Seattle Bike Blog

Take this Pike/Pine bike lane survey + Rethinking Pine St downtown

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

November 26, 2018

Few bike improvements in the city could have a bigger impact than a safe, comfortable and fully connected bike route from the Pike Place Market to Broadway. And due to the grade of First and Capitol Hills as well as I-5 cutting off many streets, Pike and/or Pine are the only options to make this connection.

These streets are already very popular for people on bikes despite their insufficient or lacking bike lanes because they are the only real choices for people living in large swaths of Capitol Hill, First Hill and the Central District. Being packed with destinations helps, too. Since most people have no interest in biking mixed with car traffic, connecting 2nd Ave’s protected bike lanes to the Broadway bikeway has enormous potential to connect a lot of homes, businesses and destinations.

More than 150 people attended a late October community workshop organized by Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, Capitol Hill Housing and the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict. They provided a lot of feedback on the city’s effort to complete this connection by the end of next year. But the organizers want to make sure the opinions of folks who couldn’t attend are also included, so they put together an online survey.

After considering the realistic options, organizers determined that the lanes will most likely go both ways on Pike Street from Broadway to around Melrose, then switch to westbound on Pine and eastbound on Pike through downtown as outlined in the Pike Pine Renaissance plan.

The first major question is about the basic design of bike lanes on Pike from Broadway to the street curve near Minor. Should they be one-way bike lanes on each side of the street or a two-way bike lane on the north side of the street?

(more…)

tags: capitol hill, capitol hill housing, downtown, pike pine renaissance, pike/pine, seattle neighborhood greenways

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Scenes from Cranksgiving 2018: A new donation record

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

November 20, 2018

Miguel Jimenez from Rainier Valley Food Bank addresses Cranksgiving riders at the start of the event.

Seattle’s Cranksgiving 2018 hit a new record Saturday, with 150 riders donating an astounding 1,713 pounds of food to Rainier Valley Food Bank.

For the ninth year, Seattle Bike Blog hosted this food drive scavenger hunt by bike on RVFB’s final distribution day before Thanksgiving. It’s a very low-budget event that is free to join. Participants are given a list of items to buy and a list of local grocery stores and stands around town to buy them from. So participants’ money and effort goes directly into donating food and having fun biking around our beautiful city. There are also some photo challenges for extra points, and you can see some of the results below.

New this year, Swift Industries hosted a gear donation drive for Facing Homelessness, and people brought boxes worth of tents, tarps, hats, socks, rain jackets, coats and more. Swift also hosted the after party and donated prizes.

Thanks to Swift Industries, G&O Family Cyclery, Cascade Designs and Olympia Beer for your prize and party donations. And big thanks to my wonderful spouse Kelli for helping to procure prizes, donating a few copies of her book Pedal, Stretch, Breathe, and for taking on extra baby-watching duty so I could organize the event.

And finally, thanks to everyone who joined us Saturday. You were all so positive, lovely and generous. I’m thankful for all of you.

Now I just need to figure out what we are going to do next year to celebrate the tenth annual Seattle Cranksgiving…

Here are a few scenes from #CranksgivingSEA: (more…)

tags: cranksgiving, cranksgiving 2018

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Uber’s JUMP launches their lock-to, slightly cheaper e-bikes in central Seattle

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

November 19, 2018

JUMP bikes staged downtown over the weekend. Unlike with Lime, JUMP bikes need to be locked to a rack or pole.

After months of delays getting the new bike share permit in place and through environmental review, Uber’s JUMP launched in Seattle this morning. They join Lime, which has had a temporary monopoly on bike share in town since early summer when Spin and ofo left.

The company is launching 300 bikes initially with plans to ramp up “over the coming weeks and months,” according to a press release (see the full release below). During this initial phase, the service area is limited to 65th Street in the north and McClellan Street in the south (basically, the north end of Green Lake to Mount Baker Station). But the service area will expand as they add more bikes, the company said.

JUMP’s red bikes are a bit different than Lime’s e-bikes. They have gears, for one. They also have a keypad and RFID reader for app-less unlocking. So, for example, you could tie your ORCA card to your JUMP account, letting you unlock their bikes with the same card you use to board transit (though you still need to set up a JUMP or Uber account and pay through the company). Both the JUMP and Uber apps should give you access to the bikes. As a promo, your first five trips up to 30 minutes are free every day through December 12.

