Seattle Bike Blog

Happy Park(ing) Day 2016!

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 16, 2016

It’s Park(ing) Day!

Today is basically tactical urbanism Christmas, a day when 50 new parks and temporary street improvement ideas pop up around Seattle. And if you haven’t been able to get to the parks in previous years, the city is trying something new in 2016: The parks will be allowed to stay open later and reopen Saturday.

The official hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. The city even has a handy online map for you (also posted below).

Park(ing) Day is an international event that began in San Francisco in 2005. In many places, people simply pay the meter for a car parking space and park a park there instead. Seattle not only sanctions the day, it organizes it.

The day highlights different ways to use public space, and in recent years has expanded from “parks” to trial street changes. One year before the 2nd Ave protected bike lane opened officially, Cascade Bicycle Club demonstrated a one-block stretch of the idea on Park(ing) Day, for example.

As usual, we will be touring parks and posting updates to this page throughout the day, so be sure to check back later.

UPDATES: (more…)

tags: park(ing) day, park(ing) day 2016

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Pronto finally arrives at UW Station, and it’s great

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 15, 2016

It took half a year, but bike share has finally arrived at UW Station.

On paper, the station move from the UW Medical Center rotunda (a rather odd location to find if you weren’t in the know) to the plaza outside UW Station might not seem like a huge deal, but it makes combining light rail and bike share far more intuitive and easy.

And with the remade section of the Burke-Gilman Trail now open on UW campus, Campus Parkway and the Ave are just a quick and easy cruise away from light rail and Husky Stadium.

To highlight one example of a trip made possible by this change, I hopped on a Pronto at 12th and Coiumbia near Seattle University at 2:15 this afternoon and bikes it to Capitol Hill Station entrance at Broadway and Denny.

(more…)

tags: pronto emerald city cycle share, uw station

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Census: Driving alone to work in Seattle hits new low, many more women biking to work

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 15, 2016

Number of Seattle women biking to work (American Communities Survey)

The number of women biking to work spiked in 2015, according to an annual survey by the Census Bureau (**see note at bottom about this data set).

While some of the spike is likely statistical noise, looking at the number of women biking to work over the past ten years shows a clear, steep trend far outpacing the growth in the number of women in the workforce.

Since 2010, the growth of Seattle women in the workforce has lagged behind men (16 percent for women, 24 percent for men). But the number of Seattle women biking to work increased 58 percent compared to 21 percent for men.

Women now make up 35 percent of Seattle bike commuters. That’s not good enough, of course, but it’s up from 30 percent in 2010.

Biking to work is up 135 percent in the past decade among Seattle residents. Among big U.S. cities, Seattle’s four percent commute mode share is essentially tied with Washington DC and San Francisco for third place. Minneapolis is in second with five percent, and Portland is in first with seven percent, Bike Portland reports.

Driving alone in Seattle hits a modern low

(more…)

tags: american communities survey, american communities survey 2015, census

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Mercer Island road safety project worked so well they decided…not to do it again?

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 14, 2016

Lives could be protected here so easily. Image via Google Street View.

The number of Mercer Island community members injured in a ten-block stretch of Island Crest Way dropped 75 percent after the city made a simple road safety change. Collisions dropped 61 percent. Traffic continued to flow.

The 2012 project worked so well, the city has decided … not repeat it? Huh?

The Mercer Island Reporter has the story:

Island Crest Way will remain four lanes from Merrimount Drive to Southeast 40th Street as the city of Mercer Island continues a 10-week project to repave and improve drainage on the road.

The project, which started July 18 and is planned for completion by the end of September, does not involve the controversial three lane reconfiguration implemented in the 4300-5300 blocks of Island Crest Way in 2012.

But several data requests from the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) for crash data on Island Crest Way from 2001 to 2016 indicate that the lane reconfiguration has reduced accidents on the Island’s main thoroughfare in those blocks. The data shows a 61 percent reduction in non-injury collisions and 75 percent fewer injury accidents.

Read more…

The last time the city decided to scrap a safety project on Island Crest Way a 17-year-old high school student was struck in a crosswalk in a common type of collision known to occur on four-lane streets (one person stopped to let him cross, but the person driving in the second lane did not). It seems they are willing to repeat that mistake, but not willing to repeat a clear safety success that would essentially eliminate that risk for future victims. (more…)

tags: island crest way, mercer island

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Seattle plan would reduce default speed limits across the city

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 13, 2016

Dr. Beth Ebel from Harborview speaks in support of lower speed limits, citing her experience with young traffic trauma patients.

In a busy city like Seattle, a higher speed limit does little to speed up your trip because traffic and stop lights will prevent you from getting up to top speed very often. But speeds have a huge impact on whether someone is seriously injured or killed in a collision and whether collisions happen at all.

That’s why SDOT’s announcement today, flanked by Councilmembers Mike O’Brien and Tim Burgess, is so smart: Reduce the default speed limits on busy “arterial” streets to 25 miles per hour and on “non-arterial” mostly residential streets to 20 miles per hour.

The change will not affect major streets that have their own signed speeds, such as Aurora. It will only affect those streets where there are no speed limit signs. So knowledge of the change will require a significant public education effort. They will also need to change about 500 signs, mostly at the city limits, to display the new default speeds.

Councilmember Burgess called the change “the next step to achieving Vision Zero,” the city’s goal of eliminating serious injuries and deaths in traffic by 2030.

“This change would mainly impact the off-peak hours when there are more high-end speeders and more severe collisions,” notes a press release. (more…)

tags: 20’s plenty, gordon padelford, speed limits

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9/20 Trail Alert: Soos Creek Trail closed in Kent, no detour

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 13, 2016

This Trail Alert is a new feature for Seattle Bike Blog. I will be posting official notices about bike route closures and detours that we receive. Some will be a significant hassle, some will be no big deal. But the hope is to keep them organized in one place as best we can to help keep people informed. You can easily find the alerts by clicking “Bike Route Alerts” in the navigation bar above.

From Google Maps.

From King County Parks:

Important safety repairs to a bridge surface along King County Parks’ Soos Creek Trail near Kent will require a brief closure of the trail in the area – with no detour available.

The repairs are scheduled to take place from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 20, when crews will remove asphalt from the bridge deck that is cracked and allowing water to seep into the substrate – threatening the structural integrity of the bridge.

Because there is no detour available around the bridge, the trail will be closed during the repair work from the Southeast 256th Street trailhead to the north and the 148th Avenue Northeast trailhead to the south.

Thank you for your patience during this brief closure. We’ll have the trail open for you to enjoy as soon as we are able.

tags: Bike Route Alert

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