Seattle Bike Blog

#BikeTheVote: Your guide to bike-friendly voting in the 2016 general election

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 26, 2016

Click for King County’s interactive ballot drop box map. Or find drop boxes in Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap Counties.

The sooner you vote, the sooner you can switch the station at the first mention of the word “Trump.” But while the long nightmare of this 2016 Presidential election draws to a close, you also have a chance to vote on many important local races and ballot measures that could have a huge impact on our region for the next generation.

While Seattle Bike Blog is not in a place to give you a full set of endorsements for your ballot, I will organize endorsements and voters guides for you in this post. It’s a long ballot, but don’t procrastinate! Vote early and get it off your to-do list.

Your November 8 ballot should already have arrived in your mailbox. If you are out of the area or if your ballot went to an old address, you can print one and mail it in. You can also vote in person. If you have not yet registered, you have until October 31 to register in person.

We’ve already endorsed regional Prop 1 to fund the Sound Transit 3 expansion. But if you live in Bellevue, Issaquah or Kenmore, you also have street improvement measures on the ballot. Washington Bikes has endorsed them: (more…)

tags: 2016 general election

— Advertisement —
10/25-28 Trail Alert: Burke-Gilman detour and changes at Log Boom Park

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 25, 2016

Details from the SR 522 project outreach team:

As part of the City of Kenmore’s SR 522 Improvements Project work, the Burke-Gilman Trail is scheduled to be realigned starting Tuesday, 10/25 through Friday, 10/28. The trail will remain open though it will be temporarily narrowed, and trail users may intermittently be detoured through Log Boom Park driveway. Please see the map below and visit the project website at sr522kenmore.com to learn more.

(more…)

tags: Bike Route Alert

— Advertisement —
Judkins Park Station is a golden opportunity to improve Rainier Ave, I-90 Trail transit access

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 24, 2016

Concept image facing west from the I-90 Trail at 23rd Ave. The bike cage is located behind the station name.

The design for Judkins Park Station is getting closer to final, and Sound Transit wants feedback from people who bike.

So get to their open house 5 – 7 p.m. Tuesday (tomorrow) at the nearby Northwest African American Museum.

With the I-90 Trail essentially leading straight into the station, biking will be one of the easiest ways to get to Judkins Park Station when it opens in 2023. The location is set up to work well, but the devil is in the details. Will there be enough secure bike parking? Will the west sidewalk design keep trail users separate from people coming to and from the station or waiting for the 48 bus? Will it be easy and direct for people to bring their bikes on the train?

And those issues are just about 23rd Ave. There will also be an entrance under I-90 on Rainier Ave where the current freeway bus stops are. As much potential as the I-90 Trail holds for bike access to the station, safer bike connections on Rainier Ave could be even more important.

Mayor Ed Murray’s proposed 2017-18 budget includes funding for a multimodal corridor project on Rainer Ave and Jackson St in coming years (and the Council is looking into speeding up the Accessible Mt Baker project, which could be a vital part of a safer Rainer). Coupled with Sound Transit investments to improve access to Judkins Park Station, the potential here is enormous. But it will take partnerships and cooperation between SDOT, WSDOT, Sound Transit and King County Metro to make it happen.

But these agencies don’t really have a choice. Today, walking and biking to the freeway bus stops is pretty miserable and dangerous: (more…)

tags: 23rd ave, east link, I-90 trail, judkins park, rainier ave

— Advertisement —
Sound Transit 3 is not about light rail, it’s about bringing our region closer together

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 21, 2016

So much of the debating over the Sound Transit 3 vote has been about taxes or traffic or whether buses are better than trains or whether the size of the package is too ambitious. These points are all missing what’s really are the core of this decision: Loving our neighboring communities and wanting to be closer together.

Major investments in 20th Century freeways fueled sprawling growth across the region, encompassing old cities and towns while creating new ones on farm land and wilderness. In a literal sense, those freeways connected these homes to Seattle and to each other.

But those freeways also divide us. They physically cut through communities, creating barriers for everyone trying to get around by walking, biking and taking the bus. This need to buy, fuel, insure, park and maintain a car levies a de facto toll on access to these parts of our region.

The need to own a personal car to get around in so many communities also creates miserable traffic. And traffic makes neighbors hate each other. Road rage is socially acceptable and almost routine. It’s a seemingly natural result of people hopelessly trapped in their cars with no other option for getting around. If that asshole in front of me would just drive five mph faster or if that bike lane weren’t there or if that kid in the crosswalk would stop lollygagging, I’d be there by now.

If it is miserable to get to another part of the region, you won’t want to go there. This creates even more divisions between us.

But it doesn’t need to be this way. Voting YES on Sound Transit 3 is about creating a very different future for our region. (more…)

tags: sound transit, st3

— Advertisement —
Council faces a choice: Kill Pronto now or make lemonade out of the existing stations?

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 20, 2016

Pronto Cycle Share turned two years old last week, but there hasn’t been a whole lot of celebration.

At this point, the system has spent more time operating in a state of uncertainty and controversy than it has operating normally. And that uncertainty has had a huge impact on membership and ridership. After all, few people are going to invest $85 for a year pass if they are not even sure the system will exist for that year.

We’ve already reported on the series of unfortunate political and bureaucratic missteps and unforced errors that led the system to this point. Without corrective action, there’s no reason to expect this downward spiral of bad press and declining membership to fix itself.

While the city negotiates and plans for an all-new expanded and electrified system, there seem to be three options for the existing system: Shut it down in January, continue operate at a loss, or reimagine the existing system to try out new ideas. The Council needs to choose which option to pursue in coming weeks before voting on the 2017-18 budget.

City Councilmember Lisa Herbold — with the strong support of Councilmember Tim Burgess — took a big step towards killing the current system Wednesday, proposing a change that would redirect the $600,000 for 2017-18 Pronto operating funds to go to biking, walking and school safety projects instead (see the discussion starting at 23:20 in this video).

“The replacement bid that has come in does not include funding for operations,” Herbold said, referring to the leading bike share expansion proposal by the Quebec-based Bewegen. So her redirect of funds would not necessarily impact a relaunched system.

But the existing Pronto system does need those funds. The new system is aiming for a spring/summer 2017 launch, but that timeline may prove too tight. If the launch slips too far into summer, the city will (wisely) hold the launch until spring 2018. Pronto was supposed to stay in operation until a new system is ready to launch. (more…)

tags: 2017 budget, andrew glass hastings, bruce harrell, Lisa herbold, mike o’brien, pronto emerald city cycle share, sally bagshaw, tim burgess

— Advertisement —
$10M committed to rehab historic trestle. Can the Eastside Trail open by 2020?

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 19, 2016

Governor Inslee checks out a concept for a completed trail on the trestle.

King County Executive Dow Constantine and Governor Jay Inslee shared the podium Tuesday to announce $10 million dollars in funding commitments from local, regional, state and private partners to rehab the most difficult and stunning parts of the planned Eastside Trail: The Wilburton Trestle.

The historic trestle towers above local streets and I-405 with sweeping views of the Eastside, including downtown Bellevue. Its value extends even beyond the major walking and biking improvement it promises. Once saved, rehabbed and connected to a complete Eastside Trail from Renton to Woodinville, the trestle will likely become an iconic place in the City of Bellevue.

I mean, check out this drone footage and imagine that this is your bike ride home: (more…)

tags: bellevue, dow constantine, eastside rail corridor, eastside trail, jay inslee, king county parks

— Advertisement —