Seattle Bike Blog

Day after Council votes to slightly reduce police funding, officer rolls bike over person’s head and neck

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 24, 2020

A Seattle Police officer was caught on video intentionally rolling their police bicycle over the head and neck of a man lying face down in the street last night as people protested the lack of charges against the officers who murdered Breonna Taylor in Kentucky.

The officer was walking the bike and stepped over the man lying face down, then purposefully rolled the bicycle first over the man. The front wheel goes over his head, then the rear wheel goes over his neck. The man is in obvious pain as it happens. CJTV captured the moment during a live stream.

In a statement, SPD said they are “aware of a video circulating on the internet that apparently shows an SPD bike officer’s bike rolling over the head of an individual laying in the street. This matter will be referred to the Office of Police Accountability for further investigation.” Of course, the bike didn’t roll itself over an individual, an officer intentionally rolled the bike over the person’s head and neck. UPDATE: The King County Sheriff’s Office will investigate the incident, according to the SPD Blotter.

Caution, the video is disturbing:

The police at the #seattleprotests just ran over an injured mans head with their bikes. @SeattlePD is this how you train your officers? pic.twitter.com/c4e146tsmi

— Martin Banks (@WarlockBranis) September 24, 2020

It’s assault, it’s violent and the officer did it knowing that cameras were rolling and that we were all watching. It’s shocking to see just how comfortable this officer is while casually hurting someone who could not possibly pose any threat. These police bikes, made by Washington State bike maker Volcanic, are heavy both in design and because they are carrying lots of equipment.

The police are out of control, and Mayor Jenny Durkan is doing nothing to stop them. Instead, she is spending her time and effort protecting the department from any budget cuts. The City Council this week defended its mid-year budget, which included very modest cuts to the SPD budget, by voting 7 to 2 to override Mayor Durkan’s veto. The vote was a moment of victory for people who have been pouring their hearts out in the streets all summer protesting against racist police violence and advocating for investments in community, especially Black community. (more…)

tags: black lives matter, spd

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Bike Route Alert: Little 116th Street trail closed near I-5

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 21, 2020

Image of the closed trail connection from Google Street View.

Sound Transit has closed a short trail connection between NE 116th St and the 1st Ave NE I-5 overpass to N 117th St.

This trail will never reopen. Instead, the agency will construct a new trail under the light rail tracks a block away at NE 115th St.

The official detour is fairly out of the way and uses busy NE Northgate Way for a block. There are no bike lanes on Northgate, and the detour map suggests using the sidewalk. However, I suspect most people biking and walking will find their own unofficial ways through, likely using shorter routes through nearby apartment building parking lots.

More details from Sound Transit:

As early as September 21st, Sound Transit is closing the Northeast 116th Street bicyclist/pedestrian path to construct the Lynnwood Link Extension light rail guideway. The NE 116th Street trail will be closed permanently. The Lynnwood Link rail-track alignment in this area changes from aerial (supported by columns) to at-grade (supported by retaining walls), similar to guideway being constructed just south of Northgate. Sound Transit will be constructing a retaining wall and track guideway for the Lynnwood Link light rail through the existing NE 116th Street trail. Sound Transit plans include a new pedestrian/bicyclist trail at NE 115th Street crossing under the new light rail aerial guideway.

tags: Bike Route Alert, lynnwood link, NE 115th St, sound transit

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Watch: The case for a bike lane over the Fremont Bridge

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 18, 2020

From the Ballard-Fremont Greenways proposal.

The Fremont Bridge is Seattle’s busiest bike route pinch point. Routes from all over the region converge here to cross the Ship Canal, which is why the bridge’s bike counter registers the highest number of trips in the city. A record 1,187,146 bike trips crossed the bridge in 2019. It may the the region’s most important bike route, serving local trips and the Interurban North bike route that connects all the way to Everett.

But that 1.2 million bike trips have to squeeze by each other and all the people walking across the bridge on two skinny sidewalks. The crunch is not comfortable for anybody.

That’s why neighbors with Ballard-Fremont Greenways have put together a proposal and petition you can sign calling for bike lanes on the Fremont Bridge. The pandemic has made this need far more acute since social distancing is impossible on the skinny bridge sidewalks, but it’s a necessary improvement even without the threat of spreading a deadly virus.

The bridge is historic and, unlike with the Ballard Bridge, there is no plan to replace it any time soon. The sidewalks have been beyond their comfortable capacity for a long time now, and they will only get worse. There’s no reason to put off this improvement.

The biggest challenge is almost certainly transit. The bridge raises and lowers often, leading to a build-up of traffic that then needs to clear in a big and often scary rush. As it is now, buses that serve downtown Fremont (31, 32, 40 and 62) simply get in line with cars. So the key to making a bike lane work here is to also give buses priority, especially during the moments when the bridge reopens. This likely means bus lanes and queue jumps that get buses to get to the front of the line before they even reach the bridge. Signal changes could also give buses a head start before allowing cars.

