Proposed layout for a stretch of Avalon Way, from SDOT. See full proposal below.Proposed map.
There are only so many ways to get up West Seattle’s formidable hills, and SW Avalon Way is an absolutely vital one.
Connecting the Alki Trail/West Seattle Bridge to Fauntleroy and the heart of West Seattle, Avalon is one of the neighborhood’s most important bike routes. It already has old, paint-only bike lanes in spots, but much of the route requires mixing with car traffic on intimidating stretches of hill.
With a paving project coming up in 2019, the city is planning to make the street safer for all users, including protected bike lanes and safer crosswalks.
SDOT is hosting an open house 5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m. today (Tuesday) at Delridge Community Center. If you can’t make it (sorry for the late notice!), you should comment via the project’s online open house. (more…)
West Seattle’s Gabriel Scheer was a founding member of Pronto Cycle Share, so he was disappointed when that now-shuttered bike share system failed to expand beyond its small service area.
“I don’t think it served the city as well as it should have,” he said. That’s a shortcoming Scheer plans to address as the Director of Strategic Development for LimeBike, a young dockless bike share company based out of San Mateo, California.
LimeBike is one of at least three companies with plans to begin service on Seattle streets as early as next month. Along with Bluegogo and Spin, LimeBike is working with SDOT and the City Council to develop rules for this new-to-the-US business model for private bike share services.
The city could have either legislation or an SDOT Director’s Rule in place in June, likely framed as a pilot for a limited timeframe for this summer or a bit longer. Companies will be able to compete in an open market so long as they abide by guidelines set by the city. The experience with the pilot will inform the creation of a more permanent permit for stationless bike share services.
The city needs to get the rules right in order to encourage responsible use of city right-of-way while also providing room for innovation and competition. This means putting the onus on companies to, for example, react quickly if users or vandals put bikes in inappropriate locations (like on private property or blocking bus stops, etc) or if a large volume of bikes end up in the same place. The companies also must have appropriate amounts of insurance and have an effective way to keep bikes well-maintained and safe.
But as always, Councilmember Mike O’Brien wants to make sure these potential concerns are put in perspective.
For the 49th year, Seattle kicks off Bicycle Sunday today (May 21).
Three miles of Lake Washington Blvd will go car-free 12 Sundays in 2017. It’s a great chance to experience of the most beautiful urban streets in the world without stressing about car traffic. Literally generations of Seattleites have learned to ride a bike during Bicycle Sunday, and this year will be no exception.
So bring the kids. Invite your friends who are nervous about getting back on a bike. And most of all, have fun in some much-needed sun.
SDOT Director Scott Kubly helped lead the ride with Cascade’s Kelsey Mesher. Bike Works’ Tina Bechler and Familybike Seattle’s Morgan Scherer brought up the rear.
I biked on Rainier Ave from Columbia City to downtown during rush hour this morning, and it was peaceful, easy and fast.
As part of the Bike Everywhere Day celebration, Cascade Bicycle Club and Bike Works partnered to host a group ride to City Hall that travelled down the notoriously stressful and dangerous street. With the company of a group of more than 20 people, we had safety in numbers. But I just couldn’t stop thinking about how many more people in the south end would bike if this street had protected bike lanes.
Because Rainier is very flat and direct. It follows the neighborhood’s namesake valley, cutting a diagonal across the street grid and avoiding nearly all the steep climbs nearby. If the city installed complete and protected bike lanes on Rainier Ave, they would be immediate and enormous successes.
Outside of the downtown basic bike network, no project in Seattle would have as big an impact on bike access as Rainier Ave bike lanes. Hey mayoral and City Council candidates, wink wink. (more…)
Washington State is getting a Bicycle Safety Advisory Council to help watchdog and improve the state’s approach to keeping the thousands of its residents who bike safe.
The council is named in honor of Cooper Jones, who was killed while biking 20 years ago. His parents have David and Martha have been a strong force in advocating for better bike safety efforts in the state, according to a blog post by Washington Bikes.
The Council will be “the first interdisciplinary panel dedicated to examining causes of serious injury and death for people who bike and providing subsequent recommendations for prevention to the legislature,” according to WA Bikes. Here’s their full post about it: (more…)
The Beacon Hill bike cage shortly before it opened for business.
Sound Transit is offering a sweet deal on membership to two of its stations’ secure bike cages: Six months free if you sign up for a year.
The catch is that you have to sign up by the end of May to get the deal.
Secure bike cages are an alternative to the fairly ugly and inefficient bike lockers available at many major transit stations across the region.
The problem is that signing up for bike cage access is a huge hassle. You have to write a check for the reduced $25 price (a check is like a paper Venmo), print (yes, like, on paper), fill out (using an actual hand-held pen) and mail (good luck finding an envelope and stamp) the sign-up form (PDF).
After processing your paperwork and exchanging your check for counting stones (or however checks work), Sound Transit will send you an access code for the cage.
The good news about all this is that once you have a code, you can be pretty sure no thief is going to go through all this trouble just to steal your bike. And if they do, Sound Transit would know who they are because everyone gets a unique code.
