Scooters are coming to Seattle next year probably maybe.
Work to create the framework for the scooter share pilot project starts now, along with environmental review (of course). SDOT plans to finalize the permit details in the fall and winter, then launch the system in winter or spring.
Scooters have proven to be very popular in cities where they have launched, typically attracting significantly more ride per day than bike share. As we reported previously, Seattle is fairly unique as a city with a large dockless bike share system, but no scooters. In many other cities, companies have been either shifting focus to scooters or have dropped bikes entirely.
Seattle’s scooter permits will be entirely separate from the city’s bike permits, though many relevant details will likely be copied from the extensive bike permit.
It’s not yet clear what a scooter share pilot would mean for bike share. It’s potentially good news that companies offering both devices will not be forced to choose either bikes or scooters because scooters typically generate more revenue than bikes. But it will obviously be up to the companies whether and to what extent they continue offering bikes.
As a much newer technology, there are also lots of questions about how scooters will fit into Seattle. How will their motors handle our steeper hills? What about their brakes on the way down? What sort of technical requirements should the city include to ensure the devices are safe?
Unlike bikes, which have a very long history of use and studies in urban environments, electric scooters are relatively novel. And the designs of the devices has massively advanced in recent years. Data about scooter safety is still fairly new and incomplete, though the massive spread of the devices in cities across the nation is starting to generate some useful information. Some safety issues are shared, like the need for protected bike lanes. But some safety issues are different. (more…)
“Rainier Ave S averages more crashes per day than anywhere else in Seattle,” the public agency in charge of making city streets safe wrote on bus and light rail station ads in South Seattle recently. As the @FixRainier Twitter author put it, “Are you bragging here, @seattledot?”
So what is SDOT — the only people who can do anything to change that terrible fact — doing about it? They’re telling people walking to wear different clothes so they “Don’t Blend In,” the official name of a campaign that “encourages and empowers pedestrians and bicyclists to wear bright-colored clothing that stands out.”
Is there data somewhere that shows people who walk across Rainier Ave wear dark clothing more often than people anywhere else in Seattle? Of course not. Because people’s clothing choices are not the problem on Rainier. The problem is the design of the street, which puts people in harm’s way and encourages car speeding.
Wear what you want to wear. Dark-colored clothing is normal and fine if that’s what you picked out today, and our city should be defending your right to exist safely while wearing it. You do not need special clothes to walk around your neighborhood, and we should stand up against a public agency trying to say otherwise. And if someone wearing a black jacket is hit while crossing a street with a long history of speeding and collisions, that person’s fashion choice is not the problem. The street with a long history of speeding and collisions is the problem. And the only people who can change that street work at SDOT or have an office in City Hall. (more…)
This post is not about the couple of battery explosions reported in Seattle recently, but it’s hard to ignore that very visible (and rare) problem. This post is about recent pricing and service area changes by bike (Lime and Jump) and car (Car2Go and the now-defunct ReachNow) share services in Seattle, signs of trouble for the app taxi services (Lyft and Uber), and what Seattle and other cities need to start thinking about for the next phase.
I don’t have any answers. Instead, I want this post the be a place to collect your thoughts as users and to get folks thinking about the role of local governments in the future of shared mobility. Primarily, this site is focused on what comes next for bike share, though it seems worthwhile to consider the bikes within the context of the car-based services. I also want to restart conversations about public funding for bike share, which has proven to be incredibly valuable and effective at increasing the number of trips around town by bike.
But first, lets talk briefly about how we got where we are, what’s working and what isn’t. (more…)
U District Station is going to change everything about the neighborhood when it begins operating in 2021, and the streets should reflect that. Located at Brooklyn Ave and NE 43rd Street, the main station entrance should be supported by streets that reflect the walking, biking and transit focus needed to help it succeed and thrive.
