Seattle Bike Blog

The 20-year bike plan for S/SE Seattle: Beacon Hill and Rainier Valley

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

March 12, 2024

Download larger JPG images of SE Seattle from the 2014 Bike Master Plan and proposed 2024 Seattle Transportation Plan.
Mayor Bruce Harrell’s proposed Seattle Transportation Plan (“STP”) is now in the hands of the City Council, who can make some final changes before adopting it as official city policy. The STP will supersede the 2014 Bicycle Master Plan, so it’s important to take a close look at its vision for the next 10–20 years of bike improvements across the city. To do so, Seattle Bike Blog will post a series of six stories focusing on different areas of the city. You find other areas as well as other STP-related stories through the 2024 Seattle Transportation Plan tag. First up: Southeast Seattle, including Beacon Hill and the Rainier Valley neighborhoods.
Right away, it should be clear why we needed to break map analysis into a series of posts. There’s so much to talk about here, but let’s get straight into the big one: Northern Rainier Ave S is listed as a “tier 1 catalyst project” with bike lanes between MLK Way S and S King Street. The description says only that it would “provide an all ages and abilities bicycle connection between the Judkins Park light rail station, Chinatown International District, and Mount Baker.” As a tier 1 project, it is among the highest priority catalyst projects. It is likely listed as a catalyst project rather than just another bike lane because it would be complex and require a partnership with WSDOT and perhaps also Sound Transit due to the I-90 access ramps and underpass. For many years, this project has been at the top of the priority list for the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board because there is no comparably flat and direct option for connecting Rainier Valley and downtown. The area under and around I-90 is also in desperate and urgent need of major safety changes for biking and especially walking, preferably before Judkins Park Station opens. So my major comment here is that the Council should consider ways to bump the priority of this project as high as they can. It stands out among the rest of the tier 1 projects (it’s S tier). Or better yet, earmark year-one funding for it in the next transportation funding measure and maybe even get early design work going ASAP. It would also be a great poster child for showcasing the benefits of voting YES in November. Perhaps no other project in the city would be more impactful for walking, biking and transit access than this one.
Beyond this catalyst project, the STP makes the same decision that the BMP made by calling for protected bike lanes on MLK Jr Way and for no bike improvements on Rainier Ave south of MLK. We argued against this decision back in 2013, and continue to argue against it now. All of Rainier Ave needs to be safe for everyone, including people on bikes. It is where most the neighborhood destinations are, and it cuts against the street grid in such a way that there are many places where there are no viable alternatives. Leaving Rainier out of the city’s bike plan continues to be a mistake.
Much of the good stuff in the BMP is maintained or upgraded in the STP, including many routes on Beacon Hill that were part of a really cool neighborhood-created walking and biking circulation plan from 2011. Here we are 13 years later, and that neighborhood organizing is still imprinted in new city policy documents.
Looking at the plan for Beacon Ave S, it looks great. It calls for protected bike lanes the entire length of the road, which is great. But confusingly, the map notes it as an upgrade from an existing facility when there are no bike lanes at all currently. I think they may be counting sharrows as a bike facility. Because it may have an impact when prioritizing projects, any project on a street with only sharrows should be considered a new facility, not an upgrade. A quick glance reveals a bunch of these around the city (Boyer Ave E and 1st Ave S, are two obvious examples that jumped out immediately). This is a technical fix worth requesting. I think it is safe to say that this sharrow is not providing any value worth factoring into the 2024 plan:
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tags: 2024 Seattle Transportation Plan, beacon ave, beacon hill, chief sealth trail, lake washington loop, mlk way, rainier ave, rainier valley, s graham street, sdot, seward park ave s, wsdot

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Mapped: Seattle’s 2014 Bicycle Master Plan vs the proposed 2024 Transportation Plan

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

March 11, 2024

The 2014 Bicycle Master Plan Recommended Bicycle Facility map (large jpg) is on the left, and the proposed 2024 Seattle Transportation Plan Proposed Bicycle Network map (large jpg) is on the right. Images resized and composited by Seattle Bike Blog.
Once amended and approved by the City Council, the Seattle Transportation Plan (“STP”) will supersede the 2014 Bicycle Master Plan (“BMP”). So how does it compare to its predecessor?
As we noted in our previous story, the 2014 bike plan was a very strong document, especially for its time. And its fingerprints are all over the bicycle section of the mayor’s proposed STP. Mayor Bruce Harrell submitted the plan to the City Council last week, and the new Transportation Committee had its first briefing about it this week.
To help you see for yourself how the planned bicycle networks compare, I lined the maps from the two plans on top of each other to create the handy tool above. Move the slider left and right to see the changes. And let us know what you find in the comments below.
The most immediate high-level observation here is that a lot of the map changes are positive, though there are definitely some needed improvements and clarifications. Many streets that were slated for paint-only bike lanes (or uphill-only “climbing lanes”) in the 2014 plan have been upgraded to protected bike lanes in the proposed STP. This change reflects how SDOT has mostly been operating anyway since many of the streets slated for painted bike lanes in the old plan were actually too busy for that to be an appropriate treatment (15th Ave S on North Beacon Hill is a good example).
Some streets marked with a yellow line, however, now fall under a new category: Non-Bike+. “Bike+” is a new term in the STP that encompasses any bike facility designed to be safe and comfortable for people of all ages and abilities. So “Non-Bike+” streets are places where the plan acknowledges the need for a connection, but it is proposing a stub-standard facility such as paint-only bike lanes, a bike lane in only one direction or sharrows. The STP specifically states that it does not preclude these streets from getting Bike+ facilities if it is later deemed possible, but the plan estimates that the “right-of-way is so constrained that an AAA bike facility is not feasible.” We will discuss specific examples when we go neighborhood-by-neighborhood in future posts, but the most glaring and obvious one is Seward Park Ave S between Seward Park and Rainier Beach.
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tags: 2024 Seattle Transportation Plan, bicycle master plan, sdot

