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  • Attorney seeks people who have had incidents at fatal Issaquah trail crossing

    By

    Tom Fucoloro

    | Posted

    Photo of the intersection in question, from John Duggan.

    Wayne Wagner was biking on the East Lake Sammamish Trail September 22 when a woman driving made a right turn into him at SE 56th Street and killed him, according to the Issaquah Reporter. Wagner was 69.

    Our condolences to his friends and family.

    The trail runs alongside East Lake Sammamish Parkway in this part of Issaquah. At the intersection with SE 56th Street, the trail crosses 56th Street as a crosswalk. People driving are allowed to turn right at the same time that the crosswalk has a “walk” signal, but signage clarifies that they are supposed to yield to people in the crosswalk.

    The incident is still under investigation, so it’s not yet clear what (if any) charges will be filed.

    Cycling attorney John Duggan (also a Seattle Bike Blog advertiser) is pursuing a wrongful death case, and is seeking anyone who has had incidents at this trail crossing. Get in touch by emailing [email protected].

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  • Aviva Stephens: How a bike saved my life

    By

    Aviva Stephens

    | Posted

    EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m excited to feature this post by Aviva Stephens, 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.

    I am a working stiff in the corporate rat race where I spend most days tethered to desks, meeting rooms, conference calls, cocktail bars, and motor vehicles: which means a lot of sitting. Early in my career I found that I could not sit for long periods of time so I learned to use a standing desk, take frequent breaks, and not work crazy hours, but I always struggled to incorporate sufficient exercise into my daily routine. Since I am in an occupation that’s known to be stressful (not sure which occupation is relaxing) I took up yoga and got really into it for some time. While yoga is a great all body workout and helped me stop smoking, it’s expensive and yoga studios have an ironically pretentious and cultish environment that I could never quite get with.

    Bikes in Seattle

    As a struggle to vinyasa some sun salutations into my daily routine, I saw that the bike community in Seattle had grown beyond bike messengers and white middle aged weekend carbon fiber road bike worriers (aka, Lance Armstrong drones). During this time, I moved into a sweet new pad and next door to Swift Industries (the most awesome bike bag company), and they inspired to hop on the bike!

    Well … it didn’t happen overnight. While my friends at Swift were super inspiring, I was super intimidated to ride a bike in Seattle (hills, rain, hair, cold, traffic, sweat, apparel, can I even ride a bike?) and they were my neighbors for at least a year before I took the leap onto the peddles. (more…)

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  • What can we learn from this scary close call video?

    By

    Tom Fucoloro

    | Posted

    OK, Seattle, we need to talk about this close call video going around.

    David Seater, who is the Chair of Seattle’s volunteer Pedestrian Advisory Board, was biking uphill on Pine Street on Capitol Hill earlier this week when someone driving a pickup chose to lay on the horn and make a purposeful, extremely close pass. Luck is the only reason the person driving didn’t hit Seater, causing serious injury or worse.

    I am not posting this video to stoke anger. I also don’t want it to further scare people from biking, which is what the person driving here wants. But the video has ignited all kinds of bigger conversations, from questions about what constitutes a criminal threat when your weapon is a car to why someone biking might not always be in the bike lane. So if you’re feeling up to it (it’s troubling), give the short video a watch:

    (more…)

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  • The community-advised Missing Link design keeps getting better for everyone

    By

    Tom Fucoloro

    | Posted

    The project includes a bunch of new and upgraded traffic signals, which help everyone.

    The Ballard Missing Link of the Burke-Gilman Trail has been debated and challenged in court for two decades, and sometimes it’s hard in such a long, frustrating process to remember what this thing is really about.

    On average, about two people crash badly enough every month along the Missing Link that they need emergency medical help. And this will not stop until the trail is complete. If work goes smoothly and legal challenges fail (the weeklong hearing is scheduled to begin November 27), construction will break ground in May 2018, and the final section of the Burke-Gilman Trail will open in May 2019, 41 years after the first section opened between Gas Works Park and Kenmore.

    The Burke-Gilman Trail is a gem of our city and carries a major transportation load for the region. Some stretches move as many people during peak rush hour as a lane of a major freeway. And it does it with healthy, fun and safe biking and walking. It’s a beautiful success story we should never forget to celebrate and work to repeat and grow.

    Plans for the Missing Link have reached 60 percent design (see updated designs in this PDF slideshow presented to the Seattle Pedestrian Advisory Board), developed through an intense stakeholder process where nearby businesses and people who live and work in the area have scoured every inch of the trail route to make sure business needs are addressed and safety is a priority.

    Below is a look at the latest version of the trail plans, starting at the Locks and heading east: (more…)

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  • Learn how to become a leader in the safe streets movement in 2 weekends

    By

    Tom Fucoloro

    | Posted

    OK, maybe you won’t be able to learn everything you need to know to become a safe streets leader in just two weekends, but you’ll get a jump start.

    Cascade Bicycle Club’s free Advocacy Leadership Institute is an innovative program that teaches community members how to organize around an issue, work with the media and craft their own personal stories to highlight a community need.

    Alumni of the program have gone on to become leaders of all kinds of local efforts, some of which have nothing to do with Cascade at all. Kelli Refer, Statewide Engagement Director for Cascade (and, full disclosure, also my awesome and inspiring spouse) interviewed four graduates for a recent blog post.

    I love this program because biking and safe streets are the perfect issues to cut your teeth as a community advocate or organizer. And the more new voices there are, the stronger and more complete the movement will be. So if you’ve been itching to get more involved, but don’t know where to start, you should apply. No previous experience of any kind is required.

    The deadline to apply is Friday for the late October/early November program. You can find more details and the sign up form on Cascade’s website:  (more…)

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  • It’s getting dark earlier, so let’s talk about bike lights

    By

    Tom Fucoloro

    | Posted

    Biking at night is one of my favorite things to do. As we wrote in our 2013 bike light story, “a nighttime bike ride can turn a simple errand into an existential experience.”

    It’s true. The pace of the city slows way down at night. All the wooded areas come alive. The magnificent vistas transform. The experience forces meditation and self-reflection, a vital part of a healthy life that is so easy to neglect in a busy city.

    But you gotta have lights on your bike to ride at night. The law requires a headlight and a rear reflector, but a rear taillight is highly recommended.

    Unfortunately, bikes in our country don’t just come standard with proper lights, and there are a huge array of confusing bike light options available out there. This is a frustrating legacy of the U.S. bike industry treating bikes as recreational sports equipment rather than practical transportation machines. Most people just want whatever lights they need to be safe and legal, and then they never want to think about their bike lights ever again. Can you imagine if cars were sold without lights? Of course not.

    Here is Seattle Bike Blog’s advice for buying and using bike lights: (more…)

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