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Festival Street

LOC-FES-08
Recommended Local

Festival Street

A Local street designed to convert between full vehicle access and a pedestrian-and-bicycle-only event space, on a schedule rather than permanently.

Typical at: Urban Core

Compact is an edge case. Undeveloped, Rural, and Suburban are unlikely pairings.

#Speed and modal hierarchy

SPEEDLIMIT20
Vehicle access is excluded entirely during scheduled events. Outside of events, the Local default applies: 20 mph hard maximum, no exceptions.

#Design notes

The dual-mode design, full street for events and normal Local operation otherwise, is what distinguishes this from a permanent Pedestrian-only Street or Plaza. It requires enough event demand and foot traffic to justify the conversion, which is why it concentrates at Urban and Core density.1

Pedestrian-only Street / Plaza (LOC-PED-09) (the permanent version of what this pattern does on a schedule), School Street (LOC-SCH-11) (shares this pattern's schedule-based structure, per both pages' Design notes)

#References

  1. Precedent-based Seattle Municipal Code §11.14.203, "Festival Streets."(opens in new tab)

Suggest changes to this page (opens in new tab) Text-only version Last updated September 26, 2026