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The Emerald City Ride returns in May with a ride over the West Seattle Bridge

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

March 8, 2024

Route map and elevation chart from Cascade.
For the first time since 2019, Cascade Bicycle Club will host its wildly popular Emerald City Ride, a rare chance to ride on our area’s freeway infrastructure that is usually off limits to bicycling. The 2024 ride will take an all-new route across the West Seattle Bridge. The high one.
As Cascade Executive Director Lee Lambert put it, they are “putting the ‘everywhere’ in Bike Everywhere Month.” The ride scheduled for the morning of May 5, and registration opens March 12 (Tuesday).
The Emerald City Ride started in 2016 with a route across the not-yet-open 520 Bridge and the I-5 Express Lanes. The ride immediately became one of the club’s best-attended events of the year along with the annual Seattle to Portland Classic (“STP”). Over the following three years, the ride also toured the I-90 Bridge, the old Alaskan Way Viaduct before it was demolished and the new SR-99 tunnel. But then the 2020 ride was cancelled, and it hasn’t been able to get off the ground again since. Cascade was very close to making it happen in 2023, but the necessary permissions didn’t come through until it was too late to organize it properly. As Lambert put it at the time, they could have done it, but they would have needed to over-stress their already stretched staff. The Emerald City Ride is much more resource-intensive than other Cascade events and has higher fixed costs “by leaps and bounds” than even the two-day STP, according to Lambert.
So after a five-year hiatus, the fifth-ever Emerald City Ride will start in Pioneer Square near the stadiums, then hop on the SR-99 viaduct freeway south to the West Seattle Bridge. There is a climb up to the highest point of the bridge, but riders will get a view there that is rarely possible outside of a traffic jam. The route continues on the freeway bridge to Harbor Ave SW near Westside Bicycle. From there, riders will have two choices. Those looking for a shorter route with minimal traffic can hop on the Alki Trail and head back to Pioneer Square via the low bridge and E Marginal Way bike lanes. But the main 20-mile route will stay near the waterline all the way around Alki to Fauntleroy before heading up the hill to South Delridge and then back to Pioneer Square via 16th Ave SW and the usual low bridge bike route. The ride is only 20 miles long, but that mile-long climb up from Fauntleroy is a doozy. There will be snack stations along the route as is usual for Cascade events. Also, only the freeway sections will be closed to usual traffic, so there will be mixed-traffic riding much of the way.
All riders must be clear of the West Seattle Bridge and SR-99 sections by 9 a.m., so the ride will start bright and early. The latest starters will be allowed to leave is 8 a.m. Pricing is on a donation-tiered scale starting at $55 ($22 for riders 18 and younger).

tags: bike everywhere month 2024, cascade bicycle club, emerald city bike ride, events, lee lambert, upper west seattle bridge, west seattle

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Veo ‘temporarily pauses’ Seattle service, pledges to relaunch with refreshed e-bikes

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

March 7, 2024

Our review of the original Veo Cosmo-e bike when they first launched in Seattle.
Veo paused Seattle service as of March 1, but the company says they will return in “several weeks” with refreshed e-bikes and revamped operations.
With the demise of SuperPedestrian and their LINK scooter service as well as the ongoing bankruptcy of Bird, Lime has been eagerly gobbling up market share in Seattle. Veo, meanwhile, is not trying to compete directly with the stand-up scooters or traditional e-bikes, at least not yet. Instead, their Cosmo-e bikes land smack dab in the middle. They are essentially a sit-down scooter with a throttle but with bicycle pedals that don’t do much if anything. Veo does have a more traditional e-bike model called the Halo as well as a very interesting two-seater scooter called the Apollo, but the company is not planning on bringing those to Seattle at this time. When they restart service, they will be bringing revamped versions of the existing Cosmo-e bikes, according to a company spokesperson.
“We are making multiple upgrades to improve ride quality,” the Veo spokesperson said. “While refreshing our fleet of Cosmo-e vehicles is our current focus, Veo is excited about the possibility of bringing new vehicle types to Seattle in the coming years.”
As a bicycle rider, the Cosmo-e is my favorite of the scooters because I feel much more secure when stopping quickly or going over big bumps. It is the only scooter I would feel comfortable riding down a steep cobblestone street (which I did, and it was totally up to the challenge). However, I much prefer a more standard bicycle with an adjustable seat and pedal-assist. But these are my subjective preferences, and scooters seem to be more popular among the broader public. In 2023, people took an average of 10,300 trips per day on 5,950 available scooters from all companies, according to Seattle’s micromobility data dashboard. That’s about 1.7 trips per scooter per day, significantly higher than the 1 trip per bike per day on 3,114 available bikes.
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tags: bike share, limebike, scooter share, veo