Today, NE 43rd Street dead ends into the station construction site halfway between the Ave and Brooklyn. The street also dead ends into UW Campus at 15th Ave NE. So it is not a necessary street for car movement, making it a great candidate to go car-free. Unfortunately, concepts floating around shy away from going fully car-free, which is a shame.
One big goal needs to be increasing the walking space to accommodate the more than 20,000 daily riders expected. Another goal, of course, is bike access. Bus access is a bit up in the air because it’s not fully clear whether buses will need to operate on the street or if they would be better serving the station via Brooklyn. However, plans seem to assume westbound bus operations complete with new trolly wires for the re-routed bus routes.
The U District Mobility Group and SDOT have two different concepts at this point, and the UDMG is currently taking feedback via an online survey.
Both concepts significantly widen the walking spaces, and both have potential. But the devil is in the details for both of them. So I’d like to hear from you all in the comments below.
SDOT’s counter-flow bike lane
SDOT’s design definitely looks a little strange at first. It has a protected bike lane eastbound, but the single westbound lane would be shared by people biking, buses and even … cars? Well, this is where the details become important. The SDOT design would allow all vehicles on the one block between 15th and the Ave, switching to transit and bikes only west of the Ave.
How will the city prevent illegal driving west of the Ave? This question is vital. As we have seen with the Bell St “park” in Belltown, signage alone will not be enough to prevent people from driving there. And if this street gets clogged with cars, the bike access, transit efficiency and walkability goals will be hurt. But if they have a physical car diverter plan, then this option could work.
If planners decide against serious, physical traffic diversion, then they should build bike lanes in both directions. And there also needs to be space for people biking to safely pass buses at bus stops or this shared lane concept won’t really work as a bike route.
The city describes their design as curbless, so you could imagine it as Bell Street, but with a separated counter-flow bike lane.
U District Mobility Plan’s wider curbless concept
Facing east.
The U District Mobility Plan concept looks a lot like the Bell Street “park” in Belltown and gets rid of the bike lane. It’s a curbless street, and road edges are marked by tactile strips for accessibility. The concept would be open to transit, biking and “local traffic.” Hmm.
As we’ve learned from Bell Street, this design works really well when there are no cars, but falls apart once people start ignoring the signs banning through car traffic. And since there will be significant demand for pick-up and drop-off at the light rail station, this street concept would fall apart if it becomes clogged with cars. And simply posting signs will not work. Physical car diverters are needed, which is a challenge when you are trying to allow buses.
But if car traffic is removed or severely limited, then no bike lane would be necessary. The benefits of a curbless street is that people can take over the space. Sidewalks can spill into the road, which is a good thing. You can imagine cafe seating and street festivals and all kinds of cool stuff here. But it has to be done right or cars will just fill the whole space like they always do.
This concept is also set up better for going car-free, which should be the goal for this street, especially for the blocks adjacent to the station.
Seeing Queen Anne Greenways’ Mark Ostrow give Mayor Jenny Durkan a high five from his bicycle is the image that sticks in my head from Wednesday’s press event celebrating the opening of the 8th Ave bike lane downtown (Crosscut’s Josh Cohen captured the moment on video).
The real news is that Mayor Durkan is celebrating and promoting a bike project, a shift from her stance for most of her term as mayor. Not only that, but she acknowledged during her speech that bike projects have been delayed further than they should have.
“We know when we hit our reset, we didn’t reset quickly enough,” she said, according to the Urbanist.
This one press event will not heal relations with bike and safe streets advocates, and it also will not put the delayed bike plan back on pace. But it feels like an olive branch, and advocates from Cascade and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways took it (an olive branch on Olive Street! Coincidence?).
I hope this is the start of a change. She clearly took advice from the wrong people when she chose to cancel the designed, funded and contracted bike lanes on 35th Ave NE, and that decision has turned out to be a huge mistake. So I hope mending relationships with safe streets advocates also means she may seek advice from them in the future. (more…)
Scooters are coming to Seattle next year probably maybe.
