Sound Transit’s downtown light rail service restriction started this week, and people with bikes must exit trains at International District/Chinatown Station northbound and University Street Station southbound.
The good news is that SDOT completed the south downtown bike connection in time to help riders get around the closure, and it’s really great. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Robert Svercl created this video with friends Bri and Nick to walk you through the whole process from train to train:
People bringing a bike on the train into or through downtown will need to do this for the next ten weeks into March as Sound Transit works to connect the East Link tracks to the existing line. In order to avoid a long complete closure, Sound Transit is essentially single-tracking trains in and out of Pioneer Square Station. So trains arrive at the station, passengers cross a new temporary center platform to swap trains, the the trains reverse and go back the way they came. Bikes are banned because that center platform gets really crowded during the swap: (more…)
UPDATE: I have updated some of the data in this post with official numbers from SDOT. An earlier version of this post had data from data.seattle.gov that for some reason didn’t match with SDOT’s official numbers. As of this update, much of the data.seattle.gov figures now match SDOT’s numbers. The 2nd Ave section of this post has been changed most dramatically.
The counts are in, and Seattle didn’t just see increases in biking, the city absolutely smashed all previous biking records. We leveled up.
We’ve already written several times (and even made a video) about what happened this year on the Fremont Bridge. So many citywide and regional bike routes converge at this bridge that it sees the highest counts of any other single counting point in town. So it is an exciting point to track.
And the physical display ticking away in real time helps give people the feeling that they are part of something bigger. A number readout shows the counts that day while a thermometer-style gauge tracks the counts for the calendar year. Though perhaps Cascade Bicycle Club made a mistake in 2014 when they donated a counter that only goes to 1 million because Seattle topped out in October this year, months earlier than ever before. The grand total: 1,187,146.
So I wondered, was this just a Fremont Bridge or North Seattle thing? Unfortunately, we don’t have high quality data from all parts of the city. SDOT installed many low-budget counters years ago that have since gone dark due to vandalism or mechanical failure, so they are of little help. But we do have six counters in the city that are ticking away and have what should be mostly consistent and quality data (though it is harder to trust counters that don’t have the real-time displays, which also help make sure people are counted properly). The charts in this post use information directly from data.seattle.gov SDOT, and I did look for major data gaps (at least a month in duration) so I could note them. I also removed the walking counts for the counters that track both walking and biking (though, hey, someone could have fun analyzing that data, I’m sure). Let’s take a look.
It’s time for the final Bike News Roundup of news from the 2010s!
First up, if you didn’t catch Angie Schmitt’s recent talk about America’s pedestrian safety crisis, Rooted In Rights was there to record and stream it:
In early April, Tamara Schmautz and Apu Mishra brought a hand-cranked paper shredder to the podium and proceeded to shred the cover sheets to the Bicycle Master Plan, Vision Zero Plan and Climate Action Plan.Cheering people on to celebrate 1 million 2019 Fremont Bridge bike trips in October, a new record.
2019 was a red letter year for biking in Seattle. The number of trips people are taking by bike broke through some kind of barrier in the past year, and bike counters across town are clobbering previous records (we’ll have more on that in the new year when the final numbers are in, so stay tuned). So some combination of bike network improvements and bike share and e-bike sales and bike culture have all worked together to make 2019 the bikiest year in Seattle history.
But back in the spring, it hardly felt like this would be a successful biking year for Seattle. Despite signs that the city’s bike investments were working, Mayor Jenny Durkan canceled the 35th Ave NE bike lanes at the last minute even though they were already designed and contracted for construction. She also released a new bike workplan that dramatically scaled back the city’s previous ambitions, especially in the southend. Her decisions triggered a big backlash and a protest at City Hall as people challenged what they saw as her abandoning the city’s Bicycle Master Plan, Climate Action Plan and transportation equity.
This energy flipped the year around. 2019 started with delays and cancellations, but it is ending with record ridership, major bike lane construction and big political momentum. You all did this.
