • Pedestrian Overcrossings: The Bad, th...  
- Power Centers:    • What Makes POWER CENTERS Bad for Citi...  

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Resources:
- https://www.got99problems.org/
- https://www.seattle.gov/transportatio...
- https://mynorthwest.com/3391829/state...
- https://www.seattlepi.com/local/seatt...
- https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-...
- https://www.seattle.gov/documents/dep...
- https://kingcounty.gov/depts/transpor...
- https://kingcounty.gov/depts/transpor...
- https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-...
- https://www.zillow.com/homes/green-la...
- https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Dep...
- https://seattleforeveryone.org/
- https://www.theurbanist.org/2022/05/1...
- https://www.seattlesubway.org/
- https://seattlegreenways.org/
- https://www.theurbanist.org/2022/06/1...

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Images
- Seattle Video by Meysam Soheili httpswww.pexels.comvideodrone-footage-of-space-needle-4970296
- I-5 construction through North Seattle By Seattle Municipal Archives from Seattle, WA - Seattle Municipal Archives, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Dicks Drive In Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives identifier 168533
- 102nd Pedestrian Overpass Grand Opening Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives identifier 66675
- Aurora 1958 Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives identifier 58170
- Aurora 1963 Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives identifier 44683
- Aurora Bridge construction 1931 Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives identifier 4819
- North of Aurora Bridge 1932 Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives identifier 5818
- Aurora at 41st Street 1936 Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives identifier 10991
- Aurora 1961 Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives identifier 69397
- Aurora Bridge construction no. 2 1931 Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives identifier 139748
- I-5 construction Ravenna Courtesy of the Seattle Municipal Archives identifier 197970

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Music:
CityNerd background: Caipirinha in Hawaii by Carmen María and Edu Espinal (YouTube music library)

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Inquiries: [email protected]