EDITOR’S NOTE: Aviva Stephens is a Seattle native and financial professional who discovered the benefits and joys of cycling on her challenging work commute between Ballard and the Eastside. Find more of her writing on Medium and follow her on Instagram at @avivarachelle.
Since bike commuting to and from the Eastside, I have been eagerly awaiting the opening of the new 520 Bridge trail. After years of sitting in traffic due to car accidents, unexpected congestion, and inclement weather, I could not wait to fly past the parking lot of cars on my bike with smile on my face.
The beginning
I took the afternoon off December 20 (opening day of the 520 Bridge trail) to enjoy every moment of my glorious ride during what little daylight there was. Fortunately, the 520 bike trail runs right past my office. Below is a pic of the trailhead, SR 520 is just beyond the trees. If you’ve never been on the trail, it mostly runs alongside SR 520. If not, you’ve likely noticed a few sparse bike riders to your right while driving eastbound on the highway.
Redwest Campus
While I’ve ridden parts of this trail around Redmond, I’ve never taken it all the way to the bridge. So this was an adventure for me. Like many folks who have been waiting for this day, I figured the trail would run along 520 all the way into Seattle. It is called the “520 Trail” after all, right? Not so much. The trail does follow the freeway for the most part, but there are some confusing breaks that can make this ride challenging. In this post I will share my experience with the breaks and offer tips if you look to make the same journey.
The circled section below is where I will focus this post, as it is the most problematic. I tried pulling the directions from Google maps, but the result wasn’t quite right. For some reason Google takes you off the proper 520 Trail before it actually ends. I’ll go into detail about this later.
On scheduled Sundays from May to September, a portion of Lake Washington Boulevard will be closed to motorized vehicles from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Seattle Parks and Recreation invites everyone in the community to bike, jog or stroll along the boulevard between the Seward Park entrance and Mount Baker Park’s beach during these times.
After a month of anticipation, LimeBike released 300 e-bikes into its fleet of 4,000 bikeshare bike in Seattle this past weekend, with plans to release another 200 by this Wednesday. Eventually, “Lime-Es” will comprise forty percent of LimeBike’s fleet.
Here’s the thing — I had never ridden an e-bike in my life. And while I believe e-bikes have transformative power to flatten Seattle’s hills and get more people to ride, unlike many e-bike evangelists, I believe e-bikes shouldn’t be allowed to have e-assist past 15 or 17 mph.
As I rode from my Tangletown home to downtown where LimeBike was providing the test rides to the media Sunday afternoon (Seattle Bike Blog Editor Tom Fucoloro sent me to attend on behalf of the blog), I first had to pump up my rear wheel to address its slow leak. As I pedaled, I noticed my bottom bracket creaked an unusual amount. These problems need to get addressed.
I smoothly went down Stone Way. As I passed Fremont Brewing, I saw four “Lime-Es” along with the full citrus spectrum of ofo and Spin bikeshare bikes out front. The 300 e-bikes were already in use, helping people imbibe outdoors on a beautiful afternoon. As I rode along the Westlake Protected Bike Lane, Bell Street, and the 2nd Avenue Protected Bike Lane, I hit all the usual number of red lights. But I made it to LimeBike’s meeting spot at a WeWork space on Spring Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues.
The Seattle Bike Swap really does have something for everyone. It’s like a giant garage sale featuring booths focused on all different kinds of biking all together in an old hangar in Magnusson Park.
Rare bike geeks, racers and people just looking for an affordable ride can all find stuff at the Swap.
The 2018 Seattle Bike swap is 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday in Hangar 30. It’s $7 to get in ($5 for members). Kids under 15 are free.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Thanks again to Brock Howell of Bike Happy for putting together this comprehensive weekly newsletter.
