Seattle Bike Blog

The Daily: UW program offers students quarterly bike rentals

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

January 23, 2020

Photo from U Bike. Grocery basket is optional.

Imagine if instead of buying the cheapest bike you could find on Craigslist for getting around as a college student, you could rent a quality Kona complete with helmet, lock and lights all for just $75 per quarter. Well, UW students now can thanks to the U Bike bicycle library program.

This is a pretty solid deal, especially for students who aren’t sure whether they are going to bike enough to make buying a bike worth it. Throwing down the $600 a bike like the Kona Dew would cost new is a lot of money for many college students. Sure, DIY-minded folks can piece things together with much lower-cost used bikes, but many people aren’t interested in learning bike maintenance. They just want a fun, reliable and affordable way to get around.

The program grew out of a senior project in Community, Environment, and Planning by alum Cole Laush, according to The Daily:

“By providing students [with] a quarterly bicycle rental service, we hope to educate users on how a bicycle can fit into their everyday life,” Laush said. “I believe this experience will encourage users to continue cycling into the future, or at least give a user insight into the barriers cyclists face.”

While operating within the UW campus, the program’s overall purpose is to contribute to the growth of Seattle’s cycling culture, leading to a more equitable, livable, and sustainable city.

“More bikes on the road means a reduction in emissions, more connected cities, healthy citizens and safer streets,” Laush said.

Read more…

tags: cole laush, u bike, uw

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King County takes legal action to clear illegal use of East Lake Sammamish trail corridor

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

January 21, 2020

The North Segment of the E Lake Sammamish Trail was completed in 2015.

The County is preparing to construct the final section of the trail.

Last week, King County took action to reclaim public land in one of the wealthiest areas in the state: Sammamish. The County fought and won a very difficult legal battle to determine that, yes, the public does own the entire rail corridor along the east side of Lake Sammamish. And as it prepared to construct the final section of the East Lake Sammamish Trail, the County is trying to get lakeside homeowners to clear any structures or personal property from County land.

This is a persistent problem across Seattle and King County, especially near very valuable shorelines and parks. Sometimes, adjacent homeowners try to reserve public land for their own private use, and it’s often hard for the public to know when their land is being illegally seized. There may even be times when homeowners thought that public land belonged to them, and are dismayed to learn the truth.

But it’s hard for me to imagine fighting to keep public land for myself. Then, after losing a long and difficult court battle, to go to the Seattle Times and try to pretend that letters from the County telling me to move my stuff off public land within 9 months were “heavy handed.” The county is giving them until the end of September, which is frankly far too generous. This land is not just theirs, it belongs to all of us. How selfish can they be?

When people who have nowhere else to live set up a tent on public land, Seattle policy gives them 72 hours of warning time to remove their belongings before bringing in crews to throw everything they own in the garbage. Often, the city doesn’t even give that much time. These sweeps are ineffective and cruel. But isn’t it strange that people with million-dollar homes to live in get 9 months to move their decorative landscaping or whatever, but people who have no homes get 72 hours (at best) to move their whole lives? The disparity in how people are treated in our county based solely on how much money they have is galling.

My willingness to have sympathy for Sammamish property owners who have to move their things off public land ended when a group of them tried to blow up “rails to trails” nationally by challenging it at the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court decided not to hear their appeal, luckily. But wow. Rail-trails have done so many wonderful things for so many communities big and small across our nation. To attempt to undercut the entire concept just so you can keep your damn cabana on King County land, that’s downright evil. (more…)

tags: e lake sammamish trail, king county, king county parks

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Councilmember Pedersen outlines his vision as the new Transportation Committee Chair, offers an olive branch to safe streets advocates

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

January 16, 2020

Alex Pedersen won District 4 by 1,386 votes, narrowly defeating Seattle Bike Blog’s endorsed candidate Shaun Scott in one of Seattle’s closest races in the 2019 City Council election. In addition to this site, Scott was also endorsed by Washington Bikes, Seattle Subway, The Urbanist and the Transit Riders Union. That’s a pretty wide coalition of groups working to support more and safer transit, walking and biking.

But the election is over, and Pedersen has since been named Chair of the newly reformatted Transportation and Utilities Committee. Combined, Transportation and Utilities are responsible for more than half the city budget.

I sat down with Pedersen at Irwin’s Cafe in District 4 to talk about his vision for the committee and how he plans to build bridges to folks like Seattle Bike Blog readers and transportation advocates who may have supported his opponent during the 2019 campaign.

“I am really excited now as Councilmember to let my actions speak for themselves,” he said. “I will be doing a lot of things in favor of transit and environmental policies.”

An early win he hopes will bring people together is an environmentally-focused idea Seattle Neighborhood Greenways Founder and 2019 District 4 primary candidate Cathy Tuttle has proposed: Require all proposed city legislation to include a memo about it’s impact on the environment.

“Not only how would it impact emissions, but would it allow us to adapt?” he said, describing the intent of the proposed rule. And no, we’re not talking about “environmental impact” the way Washington’s State Environmental Policy Act (“SEPA”) does, which considers things like slowing car movement as an environmental negative. This memo would focus on the actual environment, meaning “carbon and climate resiliency,” he said. (more…)

tags: alex pedersen, transportation committee

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People who don’t let snow stop them from biking offer some advice

By

Emma Scher

| Posted

January 14, 2020

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is by Emma Scher through our partnership with UW’s Community News Lab journalism course.

