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  • Endorsement: Cary Moon for Mayor

    By

    Tom Fucoloro

    | Posted

    If you are registered to vote in King County, your ballot is in the mail. New voters have until October 30 to register in-person. Ballots are due November 7. See this story for more election coverage, including the WA Bikes endorsements.

    Photo from Cary Moon for Mayor.

    Cary Moon has a bold vision for a more affordable Seattle that is easier and safer to get around by walking, biking and taking transit.

    And while her transportation platform is among the most ambitious in recent Seattle history, it is also grounded in reality. She’s a professional urban planner, and she has a strong understanding of what other cities around the world have successfully accomplished and what can work in Seattle.

    When Moon believes in an idea, she doesn’t mince words about her support for it. Protected bike lanes downtown (specifically, lanes on 4th Ave, 7th Ave, 8th Ave, Pike St and Pine St as shown in a recent One Center City document)?

    “Yes,” Moon said in response to a Seattle Bike Blog questionnaire. “I was on the One Center City advisory committee, and am committed to bold solutions that increase mobility by making walking, biking, and transit more convenient, fast, and safe downtown. More safe routes downtown, connected into a full network of protected bike lanes, is an essential part of this short term and long term solution.”

    Her opponent, Jenny Durkan, has also voiced general support for downtown bike lanes (SBB asked her campaign specifically about the streets above, but they missed our deadline to respond. UPDATE 10/23: The Durkan campaign responded. See her answers at the bottom of this post.). And I think that’s important to note because, for supporters of safe streets, that’s a victory in itself. Neither mayoral candidate is campaigning against bike lanes downtown or on Rainier Ave. It is politically unviable to run an openly anti-bike mayoral campaign in Seattle, and that’s awesome.

    So when figuring out which candidate will be best for transportation, you can’t just create a checklist of issues. You have to determine who will be most likely to get the work done and provide political leadership for projects in the face of pushback.

    Seattle Bike Blog believes Cary Moon not only has a strong grasp of transportation issues, but she has also shown the most decisiveness in backing up her stances. That’s why Seattle Bike Blog is endorsing her. (more…)

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  • Bike Happy: Introducing the weekly newsletter to Seattle Bike Blog

    By

    Brock Howell

    | Posted

    EDITOR’S NOTE: The weekly Bike Happy newsletter is a huge dump of local bike events and advocacy news curated by Founder Brock Howell. Brock reached out and suggested the newsletter could be a great addition to Seattle Bike Blog. I agree! You can sign up to receive the newsletter on the Bike Happy website.

    Note that this newsletter includes Bike Happy’s opinions on the upcoming election. Seattle Bike Blog has not yet released endorsements. Stay tuned for our mayoral endorsement tomorrow.

    TOP THINGS TO KNOW & DO THIS WEEK

    1. Elections! Elections!

    Last year taught us all that elections matter.  You should be receiving your ballots today or tomorrow, and you need to return them by Tuesday, November 7.  Washington Bikes, The Urbanist, Seattle Subway, and Seattle Transit Blog all endorse the same three awesome people to represent you at the City of Seattle:

    — Cary Moon for Mayor
    — Teresa Mosqueda for Council District 8
    — Lorena Gonzalez for Council District 9

    2. Construction on 2nd Ave Protected Bikeway Extension Starts on Monday

    The two-way 2nd Avenue Protected Bikeway will be extended from Pike Street to Blanchard, with construction starting on Monday and last four weeks. Like the existing 2-way protected bikeway on 2nd Avenue from Pike Street to S Washington Street, the extension will be on the east side and every intersection with have “no turn on red” restrictions” for drivers. An added feature is the buffer will be a concrete curb with concrete planters.

    3. Activists Land $83 million for Bikes, Housing, Placemaking

    As part of its expansion proposal, the Convention Center agreed to the investment requests of a coalition of neighborhood, bike, and housing activists, including $31.1 million for bicycle and pedestrian improvements and $29 million for affordable housing.

    4. Activists Push SDOT’s Buttons

    With a few cheeky stickers on crosswalk beg buttons, this week the City was on the defense of its crosswalks policies, writing a whopping three city blog posts (1, 2, 3). Receiving such a high level of response will surely encourage these anonymous “SDOTransformation” activists to ratchet things up further. For the City’s sake, hopefully SDOT’s good work on crossings to schools and community centers won’t go unnoticed.

    5.  City Budget Season is Here

    Today, city councilmembers will submit their proposals for amending the mayor’s proposed 2018 budget. Duwamish Valley Safe Streets is asking for funding to build a trail to connect Georgetown to South Park, and Bicycle Security Advisors is working for funding to register bikes and investigate bike theft.  Council committees will consider these changes over the next few weeks, and the full council will vote on the final budget in mid November.

    SOCIAL, LIFESTYLE, & ADVENTURE

    UPCOMING ACTIVITIES​

    (more…)

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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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