We talk about that story at the start, then we move on to talk about a few of the stories in the roundup. So if nothing else, watch (or listen to) the first 20 minutes or so. Thanks for joining the show, Marley!
First up in the Bike News Roundup, StreetFilms made a quick edit comparing Madison Square before and after the city built large public plazas in the street:
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is by Conor Courtney through our partnership with UW’s Community News Lab journalism course.
A cyclist on a pedal-assisted Jump bike passes cars near the University Bridge. Photo by Conor Courtney.
Seattle cyclists can expect to see a substantial increase in the number of riders zipping around the city on pedal-assisted e-bikes in the next few years, according to an industry forecast by consultants at Deliotte.
Internationally, the number of e-bikes in circulation in 2023 will reach 300 million, up 50 percent from the number currently in use, according to Deloitte’s projections.
This increase in cyclists will bring significant benefits to the Seattle community, according to Kristi Straus, a lecturer in the University of Washington’s College of the Environment who teaches a course focused on personal and societal sustainability.
Viewing sustainability as an intersection between the environment, economy, and society, e-bikes help all three, says Straus. Cycling to your destination can often be faster than driving, especially in Seattle, which traffic analytics company Inrix ranked the sixth most congested U.S. city in 2018.
“E-Bikes are awesome, and can be a stepping stone for people who otherwise might not choose to bike or be able to bike the distances or hills that they’re now biking with e-bikes, and more e-bikes is likely to increase bike infrastructure and benefit all people in Seattle, not just all people who bike,” said Straus.
E-bikes can also make cycling more accessible to new parents, older cyclists, and cyclists in hilly areas.
“I think that e-bikes make a big difference for folks who are a little bit older, who aren’t as strong as they used to be,” said Clara Cantor of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways. Cantor also says that e-bikes make it easier for community members with chronic pain or other disabilities to have a reliable, healthy transportation option. (more…)
Nearly all Seattle elementary schoolers already go through the Let’s Go Bicycle and Pedstrian Safety program as part of their physical education. But now the program is expanding to include middle schools, as well.
The course, offered by Cascade Bicycle Club and Outdoors For All, will reach 40,000 students per year, doubling the number of students reached by the existing 3rd through 5th grade programs. That’s pretty great.
Students in the Let’s Go program “not only learn how to safely navigate their neighborhoods and get to and from school by bike, they also gain the confidence to hopefully become lifelong bike riders or transit users,” said Cascade Education Director Rachel Osias in the organization’s press release about the program’s expansion.
Funding comes from Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle Department of Transportation. And, of course, donations to Cascade support their programming.
More details from the Cascade press release: (more…)
Today is the final day for bills in the Washington State Legislature to pass out of at least one chamber in order to stay alive this short session. Any non-budget bill that hasn’t passed either the House or the Senate by 5 p.m. will almost certainly be dead for the year. And while passing one chamber is needed for a bill to stay alive, it still needs to pass the other, have the chambers work out differences if needed and then get signed by the Governor. So there’s a lot of work left to do.
Funding is, of course, the elephant in the room. The outcome of I-976 is still uncertain as legal fighting will extend beyond this session, so talks about how to fill the potential funding chasms in transportation departments across the state are in a bit of a strange place. Budget debates will really get going in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.
But there are a lot of non-funding bills moving this year, and there’s a lot of good news. Yesterday evening, the Senate passed SB 5789 by a divided 25-21 vote to allow crosswalk and bus lane enforcement cameras in downtown Seattle. This is the second year Rooted In Rights has helped lead the effort to get this bill into state law.
As we reported earlier today, the House voted 96-1 recently to create a Scenic Bikeways program in Washington.
The Senate passed SB 6208 by a 44-1 vote, which would allow the Safety Stop (AKA Idaho Stop) in Washington, joining Oregon’s lead last year.
The House passed HB 2461 by a more divided 57-41 vote, adding health a state transportation goal (how is that controversial?).
The Senate unanimously passed SB 6493, which Washington Bikes described as a “technical fix” concerning the existing Cooper Jones Active Transportation Safety Council.
UPDATE (correcting a previous version that had the wrong bill number and current status): The House unanimously passed HB 2197 this week, which would allow equipment like a bike rack to temporarily obscure a license plate.
Washington is full of scenic places to bike, so it won’t be hard to identify a network of amazing routes to promote as part of the proposed Scenic Bikeways program that just passed the House 96-1.
Oregon has long has a scenic bikeways program, and they have successfully used the program to promote bicycle tourism all over the state. This supports local economies and encourages more people to try a bike adventure.
The HB 2587 is now sitting in the Senate Transportation Committee. It needs to pass out of the committee, pass the full Senate and then resolve any differences before going to the governor’s desk for a signature. Washington Bikes is advocating for the program this short legislative session, and they provided a little background in a recent blog post: (more…)
Roxy Robles joined me to talk about the SPLAIN survey results we released Friday. So if you found that story interesting and want to know more about how and why Roxy conducted it, check out the video. It’s 36 minutes and we talk for most of it, so it should be fine for those who want to just listen.
