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  • Cascade’s annual Bike Everywhere Breakfast is Tuesday

    Bike Everywhere Breakfast promotional image. Text: Kaiser Permanente Bike Everywhere Breakfast benefitting Cascade Bicycle Club. Tuesday May 7 7 am to 9 am Bell Harbor International Conference Center.Hey, did you know May is Bike Month? I know, I know, every month is bike month in Seattle. I hear you.

    May is filled with events and organizational efforts to help get more people on bikes heading into summer. As we see from Seattle’s bike counter data, bike trips spike in the summer as expected. But higher summer use turns into higher winter use as a lot of people who take up biking when it’s nice out get in the habit and continue year-round. That’s why many people find WA Bikes’ annual May Bike Everywhere Challenge effective: It keeps them honest for a month, helping them to build a habit. We may be a week in, but you can still sign up.

    Cascade Bicycle Club’s annual Bike Everywhere Breakfast is tomorrow (Tuesday) morning at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center on the downtown waterfront. It’s free, but there’s a fairly spicy $175 suggested minimum donation.

    Peter Walker, author of How Cycling Can Save the World, is the keynote speaker this year. Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda will also speak. You can register online or just show up and register at the door. Doors open at 7, program starts at 7:30. Will be done by 9. More details from Cascade:

    “Around the globe this most benign of swarms is here. On their own, each cyclist is just flesh, blood and a machine of such beguiling simplicity and perfection that its fundamentals have stayed roughly the same for 140 years. But together, like the fireflies, they are a powerful indicator of the vitality and livability of the city’s streets. Together they can save the world.” Peter Walker, How Cycling Can Save the World

    Throughout the morning you will also hear from our 2019 Doug Walker Award recipient, Barb Chamberlain, Director, Active Transportation Division, WSDOT and Seattle City Council member, Teresa Mosqueda.

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  • Bike share parking still an accessibility issue, but it’s getting better

    Next to Alki Beach, a new bike rack and designated bike parking area includes a line of Lime bikes all inside the designated white lines.
    New Alki bike parking. Photo from SDOT.

    In June 2018, 4% of bike share bikes were parked in a way that impeded a walkway or curb ramp. Today, that figure is fewer than 2%, according to the latest SDOT bike share audit, the Seattle Times reports.

    Bikes impeding on the safety and accessibility of our sidewalks is a problem. Yes, people do far worse with cars all the time (and cars are a lot harder to move out of the way than bikes), but that doesn’t mean it’s OK for bikes to also block sidewalks or cause tripping hazards or obstructions for our neighbors with disabilities.

    But in recent reporting, I feel like it is important to note that not only are there solutions in the works, but bike parking habits are improving fairly significantly. The improvement is likely due to a variety of factors:

    • There is more bike parking now, including some SDOT experiments with lower-cost painted bike parking spaces in congested areas.
    • Users are likely much better educated about parking rules now, since the companies and the city have been spreading the word for nearly two years now.
    • The bikes have better kickstands now. First generation LimeBikes and Spin bikes had faulty or unreliable kickstands that were prone to break, making them nearly impossible to park correctly. Those have all been replaced at this point.
    • ofo left town (and the continent). Though I don’t have data to back this up, ofo seemed to be less concerned with maintaining order with their bike fleet.

    (more…)

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  • Trail Alert 5/6: Burke-Gilman detour near Seattle city limit

    Map showing the Burke-Gilman Trail closure between about 40th Ave NE to 42nd Pl NE.
    Trail closure map from King County Parks.

    The Burke-Gilman Trail will be closed for a stretch May 6 around Seattle’s border with Lake Forest Park so King County Parks can remove six hazardous trees.

    The good news is that this stretch parallels Riviera Pl NE, which should be an easy detour route.

    Details from King County Parks:

    Trail closed between 42nd Pl NE and 40th Ave NE

    A contractor working with King County Parks will be removing six hazardous trees leaning  out along the trail. The project is expected to take one full day to complete and will begin at 9 a.m. on Monday, May 6, 2019 and be complete by 7 p.m.

    Trail users may opt to use Riviera Place NE as a bypass for the duration of the closure. We ask that all trail users please obey all posted trail closure signs as the trail is narrow and the edge drops off quickly around the work site.

    Please call 206-477-4527 or email [email protected] with any questions or concerns.

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  • New Roosevelt-to-Downtown Bike Train starts service Friday

    Seattle’s newest bike train will begin service from the future Roosevelt light rail station, serving Ravenna, the U District, Wallingford, Fremont and Queen Anne en route to South Lake Union and downtown.

    Started by Nick van den Heuvel, the route meets 7:30 a.m. Friday at Broadcast Coffee on Roosevelt Way just north of NE 65th Street. The ride starts at 8 and will arrive downtown by 9. The plan is to host the bike train every Friday morning.

    This is the third bike train route, inspired by southend neighbors who earlier this year started bike trains from Othello to downtown via Beacon Hill and Columbia City to downtown via Mount Baker. The whole idea was inspired by bike trains in other cities, especially New York City, and by West Seattle neighbors who organized group rides ahead of the Viaduct shutdown.

    Want to help start a bike train serving your neighborhood? Check out this FAQ and email [email protected] for some help getting started. And, of course, let Seattle Bike Blog know so I can help spread the word. Feel free to use the comments below to get organized.

    More details on the Roosevelt Line from Seattle Bike Train: (more…)

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  • Bike News Roundup: NYC’s misguided crackdown on workers using e-bikes

    It’s time for the Bike News Roundup! Here’s a look at some stuff going around the ol’ web lately. This is an open thread.

    First up, New York City continues its misguided crackdown on delivery workers using e-bikes. A short documentary by Jing Wang shows how Mayor Bill de Blasio’s policy hurts immigrant workers in the city:

    Pacific Northwest News (more…)

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  • Seattle needs a Car Master Plan

    Photo of N 50th Street. Cars drive in all four lanes, some are waiting for a stop light, and one person on a bike is squeezed to the side of the street.
    Cover image for the Seattle Car Master Plan, I assume.

    Seattle has a Bicycle Master Plan, a Pedestrian Master Plan, a Transit Master Plan and a Freight Master Plan. It’s well past time our city give the same treatment to the many people who drive cars in our city by creating the first ever Seattle Car Master Plan.

    I am only sort of joking.

    Without a Car Master Plan, many of Seattle’s biggest transportation investments are being spent without a clear focus on how these public projects will help us reach our major climate change, race and social justice, public health, housing growth, and high-level transportation goals. All of the other modal master plans take these issues seriously, but those master plan projects are the exception to the rule at SDOT. The default mode of operation is that every inch of road space should go to cars unless an existing master plan says otherwise. And even then, those plans are only considered suggestions that can be ignored.

    But more road space is not better for people in cars, either, though it sure seems like the mayor and SDOT’s leadership has forgotten that. Building a safe bike lane on a street increases safety for all road users, including people in cars. It’s not a zero-sum game. We are all in this together, and we all need to get where we’re going safely.

    Like the other modal plans, the Car Master Plan could study best practices for designing roads to reduce injuries and deaths for people inside and outside of cars and make recommendations for how to most safely keep cars moving on our streets. After all, getting to your destination without injuring yourself or others is undeniably the most important priority of a car trip.

    Some see a bike plan, others see a no-bikes plan

    (more…)

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