It should be common sense, but don’t block walkways when you park a bike share bike. But you should also go a step further and think, would this bike impede someone with a vision impairment? Is it too close to a bus stop, curb ramp or building entrance?
Disability rights organization Rooted In Rights partnered with SDOT to produce a short video clearly showing some problems poorly located bikes can cause people with various disabilities. Sometimes users don’t park correctly and sometimes other people or the weather move or knock them over. Either way, if you see a problematic bike, do everyone a favor and move it.
Here’s the parking guide we made to help:
Annotations by Seattle Bike Blog. Base image from SDOT’s draft update for their Right of Way Improvement Manual.
In what is obviously a birthday present to yours truly, WSDOT announced today that they will fix every bumpy expansion gap plate on the 520 Bridge Trail.
We first reported about the bumpy plates back in 2016 before the trail was completed, then again in 2017. The problem was that the plates covering the floating bridge’s expansion gaps were built with an abrupt incline along the edges, making them feel more like hitting potholes than the more gradual bumps a user might be expecting from a brand new trail.
Luckily, I have not heard of any crashes caused by these plates, as I had feared. But the plates are unpleasant enough that it is worthwhile improving the trail experience on this $4.5 billion public investment.
The agency has been testing a more gradual expansion plate design, and 95 percent of users surveyed said the new design is an improvement.
The new plates should all be installed by the end of summer. (more…)
City Councilmember Mike O’Brien and Transportation Choices Coalition recently hosted Tamika Butler, Toole Design’s California Planning Director and Director of Equity and Inclusion, for an hour-long talk about transportation equity and her experience as a land use, parks and transportation leader in Los Angeles.
Do yourself a favor and watch the whole talk. Seattle has made official efforts to run all major city decisions through its Race and Social Justice Initiative framework, and yet so many decisions still fail to put equity as a top priority. The city talks and talks about equity, but then fails to build safe bike routes connecting Rainier Valley and Duwamish Valley to the rest of the city’s bike network, for example.
Butler’s thoughts on congestion pricing (starts around 29:30) are also extremely important as Seattle begins to debate the concept.
Be a part of Seattle’s first ever Cargo Bike Festival, a celebration of the life-altering power of cargo bikes! This event features family friendly activities and the chance to ride the best cargo bikes in the world…
This celebration is a part of the Phinney Pride Rainbow Hop, a family-focused neighborhood LGBTQ Pride event, and the whole business district is hosting fun activities.
When: Saturday, June 1 from noon – 4 p.m. Where: Marrow Lane between Greenwood Ave N and Palatine What: Celebrate the joy, fun and transformational power of cargo bikes with test rides, kids activities, food, games and more!
(Full Disclosure: My spouse Kelli helped organize this event, and G&O is a Seattle Bike Blog sponsor)
Morgan Scherer hauls herself, six bikes and a passenger on her electric-assisted trike in 2012.
It is hard to think of any other person who has done more for family biking in Seattle than Morgan Scherer. She has been out on our streets leading by example and sharing her experience since at least 2007, when she founded Familybike Seattle.
Hauling a fleet of different kid-hauling cargo bikes all over town, Scherer has been providing people with life-changing opportunities to experience family life on a bike. Taking a spin on a cargo bike is not just fun, it’s a chance to imagine your life without (or with much less) driving.
When Scherer started, cargo bikes in America were largely a DIY or small-scale fabrication activity because very few companies were producing purposeful kid-hauling cargo bikes for sale in the U.S. market. So people converted old road bikes into Xtracycles or attached after-market electric motors to make climbing big hills with ever-growing kids on board a more easily-achievable daily way to get around. Just a decade later, you can get fully-designed family bikes off the sales floor of several shops. It’s an unbelievable shift, and Scherer has done an enormous amount of work to help grow the number of people looking to make biking a central part of their families’ lives.
But it’s not just about equipment. It’s also about parenting. Familybike Seattle and events like Kidical Mass provide a space for parents to share tips about, well, basically everything you might encounter raising a kid on a bike. More and more kids are growing up with biking as their primary way to get around, and this movement will continue to change the way Seattle thinks about transportation. Family biking is the heart of mainstream bike advocacy in Seattle now.
Scherer is stepping down to “focus more energy on balancing family life, disability justice, and (of course) bicycle advocacy,” according to a press release from Familybike Seattle. The organization is also seeking more members to “fill our working board with dynamic directors.”
This is a big moment for any organization. Trying to find footing without the original founder is tough, but it’s the only way to become an institution. We wish them the best. If you are inspired to help, see their press release for details for getting involved either as a Board member or volunteer: (more…)
Calling all bikey-people! Join us as we throw our annual bike party at the end of Bike Month. Check out local vendors, win great raffle items, enjoy live music, and raise a glass as $1/pint goes to Washington Bikes!
Friday 5/31 at Peddler Brewing Company
4 – 8pm: Check out local bike-related makers and nonprofits (listed below)
7:30pm: Raffle drawing! 1 ticket per pint purchased, must be present to win
7:30-10pm: Live music by Left Turn on Blue
Food Truck: Cycle Dogs
With plenty of bike parking for all, we encourage riders of all ages, abilities and styles to come out to this celebration of biking in Seattle. Everyone’s welcome, Peddler is all ages.
