Seattle Neighborhood Greenways has been working with local advocates to develop ideas for open streets as a way to relieve crowding on sidewalks, paths and major parks during the outbreak. We previously reported about some of their ideas, and the organization is still accepting open streets ideas via their online survey.
Since taping this interview with Gordon Padelford and Clara Cantor of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, SDOT has announced their Stay Healthy Streets program to open a set of residential streets to walking and biking 24/7. Similar to Oakland’s Slow Streets program, Stay Healthy Streets will be closed to through-traffic but open to local access.
The city is starting with two streets in the Central District and West Seattle, but has plans to expand the program to include 15 miles “in the coming weeks.”
As we learn more about the unexpected and sudden closure of the West Seattle High Bridge at the end of March, it’s looking more and more like the decision to close the bridge prevented a horrific tragedy. Cracking on both sides of the support structure of the longest span was on a path to meet at the center. And if that happened, engineers said, the structure could have collapsed. That’s six lanes of traffic on the city’s busiest non-interstate bridge plummeting from a ridiculous height.
I’m sure there will a lot of investigation into how the bridge got to this point and whether the city could have prevented it. But first, we need to acknowledge that inspectors and the city’s transportation chain of command made a very good call by closing it when they did.
The cracking immediately slowed when traffic stopped, but it has continued. The bridge itself is so massive that it makes up a huge percentage of the total load on the structure, so removing traffic can only do so much. This is also why they are not going to be opening the bridge to walking and biking. You don’t want to be up there.
The high bridge will be closed at least through 2021, and this means biking will only become more important for West Seattle as the path over the low bridge remains one of the best ways to cross the Duwamish River. See our previous story and video, in which Anthony Palmieri of West Seattle Bike Connections walks through some popular bike routes in the neighborhood.
The city announced Wednesday that it will cost $33 million to maintain the lower swing bridge (which is prone to failures itself), change traffic controls, and to stabilize the bridge so it doesn’t fall down on its own and can handle the workers and equipment needed to make a bigger and more expensive fix.
City engineers are also not confident that they can repair the bridge at all, and they definitely cannot fix it well enough to make it operational for its full expected life span, which should have had it operational until the 2050s or 2060s. If they can repair it at all, the city doubts they could get more than 10 years out of it. So conversations are already starting about replacing the bridge entirely, an effort that will be measured in hundreds of millions of dollars. Which we don’t have. (more…)
A survey from Cascade Bicycle Club asks people how their relationship with walking and biking has changed since the outbreak began and seeks ideas for how Cascade can help during this time.
As we reported previously, Cascade furloughed half their staff out of worries that they may need to cancel many or all of their major events this summer. Executive Director Richard Smith said they typically need to make a decision about whether to hold or cancel an event one month before it happens, so stay tuned for updates.
May is typically Bike Month, which Cascade and its sister organization Washington Bikes pack with various events including Bike Everywhere Day. Cascade has pushed the entire month of events back into June, including Bike Everywhere Day on June 19. But again, all of this is contingent on social distancing guidance at that time, so stay tuned.
I know it’s pretty hard to think about 2023 right now. Because a month lasts about a year right now, 2023 is more than 30 years away.
But SDOT is currently conducting a survey about the planned MLK Way S bike lane between Rainier Ave S and S Judkins St even though they don’t plan to build the project until 2023 ahead of the Judkins Park light rail station opening. But they are getting a head start on planning.
The survey is short and asks participants about the safety issues they face on the street, then offers a handful of options for how the planned bike lane could work.
One option has a two-way bike lane on the east side, another has a two-way bike lane on the west side and a third option has one-way bike lanes on each side of the street.
The more about the Mobility Justice Responses to COVID-19 from The Untokening (PDF).
The most marginalized people and communities in our society are especially stretched thin and put at increased risk during this outbreak. As unemployment soars, people without a safety net are in a very precarious position. And those with essential jobs who typically rely on transit face serious challenges and difficult choices just to get around.
So as all levels of government are making emergency changes to the transportation system, it is vital that decision makers, agency staff and community leaders keep marginalized communities and vulnerable people at the forefront of each change. And The Untokening has some ideas for how to do just that.
The Untokening is a “a multiracial collective that centers the lived experiences of marginalized communities to address mobility justice and equity.” Their “Mobility Justice Responses to COVID-19” were developed based on a broader and powerful set of mobility justice principles the collecting developed together over the course of years. So as changes and responses are developed, people at every stage should hold these principles in their minds.
Since we last wrote about the potential for open streets to reduce crowding on Seattle sidewalks and paths, the city has opened a couple streets within parks to people walking and biking in Seward Park and Volunteer Park. And Settle Neighborhood Greenways has created a guide for the city that makes the case for opening more space for walking and biking and suggests some ideas for how Seattle can make streets work better for everyone during this difficult time. UPDATE: Major Seattle Parks will close entirely this weekend, the Seattle Times reports.
SNG is also collecting your ideas for open streets opportunities through an online form. So if there’s a street near you that you think would help you and your neighbors walk and bike safely if only it were car-free, let SNG know.
The in-park street closures like Volunteer and Seward Parks make a ton of sense and were easy to do. The parking lots and destinations in each park were already closed to limit crowding, so closing the roads to cars and opening them to people walking and biking just required putting up some barricades and signs. There are likely other streets through parks that could (and should) be closed to cars just as easily.
There may also be streets where it would be simple and cheap to cone off a general traffic lane to create more sidewalk or biking space. This would have the added benefit of reducing speeding, which has gone way up in many places as some people driving take advantage of wide open roads.
And being easy to implement is important, since it’s unlikely the city can or is willing to dedicate a lot of staff and resources to open streets events. So as great as a citywide network of major car-free streets would be, it makes more sense to look for opportunities that would not require any (or very little) active staff. And a spokesperson for Mayor Jenny Durkan said as much to Eli Sanders at the Stranger:
Kamaria Hightower, a spokesperson for Mayor Durkan, said that right now “the health and safety of the public and our workers are the top priority,” and that closing Seattle streets to create more space for outdoor recreation is under ongoing consideration.
But, Hightower added, “While we’ve seen some cities close streets in recent weeks, we know they have also witnessed some challenges due to crowds and staffing capacity constraints. That’s something she’s trying to balance before making any decisions.”
Details from Seattle Parks: On scheduled weekends from May to September, a portion of Lake Washington Boulevard will be closed to motorized vehicles from 10 a.m. Saturday to 6 p.m. Sunday. “Seattle Parks and Recreation[…]
Details from Seattle Parks: On scheduled weekends from May to September, a portion of Lake Washington Boulevard will be closed to motorized vehicles from 10 a.m. Saturday to 6 p.m. Sunday. “Seattle Parks and Recreation[…]
Meet up in the center of the park at 7ish. Leave at 730. Every Thursday from now until forever rain or shine. Bikes, beers, illegal firepits, nachos, bottlerockets, timetraveling, lollygagging, mechanicals, good times.ShareMastodonTwitterFacebookRedditEmail
This is a repeat of my July 6 ride for those that could not make the first offering. Join me for a 5 mile bike ride around Seattle’s current gayborhood (Capitol Hill) and historic gayborhood[…]
Meet up in the center of the park at 7ish. Leave at 730. Every Thursday from now until forever rain or shine. Bikes, beers, illegal firepits, nachos, bottlerockets, timetraveling, lollygagging, mechanicals, good times.ShareMastodonTwitterFacebookRedditEmail