MBA student Vehro Titcomb unlocks his bike and prepares to commute from the University of Washington to pick up his three-year-old daughter from preschool. He was one of the many Seattle bicyclists who chose to commute through this week’s snowy weather conditions, an option that SDOT has recommended over driving. Photo by Emma Scher.

Heather Eliason wore spikes on her shoes to help her slow down and gain traction on the ice when she biked on snowy and icy Seattle streets in years past. Eliason used her bike as transportation around Seattle almost exclusively before moving to Germany last year. She also kept her tires deflated to increase traction when biking in winter weather and knows other Seattleites who have begun using studded tires.

“If it was too slushy or icy I’d go in the car lane and typically go in the middle. If you go too far to the right they will pass you too closely but if you go in the middle, they’re more likely to go completely around you,” she said.

This week’s snowy forecast doesn’t mean you need to stop biking to work, but locals and experts recommend using caution, bundling up, and buying appropriate gear to make your commute successful.

SDOT spokesperson Ethan Bergerson said to slow down, be cautious of lower visibility, and be aware that drivers may be navigating unfamiliar conditions. He also noted that as temperatures drop below freezing, black ice may be a cause of increased concern for both bikers and drivers.

“One of the biggest concerns over the next few days is going to be ice,” he said. “This morning we had a lot of bare and wet pavement which means that the roads and bike trails were wet but didn’t have snow accumulated on them, which is good for right now but when the weather drops below freezing black ice can be really dangerous.” (more…)

tags: emma scher, ethan bergerson, heather eliason, lisa enns, snow

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The streets Seattle plans to plow + City site tracks which streets have been plowed recently

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

January 14, 2020

Are you waiting for SDOT crews to clear your street? Well, you should probably check this map to see if they are ever coming:

See the map in more detail in this PDF.

My “office” today.

SDOT also has an interactive map that will be updated to let you know which streets have been cleared recently.

The snows so far have not been completely debilitating to travel in Seattle proper, though the Eastside and some areas north of Seattle have had a lot more snow. But a night in the 20s froze a lot of side streets and sidewalks early Tuesday. There were some sketchy moments biking across Wallingford, though it wasn’t too bad once I got on the arterial streets SDOT crews had cleared. You still need to be on the lookout for slick patches and steer clear of metal surfaces like manhole covers and sewer grates.

Biking in Seattle when there’s snow on the roads can also be a bit harrowing, of course. But it can also be beautiful and fun. And unlike driving, you don’t become a sliding multi-ton block of steel if you lose traction. Just take care and don’t expect to get places too quickly. And be prepared to turn around and go home if it’s not going well (or lock your bike to the nearest bike rack and start walking). When I lived in Denver, a very flat city with powdery snow, I had a pretty good time getting around in the snow on my bike. But add a hill and a layer of ice, and it gets a lot harder. Be careful out there.

If you really do need to get somewhere and don’t feel comfortable biking, walking and transit are really your best options. But add a ton of time to your expected transit trip, and be aware that many bus routes change when there is snow and ice. So check the King County Metro service alert website to make sure your bus stop is still being served even if you know your bus route is operating (for example, the 5 is skipping Dayton Ave N as of this writing, the kind of change that could happen to your route if there is more precipitation).

tags: king county metro, sdot, snow

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Funding, legalizing the ‘safety stop’ on WA Bikes’ agenda in Olympia

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

January 13, 2020

With voter approval of I-976 hanging over the 2020 state legislative session, there’s no doubt that funding will be the top priority for Washington Bikes this year. Even if courts strike down the law, which is very possible, there is a lot of political pressure on state leaders to enact some kind of transportation funding change anyway.

The stakes are big and largely unknown. What specific funding will be at risk? Biking and walking is a very small percentage of the state’s transportation budget, but that doesn’t mean it’s safe. From WA Bikes:

The state’s approach to filling the funding shortfall created by I-976 is still in flux, but one thing is clear: I-976 will require state legislators to make hard decisions this session in order to cover an anticipated and significant hole in the multimodal transportation account.

The multimodal transportation account dedicates funds for transportation including rail, ferries, transit, biking and walking. It’s the primary state funding source for biking and walking investments and contains projects funded through the 2015 Connecting Washington transportation package, which allocated historic levels of funding for bike and pedestrian infrastructure, as well as Safe Route To School, Bike and Pedestrian grant programs, and the Bike and Pedestrian project list.

And state law also governs what kinds of revenue local governments and agencies can collect, so changes could impact SDOT, King County Metro and Sound Transit even if the lawsuit is successful. But beyond current budgets, Seattle and King County are both due to run Transportation Benefit District renewals this year, and state law outlines the revenue options for these vital packages. Seattle’s Transportation Benefit District currently relies heavily on vehicle license fees and largely funds transit service. At a time when we need to continue going big on transit service, walking and biking to continue growing our ridership, we need powerful options to offer voters. Our investments are working, we can’t go backwards now.

The ‘safety stop’

(more…)

tags: 2020 legislature, washington bikes

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