It’s time for the Bike News Roundup! Here’s a look at some of the bikey stuff floating around the Internet recently.
First up, an apology to all other cities. Dongho Chang is our Traffic Engineer, and you can’t have him. He’s a one-person answer to anyone who has lost faith in government’s ability to serve its people. He’s smart, he listens and he genuinely cares. Watch this King 5 report (on a mobile device, you may need to watch it on King 5’s website):
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Pacific Northwest News
- Official: City ‘knows exactly what we’d do’ if viaduct fails before Bertha is done – Puget Sound Business Journal – Use city streets, of course.
- Seattle Drops Off Top Ten List Of Best Cities For Bicycles. A Good Thing, Says Advocate. | KUOW News and Information
- Cars vs. bikes debate enters new phase in Seattle | Crosscut
- Police want to know who’s dumping nails on Bellevue road | KOMO News
- New website helping owners recover their stolen bikes | KOMO News
- Gov. Inslee: ‘Day could come’ to pull plug on Bertha, but not now | Q13 FOX News
- Pedestrian struck by Ride the Ducks vehicle in downtown Seattle | The Seattle Times
- Small businesses promote safer roads in Seattle | King 5
- Data-Driven Parking Policy Pays Off in Seattle | Streetsblog.net
- Surviving Seattle’s sidewalks: Pedestrian rage rises as the population grows | The Seattle Times – Pedestrian licenses. Seriously. WTF?
- Pike Place Market will subsidize ORCA cards for vendors – Puget Sound Business Journal
- The Hidden Reason Behind Seattle’s Skyrocketing Housing Costs – Features – The Stranger – Spoiler: It’s car parking.
- Dear Mr. Mayor | Sightline Daily
- How Seattle Turned Into A Parking Lot | KUOW News and Information
- Driver sought in Seattle pedestrian hit-and-run | King 5
- What is with the white bikes chained around Seattle? – Local News | MyNorthwest.com
- Why does SDOT close sidewalks, but not parking spaces? | King 5
- Seattle hit-and-run driver calls 911 | King 5
- Kidical Mass Growing in Washington – Washington Bikes
- Seattle’s deadliest red light runner intersections revealed | King 5
- Welcome Our New Reporter: Zach Shaner | Seattle Transit Blog
- Don Brubeck: Connecting West Seattle | People On Bikes
- Inslee takes right route on ‘poison pill’ for pathways | Editorials | yakimaherald.com
- Top primary candidate for Seattle City Council seat pleaded guilty to DUI | The Seattle Times
- Bicycle Master Plan – Planning Division | City of Yakima
- Petition · Redmond Town Center Must ACT NOW to Protect Children! · Change.org
- Take train to Vancouver, then cycle home to Seattle | The Seattle Times
- Are You a Triple Threat? Come be our new Crew Lead/Trail Builder/Bike Park Lead | Evergreen MTB
- No Spandex Required: Rainier Avenue Corridor Project/same old same old routes for me
- By the tens of thousands, Portlanders preview their new car-free bridge (photos) | Bike Portland
- El Centro constructs an answer for affordable housing | The Seattle Times
- The Magic of Bike Camping at Fay Bainbridge State Park | Washington Bikes
- Groups eye separated bike lanes on The Drive | Vancouver 24 hrs
- Ballard Business Letter Supporting SDOT’s Bike Parking Plan | Cascade Bicycle Club – Know any business owners or managers in Ballard? Make sure they sign this!
- Seattle City Council likely to send elevated viaduct park to voters even though it’s ‘inconsistent’ with waterfront plan – Puget Sound Business Journal
- Creating a Bicycle Friendly Ellensburg – Washington Bikes
- Making the Ballard Bridge Safe for Cyclists: One of Us Has to Die or All of Us Have to Act – Slog – The Stranger
- Driver hits pedestrian south of downtown Seattle | The Seattle Times
- Bicyclist killed in Tacoma intersection | The News Tribune
- Davey Oil: The Radical Activist Pushing Family Bikes in the Mainstream | The Bicycle Story
- WSP: Man had phone to ear moments before fatal I-90 crash | KOMO News
Halftime Show! This Vision Zero vigil in New York City was incredibly powerful. This doesn’t need to keep happening. We can stop it.
Vision Zero Vigil with Families for Safe Streets (Union Square) from STREETFILMS on Vimeo.
National & Global News
- Why I’m Done Wearing a Helmet | The Spokesman-Review
- Family of hit-and-run victim angry as Chesterfield woman gets probation in crash : STL Today
- Pooping cyclist started Idaho foothills fire, officials say – CBS News
- Disabled People Must Make Themselves Visible – NYTimes.com
- A New Report Outlines Design Strategies for Reducing Traffic Fatalities – CityLab
- How Groningen invented a cycling template for cities all over the world | Cities | The Guardian
- Why Male Cyclists Are Accusing This Bike Co-op of Discrimination | Bicycling – Oh, geez. Get over it, dudes!
