It’s time for the Bike News Roundup!
First up, University of Tennessee Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Chris Cherry and graduate students Ziwen Ling and Nirbesh Dhakal recently documented a ton of bike crashes at a single railroad crossing (hmm, this reminds me of a certain “missing” trail in Ballard…). Not only did they publish their findings, they also put together this video:
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Pacific Northwest News
- Should bike owners have to pay a licensing fee to ride on city streets? | The Seattle Times – No.
- Early plans shared for development between 25th Avenue NE and the Burke-Gilman Trail – Ravenna-Bryant Community Association
- Arlington bike shop burglary caught on camera | King 5
- Judge tosses speeding ticket in Seattle school zone over wordy city sign | The Seattle Times
- Seattle App Puts a Dollar Amount on Traffic Death – Next City
- Driver Arrested in Fatal Car/Pedestrian Collision | SPD Blotter
- Flaggers threaten Metro Vancouver bridge shutdown over hit and run – BC | Globalnews.ca
- Should Seattle bike owners have to pay a licensing fee? Here’s what some readers think | The Seattle Times – Still no.
- Innovative Street Design and Accessibility | SDOT Blog
- #BallotGuide — Michael Maddux (dot org)
- When A Changemaker Runs For Mayor: An Interview With Nikkita Oliver
- Does SDOT show preferential treatment to cyclists at expense of disabled people? | KIRO-TV
- City to evaluate use of pedestrian crossing flags – City of Bellevue – If you think you need pedestrian crossing flags, what you really need is a safer crosswalk design. People driving must be compelled to stop for a person in a crosswalk whether they are swinging Dayglo flags or not. Anything less is failure.
- Beacon Hill Safety Project Riles Neighbors » The Urbanist
- Tacoma city council member wants to study fast ferry service to Seattle | KIRO-TV
- Settlement: Seattle to build thousands of sidewalk curb ramps over next 18 years | The Seattle Times
- The C Is for Crank Endorses: Jessyn Farrell – The C Is for crank
- 7-year-old put adults to shame when they tried passing him in grueling bike ride | KIRO-TV
- Transcript: Seattle mayoral debate | KING5.com
- “I no longer feel alone”: Theft victim on bike tour showered with support – BikePortland.org
- Sorry, Seattle, your climate change ‘leadership’ hasn’t made much of a dent | KUOW
- Caving to Resentment Politics, Oregon Enacts a Bike Tax – Streetsblog USA
- Stop Blaming Foreign Home Buyers | Sightline Institute
- UW master plan doesn’t have enough for transit, child care, affordable housing, group says | The Seattle Times
- Enhancing Safety in Little Saigon | SDOT Blog
- Could a new type of bike share be successful in Seattle? | KUOW
- Roosevelt RapidRide Predictably Scales Back Bike Plans » The Urbanist
- Who votes in Seattle mayoral elections? Older voters hold sway, study says | The Seattle Times
- Illicit skatepark on Green Lake’s Duck Island: Cops called on bowl built in bird habitat | The Seattle Times
- Seattle police are writing fewer jaywalking tickets, but high rate still issued to black pedestrians | The Seattle Times
- LimeBike bike share rolls out in Seattle – Curbed Seattle
- My First 100 Days As Mayor: Housing Affordability Emergency Plan | @CaryMoon4Mayor
National & Global News
Halftime show! Vox recently interviewed Donald Shoup for a quick reminder that land use rules in most of America require free homes for cars even while homes for people get more and more expensive:
- Urban myth busting: Congestion, idling, and carbon emissions | City Observatory
- Another effort underway to start a bike-share system in St. Louis | Along for the Ride | stltoday.com
- China’s ‘dockless’ bike sharing could be coming to a street near you | CNN
- Arrests over China ‘straddling bus’ project | BBC News
- Sadiq Khan pledged to help cyclists – so why is he such a stick in the wheel? | Environment | The Guardian
- Manchester Mobike review – better than London’s ‘Boris bikes’ | Environment | The Guardian
- How Napping Subway Commuters Know When They’re at Their Stop — Science of Us
- Are Reckless Driving and Biking Morally Equivalent? An Ethicist Weighs In – Streetsblog Chicago
- GUEST COLUMN: Must reframe narrative of ‘cars versus bikes’ | Wicked Local Cambridge
- When Will Climate Change Make the Earth Too Hot For Humans? | NY Mag
- Umbrella-sharing startup loses nearly all of its 300,000 umbrellas in a matter of weeks: Shanghaiist
- San Francisco issues permit rules for stationless bike shares | SF Chronicle
- Factors influencing single-bicycle crashes at skewed railroad grade crossings – ScienceDirect
- On Your Bike, Watch Out for the Air – The New York Times
- Bikeshare expansion blocked in the Mission over gentrification fears – The San Francisco Examiner
- ksdk.com | Driver in critical condition after vehicle lands on roof
- Austin bike crashes on the decline | KEYE
- Sen. Ray Scott calls for tax on bicycles to help pay for Colorado roads | Colorado Politics
- Atlanta Erases Major New Bike Lane Segment, Replaces It With Parking – Streetsblog USA
- It’s Official: Mexico City Eliminates Mandatory Parking Minimums – Streetsblog USA
- It has begun: Oregon-inspired tax on bicycles spreads to Colorado – BikePortland.org
This is an open thread.
