“Rather than ‘war on bikes’, I’m suggesting ‘peace on wheels,’” said Councilmember Sally Bagshaw during the Bike to Work Day rally at City Hall. Wonderful weather helped put the number of people biking this year an estimated 43 percent higher than in 2010, with 22,704 people counted at commute stations around the city.
The number of people commuting on the Eastside were also way up. Gene at Biking Bis was in Bellevue covering the day. The downtown Bellevue commute station saw 500 people on bikes, which is 200 more than last year, he reports.
Overall, it’s just a lot of fun to see so many people on bikes. Bike to Work Day is evidence that the people of Seattle want to ride, but there are still barriers preventing many of them from doing it every day. The number of people riding downtown is growing fast (40 percent in the last three years, Cascade’s John Mauro told people at the Bike to Work Day rally). Investments in infrastructure are paying off, but we need to do better and take on some more difficult projects if we are going to tap into the vast reserve of “interested but concerned” potential riders in our city. Neighborhood Greenways are an important part of this goal, but so are projects like cycle tracks downtown, a safer route to Georgetown and a safer Ballard Bridge.
If the city can make it so the only impediments to cycling are the hills and the weather, our bike lanes will be overflowing.