- Sacramento police say bait bikes’ crime-fighting role goes beyond deterring bicycle thefts | The Sacramento Bee
- DRIVE Act Passes Full Senate | League of American Bicyclists
- A Tale of Two Bicycle Cities: Editorializing in Kansas City and St. Louis | nextSTL
- When Denver Added Bike Lanes to Larimer Street, Retail Sales Skyrocketed | Streetsblog Denver
- Pennsylvania Rep Wants to Mandate Reflective Clothes for Biking at Night | Streetsblog.net
- Appeals Court: Plaza Hotel Can’t Get Citi Bike Rack Removed | NBC New York
- Australia to examine mandatory cycle helmet law | road.cc
- A Breathalyzer Bike Lock Makes You Blow Clean Before Cycling | gizmodo
- Davis Dutch intersection, first ever in U.S., unveiled with no drama | Davis Enterprise
- One image shows what cities would look like without cars – The Washington Post – Those cool 2nd Ave driving/biking/transit images are still going around, make it onto the Washington Post’s Wonkblog.
- A car MELTS in the sun during a heatwave of 100F in Italy | Daily Mail Online
- Dissecting That Road Rage Video Where the Driver Chases the Cyclist and Lands on His Face | VICE | United Kingdom
- Remains of St. Charles man hit on Highway 370 not recognized as human for hours : STL Today – Highways are nightmares. What have we created?
- The Dutch Have a Strong Car Culture — and Stronger Bike Infrastructure | Streetsblog.net
- In L.A., efforts are afoot to make bike share a genuine part of the transit network « The Transport Politic
- The Senate passed a surprisingly good transportation bill | Grist
- Driver flees after hitting cyclists in bike lane | FOX5 San Diego
- Man is Shot and Killed by the Officers He Called to Help Search for Stolen Bike. Is it a Livable Streets Issue? | Streetsblog Los Angeles
- Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on the Highway—With Me in It | WIRED
- How railroads, highways and other man-made lines racially divide America’s cities – The Washington Post
- Citi Bike Workers in New York Get Union Contract – The New York Times
- Group of cyclists building tiny, off-grid house in the woods | PostIndependent.com
This is an open thread.
Comments
7 responses to “Bike News Roundup: Our city’s Traffic Engineer is better than yours”
Haven’t seen this covered on the blog yet; SNG’s PARK(ing) Day design competition: http://seattlegreenways.org/blog/2015/07/26/parking-day-2015-design-competition/
Deadline for entries is this Sunday.
My totally unscientific observation is that SDOT-related problems reported on Twitter are more likely to get fixed (and get fixed more quickly) than problems reported via Find It, Fix It. Part of this is probably because the city, for whatever reason, has decided to not make Find It, Fix It requests public (unlike nearly every other city that uses the same app), so problems reported that way can be swept under the rug. Reporting stuff on Twitter circumvents this.
Do other folks here use Find It, Fix It, or has everyone just given up on that and moved over to Twitter?
I’ve mostly given up on Find It Fix It, other than for basic potholes. Half the time, I don’t even get a response. I get mixed results the other half of the time. I’ve had the SAME EXACT ISSUE reported on both Twitter and Find It Fix It; SDOT told me via email that it was a non-issue that wouldn’t be fixed*, while on Twitter I was told that SDOT would fix it.
* A sidewalk closure, of course, just like in the K5 video. :)
I’ve found Find It, Fix It works well for genuinely broken infrastructure — collapsed drain grates, potholes, knocked over poles — things that are unambiguously broken, where the repair is straightforward and doesn’t require any policy judgement or interpretation. But I wouldn’t use it for requesting changes in infrastructure or enforcement.
Over a year ago I reported, through Find It Fix It, that awful spot on the Duwamish trail where it’s essentially the east sidewalk of 99 and there’s a giant tree root buckling the pavement while you’re right next to fast-moving traffic. No response.
Dongo does a great job, especially considering the political environment surrounding Seattle transportation issues.
I’m not sure who dongo is, but that would great if he could help fix bad roads around Seattle. I bicycle ride and bus ride on some very beat up, rough roads, that can pose a danger for bicycle riders and possible buses, I have plenty of experience with bad roads in Seattle and other urban areas in the puget sound. Hopefully he can help solve complicated transportation problems. In ballard for example I was through there recently during rush our traffic on the 15 bus. Even if we replaced the bridge and put one or two safe wide non motor vehicle paths( like on the i 90 floating bridge) how are we going to make the rest of the road safe for bicycles, without making traffic worse. If you want to find out what i’m taking about, go to ballard yourself, or look at videos and pictures of the mess. Hopefully we can turn infrastructure that was built for the automobile back in the day, more balanced transportation options now and in the future.