Comments
10 responses to “Bike News Roundup: A dangerous rail crossing. No not that one.”
SDOT recently started construction on the new Rainier Valley North-South Neighborhood Greenway. The alignment changed a few times during the planning process, but the final alignment has the greenway running along Renton Ave S heading north from Orcas towards Columbia City.
A portion of that segment of Renton Ave S (from Orcas to 37th Ave S) has no sidewalk on either side of the street. There’s not even really a path along the side of the street for pedestrians or children biking, or a curb for that matter. It’s just asphalt.
I naively assumed that SDOT would be adding sidewalks there as part of turning the route into a “greenway,” but I asked, and they’re not going to.
The response I received from SDOT stated, “The project seeks to make people walking and biking the priority by including elements like 20 mph speed limit signs, speed humps to calm traffic, stop signs for side street crossings, and pavement markings to help people find their way.” It’s hard to understand how people walking and biking can be the priority when there’s no safe and separated path for people to walk or (if they choose to) bike.
I get that we don’t have the money to add sidewalks to all of the, what, 20%? of city blocks that currently lack them. I just think that if we’re going to spend the time, money, and political capital on building “greenways,” we should make sure the word means something. At minimum, a greenway should have a sidewalk, or be closed to cars. Otherwise, I really don’t understand the point.
On the Rainier greenway – I just studied the contract drawings a couple days ago and was happy to see the speed humps and bumps on Renton Ave near Brandon. A much needed improvement. Considering the low bid was just over $1.7M for then entire greenway it’s understandable that only certain corners get remodeled sidewalks. This section of Renton Ave experiences major speeding so many neighbors will greatly appreciated the traffic calming features even if they’ll still be scared to let their kids wait for the bus along this stretch of road.
Are the contract drawings online by any chance? I’d be interested in seeing what specific improvements they’re making. Turning the “traffic circle” at Renton / Brandon / 37th Ave S into a diverter would help (and would probably be cheaper than building a sidewalk), but just adding a speed hump there doesn’t seem sufficient.
https://www.ebidexchange.com/SolicitationDocuments.aspx?cid=eb31bf6e-250d-4d1d-abfb-37cb20108045&uid=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&sid=100435
You have to create a fake account, which is kind of a pain… oh well.
Speaking of the greenway, what happened to the north end?
The 27th Ave NE “greenway” in Lake City also had no sidewalks before it was a greenway, and doesn’t have any now that it is. I agree completely–if SDOT is going to spend money and encourage walkers and bikers, build a frickin’ sidewalk!
For anyone interested to see the Streetview of the worst section of this new section of Greenway that will have no sidewalks:
https://www.google.com/maps/@47.5531221,-122.2859907,3a,75y,335.88h,54.16t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1szcHvnXbccNJCU7Mr7PdDyQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DzcHvnXbccNJCU7Mr7PdDyQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D140.14351%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656
From my experience, you have to put in diverters. Speed bumps just mean the cars speed between the bumps and then brake to slow down to go over them and then speed again. We’ve all seen it.
What needs to be done is reduce the volume of cars on a greenway. Ideally it should be only locals and those visiting the locals who would ever be interested in going down one. Anyone else driving should see that that one street is different than the others in the grid and that it will not be good to drive down. (Or there’s a barrier preventing them from that.)
It can be done in a few ways. At arterials, have the greenway end in bike permeable cul-de-sacs. Then nobody driving down the arterials will turn into a greenway and will use some other street instead.
Make a series of one-way blocks, alternating the direction each block. Two-way for bikes.
I’m guessing that diverters are cheaper than sidewalks per block since you only need some concrete at each end and not concrete along the full length of both sides.
I could almost not bear to watch all those crashes next to the highway. Is there a camera on point at the Ballard crossing?
Based on this video they should. It would be easy enough to mount something under the Ballard Bridge.
Even more interesting than the bike crashes would be how many trains use the track! I always love the irony that the same people who claim nobody uses bike lanes and trails to back their opposition to the missing link also point to the absolute need for a “vital” industrial rail spur that is never used.
Marysville has a similarly oblique RR crossing on Old Hwy 99 / State Ave / Smokey Pt Blvd at about 120th St NE.
https://goo.gl/maps/D2ppbiDzatL2
The sidewalk on the northbound side was recently redesigned to cross the tracks perpendicularly. Northbound cyclists could use it assuming it’s properly signed, but the southbound ones are out of luck?
IMO they should replace the small northbound gravel areas with pavement, preceded by a cycling warning / diagram. Build the same thing on the southbound side.
At least they’re trying.