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Seattle’s plan for the next decade of safe streets work

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

March 6, 2024

It’s a very big plan. Download Part I (PDF) and Part II (PDF). If you’re just looking for the maps, they’re in Part II.
Mayor Bruce Harrell released his recommended version of the Seattle Transportation Plan (“STP”) last week, and it is a massive document that attempts to combine nearly all of the city’s various transportation plans into one. This megaplan will be used to guide the development of the next transportation levy as well as guiding decisions about which projects SDOT will build and in what order. It also guides decisions about which modes should be prioritized in each project. It will be one of the most influential policy documents Seattle publishes this decade.
The Mayor’s Office and SDOT have developed the STP to this point over a period of two years to this point, and now it goes to the City Council for any final amendments and adoption. SDOT presented the plan to the Transportation Committee Tuesday (starts at 30:00).
As with the Pedestrian, Freight and Transit Master Plans, the Seattle Transportation Plan “builds on and supersedes” the 2014 Bicycle Master Plan. So once this is passed, the city will no longer have a dedicated plan specifically focused on biking. This could be good or bad. On one hand, we lose a bit of focus on very specific bike safety and network goals. But on the other hand, bike improvements should be more ingrained in SDOT’s everyday operations rather than being something of a siloed side mission. The 2014 bike plan was a very strong document, and its fingerprints are all over the STP.
“The Seattle Transportation Plan is our first holistic plan setting forth a unified vision for all modes of transportation,” SDOT Director Greg Spotts told the Transportation Committee. “The STP is an aspirational document about how Seattle can evolve. Future decisions for funding specific projects and programs will be coming to this committee soon, including consideration of a transportation levy renewal package.”
The result is 752 pages that are densely packed with information. The sheer scale of the thing makes it impossible to summarize effectively in a single post, so I will be demystifying different aspects of the plan and highlighting the elements for specific neighborhoods through a series that you can find under the tag 2024 Seattle Transportation Plan.
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tags: 2024 Seattle Transportation Plan, bicycle master plan, bruce harrell, sdot

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Widow asks Seattle and King County to take action against person who killed Steve Hulsman

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

March 5, 2024

Steven Hulsman, from his Strava profile, which notes that he had climbed 787,641 feet over 5,969 miles in 2023.
Rita Hulsman’s husband Steve was killed December 21 when a man allegedly driving with a suspended license turned left in front of him while he was biking on Marine View Drive SW at 46th Ave SW. Now, in addition to mourning her loss, Rita is also “dismayed and deeply saddened” that King County Prosecutors are not pursuing charges against the person responsible and Seattle is considering “only minimal charges,” according to a letter she sent recently to officials in the Seattle City Attorney and King County Prosecutor offices, among others. She also sent a copy to Seattle Bike Blog, posted below.
No charges have yet been filed, according to city and county court databases. Seattle Bike Blog policy is to not name suspects until they have been publicly charged. The police report alleges that the 53-year-old suspect was driving a vehicle without a legally-required ignition interlock device due to a history of DUI convictions from years ago. Officers only conducted a visual sobriety check and did not take a breathalyzer reading or draw blood for lab testing. Officers cited the suspect for negligent driving in the second degree and driving with a suspended license.
Despite the serious injuries, the Seattle Police Traffic Collision Investigation Squad did not assign a detective until learning of his death a few hours later, after the scene was cleared and on-site evidence was gone. Scenes of serious collisions are often closed for as much as several hours as investigators process the scene, but that did not appear to happen here. Instead, the detective used responding officer reports and footage from officer-worn cameras to piece together a collision report. In the report, the man admitted he did not see Hulsman before turning even though the person making the same turn before him did see Hulsman thanks to his bicycle headlight. Despite all this, the investigator concluded, “I did not find any evidence of criminal driving behavior (e.g. reckless, impaired) by [the suspect] that contributed to this collision.”
Police can recommend charges, but the decision about what charges (if any) to file ultimately falls to the King County Prosecutor for felony-level crimes or the City Attorney for lower-level crimes.
“I know that filing more serious charges against the driver will not bring my husband back to me,” Rita wrote in her letter. “But this driver clearly should not have been behind the wheel on the day my husband died. And to allow the driver to skate by without taking meaningful responsibility for the collision that ended my husband’s life is unjust to my husband and to all of us who mourn him.”
(more…)

tags: city attorney, deaths, king county prosecutor, rita hulsman, spd, steven hulsman

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