JUMP’s initial service area, from their Seattle webpage.

(more…)

tags: bike share, jump

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After deep review, SDOT reaffirms plans for Eastlake bike lanes

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

November 16, 2018

From a project presentation.

There may be no bike project north of downtown Seattle more important than Eastlake Ave. Connecting to the University Bridge today and the 520 Trail in the future, Eastlake is an already well-used bike route with huge promise for growth. The problem is that today, biking on the street is very stressful because there are no bike lanes.

But SDOT’s Roosevelt RapidRide project has the potential to transform the street into the multimodal neighborhood commercial street it should be, prioritizing walking, biking and transit. And plans, developed over years of study, public outreach and dedicated people-powered advocacy, have included protected bike lanes on Eastlake Ave because they are vital to achieving that vision and connecting the citywide bike network.

But due to pushback from folks worried about losing on-street parking, the city went back to the drawing board this year to take another, deeper look at every option they could think of to see if there was any way to create a quality bike route through the area that provides access to Eastlake destinations and a direct route between the University Bridge and South Lake Union. And that effort only further supported what we already knew: Building protected bike lanes on Eastlake Ave is by far the best option.

So in a project update email this week, the team announced that the bike lanes are staying in the plans. (more…)

tags: eastlake, sdot

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Sunday: World Day of Remembrance will be a healing space for those impacted by traffic violence

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

November 14, 2018

People gather in City Hall for World Day of Remembrance 2016 surrounded by silhouettes representing people who died in traffic in recent years.

Every year, about 20 people die in traffic collisions in Seattle. Another 150 people are seriously injured, often resulting in life-changing health issues. And for every one of these victims and survivors, there is a community of loved ones whose lives are changed, too.

That’s why Seattle Neighborhood Greenways is hosting Seattle’s memorial for World Day of Remembrance Sunday at the Impact Hub in Pioneer Square.

The organization wants the event this year to focus on creating a healing space for people impacted by injury or death on our streets, said Executive Director Gordon Padelford. Considering the scale of how many lives are impacted by traffic collisions, there is a lot of healing to be done.

Our society tells people that traffic collisions are just “accidents,” like they or a loved one simply won some kind of terrible lottery. But this is just a story we tell ourselves so it is easier to continue with our destructive car culture. Because truly changing how people and goods move around our city just seems like too heavy a lift.

But ask any room of people for a show of hands if they or someone they love has been killed or seriously injured in a traffic collision, and nearly every hand will go up. This is not OK.

More details from SNG: (more…)

tags: gordon padelford, seattle neighborhood greenways, world day of remembrance

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ALERT: West Seattle swing bridge will be out from 7-9 Tuesday night, shuttles available

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

November 13, 2018
Attention folks who bike across the lower West Seattle Bridge: SDOT just announced a closure from 7 to 9 p.m. tonight (Tuesday). As with the previous closure, there will be a shuttle to help folks walking and biking get across, but this will add significant delay. So leave early or late if you can. Otherwise, be ready for delays waiting for the shuttle or add extra time to bike the long way via the 1st Ave Bridge.

From SDOT:
For 2 hours tonight, starting at 7 PM, the Spokane St Bridge (West Seattle Lower Bridge) and the bike trail will be closed, so crews can replace a power control cable. A shuttle van will be available both directions, to take interested travelers over the high bridge.

What you can expect:

During this project, barrels and barricades as well as message boards, will direct traffic. After cable replacement and successful bridge testing, the bridge will reopen to traffic.

November 13 | 7 – 9 PM

Impacts |
- Spokane St Bridge (aka Lower W Seattle Bridge) closed.
- W Seattle Bridge Trail closed.
Assistance | A shuttle van will travel back and forth over W Seattle High Bridge, in 15-minute intervals, with the following stops:
- East Side – 11^th Ave SW & SW Spokane St.
- West side – SW Spokane St and Port of Seattle Terminal 5 Entrance.
Shuttle service is scheduled to run during the duration of the outage. Should this maintenance work experience unexpected challenges, the shuttle will run all night, as needed.

Questions?

Email [email protected] to learn more.
tags: Bike Route Alert, lower west seattle bridge, west seattle

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