Changes like this will impact drive times for people in cars, but most people with cars have other options. The Aurora Bridge is right overhead and they also have free reign on the Ballard Bridge. Sure, these are not the most direct routes for all trips, but at least there are options. For people walking, biking and taking Fremont buses, there is no other option. So walking, biking and transit should be the priority here. The group’s proposed design (or some other design that meets these needs) still provides car and freight access, it’s just not the top priority anymore. And that’s the way it should be.

I think another major advantage of creating bike lanes on the bridge deck is that the sidewalks can become the iconic spaces they should be. People walking across should be able to stop in the middle and take a moment to take in the incredible view down the Ship Canal or out to Lake Union. People should be able to take a selfie. I know that sounds like a silly reason, but the Fremont Bridge is so cool and should be the kind of space that belongs to the people on the ground living life. It’s so much more than yet another pipe funneling cars.

Watch the King 5 report: (more…)

tags: ballard-fremont greenways, fremont bridge, king 5

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Report: NE 65th Street bike lanes have saved lives and prevented serious injuries

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 17, 2020

For a four-year period, the short stretch of NE 65th Street between NE Ravenna Blvd and 39th Ave NE killed one person and seriously injured at least one other person every year. But a hard-fought safety project installed in spring 2019 has cut collisions by more than half and has so far eliminated deaths and serious injuries, according to a new SDOT report (PDF).

As with nearly all of SDOT’s Vision Zero street redesigns, the project is a huge success. It once again demonstrates the department’s ability to save lives and improve mobility when it prioritizes safety on our streets.

There is at least one person somewhere who is sipping coffee, Zoom chatting with a loved one or otherwise living life at this moment who would be dead if not for these safety changes. Is it your friend? Your mother? You? We will never know who that person is, but we do know that had the city chosen not to take action and make changes to this street, one person would die every year. And that person would most likely have been walking or riding a bike.

And these benefits come even though the city compromised fairly heavily on many of the details. For example, intersections do not have separated signal phases for people on bikes and bike lanes share space with bus stops in several locations. And worst of all, the bike lanes stop at 20th Ave NE, providing no dedicated biking space between 20th and 39th. But even with these compromises and half measures, the results are impressive.

And the problems that led to traffic danger on this street were not at all unique to NE 65th Street. They are problems repeated on streets all over the city and the region. Too much space for cars leads to speeding and no space for people biking or crossing the street leaves them vulnerable.

Before

After

(more…)

tags: #Fix65th, ne 65th, ravenna, roosevelt, vision zero

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Lime launches scooter share in Seattle

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 16, 2020

After years of talking, the first shared electric scooters are hitting Seattle streets today as Lime rolls out 500 of its popular Lime-S scooters.

Lime has been serving Seattle for years with its pedal bikes and e-bikes. The company now owns and operates the red JUMP bikes available around town. Though the city has invited three companies to operate scooters in town, Lime was clearly in the best position to launch quickly.

“As Seattleites look to open-air transportation options that allow for social-distancing, shared scooters offer a reliable solution for short and medium-length trips, as well as for trips not served by public transit,” the company said in a press release. “The Seattle e-scooter pilot will help reduce car usage, augment transit and allow for safer and more sustainable travel.”

Their scooters cost the same as the JUMP bikes, with a $1 fee to unlock plus 36¢ per minute. While they are limited to only 500 scooters, the company is limiting their distribution efforts “from the Central District and SODO to Capitol Hill, Downtown, South Lake Union, Ballard, Fremont and the U District,” but users are able to ride them anywhere in the city that they want. Notably, this initial distribution area does not include West Seattle, though people can ride to West Seattle if they want to. Helping with the West Seattle Bridge transportation crisis was one reason the city cited during City Council debate over the permit plan. “As the fleet is authorized to expand, the deployment areas will expand,” the company noted in a press release. (more…)

tags: lime-s, limebike, scooter share, sdot

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Cascade launches flashy new resource to help people bike to and through West Seattle

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 15, 2020

Cascade Bicycle Club and IZIP electric bikes partnered to create a pretty great-looking map of popular bike routes to and through West Seattle to help more people visualize how they can shift more trips to bike.

The illustrated map is cool because it’s a high-level look at the options. But once someone is interested in the details of each route, Cascade has very detailed guides online. For two routes (Junction to downtown and White Center to downtown), they have Ride With GPS maps (which can be used for turn-by-turn directions) and very good video guides.

Screenshot from the Cascade website.

(more…)

tags: cascade bicycle club, izip, upper west seattle bridge, west seattle

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