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I had a great time biking on freeways Sunday with more than 7,000 smiling, happy people.
Freeways are rarely joyful places, which is what makes Cascade’s second annual Emerald Bike Ride so great. For a few hours a year, the region’s most enormous pieces of infrastructure become bike-only, giving people a chance to experience what it is like to bike around the region on billions of dollars worth of public investment.
It’s pretty damn fast and easy.
Here are some photos from the ride: (more…)
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is Part Two of a two-part series by Andres Salomon looking at NE 65th Street safety improvements. Part One describes the urgent need for safety improvements along the part of 65th where five people have been killed and seriously injured in the past two years. Part Two looks at possible solutions.
NE 65th Street has proven to be dangerous to people walking, biking and driving. The city urgently needs to make safety improvements, as I’ve outlined in Part One. Not only are any significant safety improvements being delayed until 2019, but the improvements proposed by SDOT do not go far enough.
The NE 65th corridor will see explosive growth in the numbers of people walking, biking, waiting for the bus and taking light rail in coming years. The current proposals from the city short-change people walking, biking, and riding mass transit in order to prioritize the flow of cars. The city needs to do better.
An SDOT survey is live now through June 1, so be sure to fill it out and let the project team know that we urgently need real improvements to NE 65th. You can also contact city officials directly:
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With Founder and Executive Director Cathy Tuttle retiring, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways staffer Gordon Padelford is getting ready to take the organization’s helm. He will be the first ED of the organization other than Tuttle, who founded it in 2011 and led its formation into a 501(c)(3) non-profit the next year.
“I’m incredibly grateful to have her as the leader of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, and I’m sad to see her go,” said Padelford.
The change in leadership will happen “as soon as we hire the two staff,” he said. That’s right, SNG is hiring a Communications/Development Coordinator (PDF) and a Community Organizer (PDF) right now. Applications are due June 8.
From its start, SNG has been a volunteer, grassroots-fueled coalition of neighborhood groups focused on making their local streets safer, more multimodal and more fun. The coalition list now includes nearly 20 groups throughout Seattle. Localizing groups has been the key to its success, since people are extra motivated when it’s the streets their family members and neighbors use that are at stake. (more…)
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Spin, one of at least three companies hoping to launch a stationless bike share service on the streets of Seattle this summer, just landed $8 million in venture funding, according to a company press release.
This funding news highlights what is perhaps an overlooked aspect of Seattle’s private bike share story: There is an enormous amount of money behind this emerging business model. And many of these companies are hoping that Seattle will be the premiere city to showcase their services.
As Techcrunch reports, a handful of companies with similar business models have been building investment capital:
Spin’s competition includes several other funded startups here. Social Bicycles, the first to offer kiosk-free bike sharing in the U.S., has raised $7 million, and has already reached profitability. Another early bike-share player, Zagster, closed a $10 million Series B round that it announced in January. And earlier this spring, LimeBike closed a $12 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
But these companies pale in comparison to the funding behind some international companies like China-based Bluegogo, which reportedly closed a $58 million investment deal in February (we took a Bluegogo for a test ride around downtown). Mobike and ofo, the two biggest stationless bike share companies based in China, measure their investments in the hundreds of millions. Seattle Bike Blog has not yet received word whether Mobike or ofo are interested in the Seattle market. (more…)
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One year after the bike crash at 13th and Yesler that took Desiree McCloud’s life, her brother Cody has filed claims against Sound Transit and the City of Seattle that blame the First Hill Streetcar tracks for her death.
Cody told the Seattle Times that the claims are “not about the money. It’s about a message: ‘Don’t kill me on these streets.’”
Streetcar tracks are known hazards for people biking because bike wheels can slip into the gap in the tracks and either get stuck or knock the rider off balance.
Desiree was biking westbound on Yesler with a group of friends when she ended up between the streetcar tracks while passing a friend, as surveillance video showed. This means she would have needed to cross the track again to get into the bike lane. Her friend told police she then saw Desiree wobble and fall. No other vehicles were involved.
She died a week and a half later from her head injury. She was 27.
At a memorial walk in her honor, one friend described her as “brash and brilliant, passionate and true.” These are themes that run through the incredibly moving remembrances friends sent to Seattle Bike Blog after she passed away.
“If one of her friends had been hurt or killed, she’d be the one banging on City Hall,” her father said after the memorial. (more…)
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For just one morning, the I-5 Express Lanes through downtown Seattle, the main deck of the 520 Bridge, a path through Bellevue and the I-90 Express Lanes will be filled with thousands of people on bikes.
It’s hard to over-hype Sunday’s Emerald Bike Ride, the second year for Cascade’s newest major event. You don’t have to be a bike ride kind of person to be excited for this. Biking on major urban freeways, including two different floating bridges, is a rare experience you don’t want to miss.
If you register online, the adult non-member cost of the full ride is $40. Note that online registration ends tonight (Wednesday) at midnight (UPDATE: Cascade has extended the registration deadline to midnight Thursday), but you will be able to register in person at the start line Sunday morning for $10 extra. Discounts for members and youth.
Though the route may look long to people who do not usually go on big rides, you will be hard-pressed to find a flatter route through our hilly region. But freeways have been engineered with billions of dollars worth of work to be flat and direct. You will be shocked how fast and easy it is. (more…)
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