SDOT recently refreshed the S Kenyon Street neighborhood greenway, adding proper wayfinding and making other improvements to the 1.1-mile route.
The greenway runs from Beacon Ave S to Seward Park Ave S, connecting to the Chief Sealth Trail, Renton Ave S bike lanes and the Rainier Valley neighborhood greenway at 46the Ave S along the way. It also includes improved crossings at Renton, MLK and Rainier.
Bob Svercl (bobco85 on YouTube) recently made a very informative video showing the route and the various useful connections it makes (transcript). Check it out above.
UPDATE: A GoFundMe has been set up to support his family. “Mike is and always will be an incredible and supportive dad, loving grandpa, best friend, and so much more,” the memorial says. “Mike always put his family first and would give the shirt off his back to anyone in need.”
The man killed while biking near Seward Park Sunday evening has been identified as Mike Colmant. He was 63.
Our condolences to his friends and family.
Colmant was Deputy Director of Boeing Field, and his employer posted a sad memorial note on their website.
“Mike was a true professional who dedicated the last 20-plus years to making King County International Airport-Boeing Field better,” Airport Director John Parrott said. “He was a great colleague and a dear friend. He will be sorely missed.”
Colmant was a triathlete and marathon runner who moved to the area from Canada to work at Boeing Field. He was also a mentor to people looking to get into aviation.
He was biking northbound (downhill) on Seward Park Ave S just east of the intersection with Wilson Ave S when someone driving on the wrong side of the road struck him head-on and killed him. The suspect fled the scene. Police are searching for “a silver, older model compact sedan with a shattered windshield.” The license plate may start with something like “BKU 053.” Anyone with a tip is encouraged to call SPD’s Violent Crimes Tip Line at 206.233.5000.
A memorial has formed near the site of the hit and run, and someone etched “We love you Mike” into a nearby telephone pole.
Approximate location of the fatal hit and run from Google Street View. Image facing south on Seward Park Ave S toward Wilson Ave S.
A person driving on the wrong side of the street struck and killed a man biking toward Seward Park Sunday evening, according to Seattle Police. The suspect then fled the scene.
The man killed was 63. Our condolences to his friends and family.
Police are searching for the suspect, who was driving “a silver, older model compact sedan with a shattered windshield.” The license plate may start with something like “BKU 053.” Anyone with a tip is encouraged to call SPD’s Violent Crimes Tip Line at 206.233.5000.
The victim was biking downhill (northbound) toward the park shortly before 7 p.m. when the suspect drove the wrong way up the northbound lane and struck him head-on, according to police.
This stretch of Seward Park Ave S is part of the very popular Lake Washington Loop bike route. It is a relatively low-traffic street the primarily serves homes and Seward Park itself. It also feeds into Lake Washington Boulevard, a section of which was closed to most cars starting last week. The Bicycle Master Plan calls for bike lanes on the street, but they have not yet been installed.
This section of road was also on Seattle Neighborhood Greenways’ map of proposed Stay Healthy Streets, though it was never implemented. Their idea called for the parking lane to be turned into a bikeway. (more…)
The death of a man biking in Georgetown in late March has shaken the community, so some neighbors are organizing a slow bike ride tomorrow (Friday) to mourn his death and call for safer streets.
“For years, our community has demanded safe routes within Georgetown, and safe access to SoDo, the Chinatown/International District, and Downtown for biking,” the event listing created by John Persak and Amy Amaryllis says. “The city has been slow to prioritize this infrastructure which people in most other parts of the city already enjoy. This must be addressed now.”
The ride meets 4 p.m. at South Seattle College’s Georgetown Campus near Corson Ave S and E Marginal Way. Organizer say the ride will go slow and is for all ages, traveling major streets in the neighborhood before ending near Counterbalance Brewing.
As we reported previously, a person driving a semi truck made a right turn from northbound Corson Ave S onto S Bailey Street, striking and killing the man. The collision occurred shortly before 5 p.m. March 24. Seattle Police are investigating, and no new details are available at this time.
Our condolences to his loved ones. If any friends or family members want to share his story, you can reach me at [email protected].
After eight years behind construction barriers, Brooklyn Ave NE and NE 43rd Street are finally starting to reopen today, Sound Transit announced. Brooklyn will open to all traffic while 43rd will open sidewalks.
This is a big deal for the neighborhood and a reminder that the opening of Brooklyn Station…ahem, I mean U District Station is getting very close. There is still no official opening date, but test trains have been running on the tracks up to Roosevelt and Northgate Stations. The current service plan calls for a September start, though train deliveries have been delayed. Each train needs to operate for a certain number of hours without any faults before it can go into service. So fingers crossed that all the testing goes smoothly.
Brooklyn’s street design is a big miss, unfortunately. It has a sidewalk-level protected bike lane headed uphill in the northbound direction, which should be lovely. But then people headed southbound are expected to mix with car traffic. It’s so strange. Who is the target user of this street? Who will decide to bike to the station because there is a comfortable bike lane in only one direction? There is space for a downhill bike lane, but instead SDOT and Sound Transit prioritized on-street parking on both sides of the street. Hopefully SDOT will closely observe car traffic on this street and will be ready to make significant changes to limit volumes and speeds if needed. This should also be an opportunity to improve the nearby 12th Ave neighborhood greenway, one of the worst in the city due to its relatively heavy car traffic thanks to people driving around the closed Brooklyn Ave.
A failed design concept for a “mall” on the Ave from 1972, as published in the Seattle Daily Times (PDF).
Brooklyn is also just one foot too skinny for two-way bus service, a huge priority for the advocacy group U District Mobility. This could make it more difficult to someday turn the Ave and NE 43rd Street into the car-free (or car-light) spaces they should be, a dream of many people in the neighborhood going back half a century.
Car ownership levels in the neighborhood are some of the lowest in the entire city. Only Belltown and downtown have fewer cars per capita than the U District, which has about one car for every two people. Yet the streets in the neighborhood still prioritize driving and parking cars even though half of the neighborhood residents don’t have one.
I’m not sure the city has yet to fully comprehend how much the U District is about to change. There are a lot of buildings under construction right now, and more are in the queue. It’s one of the few areas of the city that allows towers, and it is about to get a subway that brings it just minutes away from the heart of Capitol Hill and downtown.
With Brooklyn and 43rd closed since 2013, the neighborhood has felt a bit like a construction zone. But it’s about to open back up just as COVID vaccine rates start to gain steam (though Washington is currently seeing a spike in cases, so it is too soon to stop following the pandemic protocols!). But as the pandemic fades and the station opens, the neighborhood could assume its role as one of the biggest hubs of activity in our city. It will be transformative.
Ryan Packer did a fantastic job taking the helm of Seattle Bike Blog over the winter, writing 64 posts December through March.
Ryan was the Temporary Editor of Seattle Bike Blog while I focused on writing the first draft of a book for UW Press about bike history and culture in Seattle. Being a parent during COVID is very challenging, and my time had disappeared. So I was facing a tough choice in late 2020, and it seemed like I was going to need to shut down the blog entirely if I didn’t find someone who could do the job without much help from me. So you could say that Ryan saved Seattle Bike Blog.
I invited Ryan to talk about some of the most important stories of the past few months and to talk about taking over the Editor role. Check out our conversation above.
