One of 15 projects moving forward through the Neighborhood Street Fund.
When voters approved the 2015 Move Seattle Levy, they created a specific fund dedicated to building projects that came from neighbors. The process to get a project completed can be long and somewhat grueling for those to volunteer their time to propose and support them, but it’s pretty cool that the city will invest significantly into ideas that come from outside the department itself.
SDOT recently released its list of 15 projects that the department plans to build through its Neighborhood Street Fund, including improvements spread out among every Council district. Individual projects can cost between $100,000 and $1 million. This is a totally different program from the city’s Your Voice Your Choice Parks & Street program, which is for smaller neighborhood-generated project ideas.
All of the projects are focused on safety, especially for people walking and biking. Many are intersection and crosswalk improvements, a few are new or improved sidewalks and a couple would redesign intersections to improve bike lane connections.
Below is the 2019–21 project list with links to sign up for email updates: (more…)
The East Lake Sammamish Trail is likely the second-most litigated stretch of trail around following the Ballard Missing Link. But the final stretch of the trail got one big step closer to construction as the City of Sammamish issued King County a permit to finally finish the key link between Redmond and Issaquah.
The work is largely funded through the King County Parks levy voters approved in August. The final section is right in the middle, flanked on both the north and the south by completed trails into Redmond and Issaquah.
With the permit in hand, King County Parks plans to begin work in 2020 and construct the trail in 2021. That’s, of course, assuming opponents don’t find another legal maneuver to delay it or somehow convince the US Supreme Court to take up their case (yes, they are actually trying that)…
UPDATE: I missed the news that the US Supreme Court declined to take up their case. So in theory, there is nowhere else to file an appeal. I think it is worth noting here how seriously messed up and shameful it was for opponents to put rail-trails across the entire nation at risk just to stop a parks investment near their homes. That required a shameful level of selfishness, and I’m very glad they lost. Imagine if they invested those resources into something good for the world instead.
We’re in it for the long haul to see a safe East Lake Sammamish Trail built to regional trail standards. And we’ve been there—together—every step of the way so far.
For Cascade Bicycle Club, the East Lake Sammamish Trail is a project that has spanned two decades of work and hundreds of volunteer and staff hours. Once it’s complete, the trail will carry an estimated 5-7,000 people per day by foot and by bike.
Poster design by Jordan Sampson and Renate Loomis.
That’s right, this will be the tenth (!!!!) Cranksgiving Seattle Bike Blog has organized. I have had to do the math a bunch of times because I find it hard to believe, but it’s true.
So this will be the tenth year people from all over the region will get together the Saturday before Thanksgiving to bike around town buying groceries to donate to Rainier Valley Food Bank. I don’t have the exact totals from all the years, but people have donated something like five or six tons on food since the first Seattle Cranksgiving in 2010.
Thank you to everybody who has participated or sponsored the event in the past decade, especially longtime sponsor and afterparty host Swift Industries. And big thank you to Rainier Valley Food Bank for all you do for the community all year round.
Seattle Cranksgiving 2019 is November 23, and it’s starting an hour earlier than in previous years. So meet on Occidental Ave near the Centurylink Field north lot at 9:30 a.m. to get ready for a 10 a.m. start. The hunt ends by 1 back at the start. Invite your friends via Facebook.
A food drive scavenger hunt by bike, you will get a list of needed food items and places to shop. You can go solo or as a small team (four adults max per team). The more you buy and the more places you buy from, the more points you get. There are also photo challenges and more.
It’s time for the Bike News Roundup! Do you need something to read while nervously waiting for the King County ballot drops this afternoon (4 p.m.) and evening (8 p.m.)? Well, Seattle Bike Blog has got you covered.
First up! Here’s why Vancouver is getting rid of some of the only small pieces of freeway it ever constructed. And no, they aren’t digging a highway tunnel to replace them.
The dark blue areas have very frequent bus service thanks to the Seattle Transportation Benefit District, funded largely by $60 car tabs.
I was at the Shaun Scott party last night, and the response to last night’s initial ballot drop summed up how I feel: Extremely uneasy.
I-976 looks almost certain to pass, which is devastating. The final result will likely be much closer than the initial 56–44 count, but I’m not sure there’s precedent for late ballots closing such a gap in a statewide vote.
There will very likely be a court battle challenging the legality of the initiative, and Tim Eyman has lost before. That’s a glimmer of hope, sure, but we will need to plan assuming the initative holds.
Many people focus on the big impact to Sound Transit expansion, but I am more immediately concerned about the impact on existing King County Metro bus service funded through Seattle’s Transportation Benefit District (“STBD”).
Seattle is a leader nationwide on transit growth in recent years, and that’s in no small part due to increases in frequent bus routes across the city. It’s not as tangible and sexy as a new light rail station, but by dramatically expanding the number of homes within a short walk of at least one very frequent bus (10 minutes or less) the city and county have made the bus a much more reliable and convenient way to get around.
A 10-minute or better bus is the point where you stop looking up schedules and just walk to the bus stop trusting it will arrive soon. It’s simple: People are much less worried about whether transit will work for them when they can trust it to arrive when they need it. Frequent buses also reduce the so-called “transfer penalty,” which is the time you have to wait between buses on a multi-bus journey. When switching buses is less of a worry, the whole network open up to you. So bus frequency is a really big deal.
As a result of both bus and light rail investment, transit use in Seattle has been growing steadily, bucking nationwide trends. That’s what’s so frustrating about the idea of cutting transit right now: It’s working!
The STBD also funds the ORCA opportunity program that provides transit passes to students, as well as providing funding for the Trailhead Direct hiking buses.
But the impact of losing these funds does not simply cut these STBD programs. City leaders are currently debating the 2020-21 budget, and they could choose to save STBD programs by making cuts elsewhere. I mean, we aren’t going to take away student ORCA passes, right? But cuts could be very bad for other budgeted and proposed transit, walking and biking projects if the Council chooses to target them. I know it won’t go very far, but could they start with the Adaptive Signals budget please? Maybe delay the safety-lacking Wallingford paving projects (50th and 40th Streets) if that’s still possible…
Data from the Census Bureau’s American Communities Survey.