For her first year in office, there was a lot of uncertainty. SDOT went a year without a Director, and projects were getting delayed. In many ways, Mayor Durkan’s springtime anti-bike decisions reignited popular energy in support of the Bike Master Plan, both for the sake of making biking easier and safer and as a way to combat climate change. The city’s biggest transportation advocacy organizations, including Rooted In Rights, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, Cascade Bicycle Club and the Transit Riders Union had recently joined together as the Move All Seattle Sustainably (“MASS”) coalition. MASS organized a rally at City Hall and ride down 4th Ave to demand that the city build the biking and safety projects in its transportation plans, including key parts of the downtown bike network like 4th Ave.
The City Council passed a bike safety ordinance all but requiring SDOT to build the projects in the Bike Master Plan during repaving projects. If there are serious reasons why they can’t do so, they need to explain themselves to the Council’s Transportation Committee. This doesn’t guarantee that projects won’t be canceled in the future, but no Seattle Mayor should be able to simply cancel a bike lane project on a whim again. It will require explanation to the Council and the people first.
People also organized to support budget additions for funding key south Seattle projects, including the Georgetown to South Park Trail and a north-south bike lane on either Beacon Ave or MLK. The City Council approved these additions in the final budget. (more…)
The ceremonial unlocking of the first LimeBike July 27, 2017 in Seattle.
Lime announced today that they will be pulling their e-bikes from Seattle streets December 31.
This follows a week and a half of rumors that the company was shutting down, rumors the company denied to both Seattle Bike Blog and The Urbanist. As recently as December 15, a company spokesperson told Seattle Bike Blog that Lime would remain in operation until at least March, around the time when the long-awaited scooter pilot is due to be rolled out.
But an email to users on Christmas Eve, Lime announced they would, indeed, be shutting down service, though they “remain very committed to working with the City of Seattle to create a robust mobility program in the Spring that includes a mix of free-floating scooters and improved bike options that are a priority to the City.”
Lime was the last of the original three bike share companies to launch in Seattle in the summer of 2017. Spin, one of the other three original companies, has since switched to scooters and has stated in the past that they are interested in operating scooters in Seattle.
The loss of Lime comes just as Sound Transit is preparing a major multi-month service reduction on light rail service downtown as they work to connect the East Link tracks to the existing line. Bike share could help relieve pressure on the crunched downtown trains, so let’s hope JUMP sticks around.
Some of the most significant changes to Washington State’s rules of the road in recent history will take effect January 1, when SB 5723 becomes law.
Perhaps the biggest and most exciting change is that people driving will now have clear instruction on how to safely and legally pass someone on a bike (or riding a horse, a carriage or tractor):
If there is more than one lane in the direction of travel, people driving must “completely” change lanes to pass.
If there is only one lane in the direction of travel, people driving must slow to a safe speed “relative to the speed of the individual” and only pass once there is at least three feet of space between their vehicle and the person biking. If three feet is not available, people driving must change lanes into the opposing lane when it is safe to do so.
The new law also clarifies the responsibilities for people biking. If there is enough space in the lane for safe passing, people biking must ride to the right to allow passing. But you are not required to squeeze to the right if there is not enough space in the lane for safe passing or if “other conditions make it unsafe to do so.” So if there is debris or damaged pavement or parked cars with doors that could swing open at any moment or another road user, you are not required to move right.
The law passed during the 2019 legislative session with wide bipartisan support (70-26 in the House, 43-5 in the Senate) and is in large part thanks to the advocacy work of Washington Bikes.
These changes are very favorable to people biking and set a new standard for safe passing laws in the U.S. They make it clear that a person’s safety is paramount. No, they won’t suddenly make it super comfortable to bike on the many streets and highways in our state that have no bike lanes or adequate shoulders. But they at least remove a lot of the doubt about what is legally expected of everyone.
Of course this brings us to the big questions: Will people know the law has changed? And will it be enforced?
You may bike in the right turn lane even if you aren’t turning
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
