Scott Kubly addresses media during the launch of the Move Seattle levy
SDOT Director Scott Kubly has admitted that he failed to obtain a waiver before working with his former employer about Seattle’s bike share system Pronto.
The months-long ethics investigation concluded that Kubly violated ethics rules by working with former co-workers during the bike share system’s first year in operation. Under an agreement between Kubly and Marilyn Brenneman, the investigator the Ethics Commission hired for this case, Kubly would be fined up to $10,000, though $5,000 of it would be suspended so long as no other violations occur according to a settlement agreement signed June 21 (PDF).
The Commission will decide at their next meeting whether to accept this settlement or hear the case further. The Commission is scheduled to discuss the case July 6. Kubly declined to comment at this time, saying, “we do not want to interfere with their deliberations.”
The problem isn’t that he hid previous work connections from the public. His experience helping to launch bike share systems in Washington D.C. and Chicago as well as his six-month stint as President of Alta Bicycle Share from January through June of 2014 were publicly lauded when he was hired to become SDOT Director in July 2014. Since Puget Sound Bike Share was set to launch a system in Seattle months after Kubly was hired, his bike share experience seemed like a good thing for the city.
However, city ethics rules state that city employees are not to do business with a previous employer for a year after their employment ends without first obtaining a waiver. That did not happen. Kubly admitted this violation and agreed to be fined. (more…)
On Wednesday, June 29th from 4-10 pm, Peddler Brewing Company will be donating $1 of every beer sold to Bike Works to help support our youth and adult programs and environmental sustainability efforts.
There will be:
The BikeMobile, onsite doing bike repair from 4-9pm
Raffle prizes every hour from 5-8pm
Food Truck
Come celebrate Bike Works’ 20th anniversary and raise a glass (or three!) to 20 years of youth empowerment, bicycle liberation, and healthy communities.
As Seattle gets more and more dense, efficient transit and comfortable walking and biking only become more important by the day.
So perhaps it makes sense to learn from a U.S. city far more dense than Seattle. Which is why we’re excited about this talk Tuesday at City Hall by Jon Orcutt, who was Director of Policy at NYC DOT from 2007–2014 when the city tried some very ambitious changes to their streets and transportation system.
Talk details from Cascade Bicycle Club:
From Big City to Bike City: Innovations in Urban Bike Transportation When: Tuesday, June 28; from 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm Where: Bertha Knight Landes Room, Seattle City Hall Speaker: Jon Orcutt, Director of Advocacy and Communications, TransitCenter
Introduction and City Council Sponsor: Councilmember Rob Johnson Sponsor partners: Cascade Bicycle Club, Commute Seattle, Futurewise, Seattle Bike Blog, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, Seattle Transit Blog, Transportation Choices, and The Urbanist Event RSVP (optional): http://action.cascade.org/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=81847(more…)
Editor’s Note: This report comes from Sidney Sullivan, a student in the UW’s News Lab journalism program.
2nd Ave. Photo by Sidney Sullivan
Seattle is acclaimed for being a very bike friendly city, as a recent Zillow study ranked Seattle as the nation’s best largest-city to bike in [Editor’s Note: I’ve been very skeptical of this study, as I told the Seattle Times last month]. But some people who bike still take issue with some of the bike infrastructure.
Since March, the Seattle Bike Master Plan of Seattle Department of Transportation began executing its 2016-2020 Implementation Plan to increase bike safety and ridership throughout the city.
Based on SDOT data, between the years of 2015 to 2016, traffic peak times and bike safety downtown have improved. In particular, upgrades to the Second Avenue protected bike lane decreased bicycle collisions by 82 percent.
While it is a start in the right direction, some locals said they do not want city planning to stop there. The protected bike lanes on Second Avenue should only be viewed as a short-term fix, said Kris Skotheim, a decade-long cyclist and manager of the ASUW Bike Shop. (more…)
Download the poster in letter or tabloid size. Feel free to print and post them around your work or neighborhood!
The July 3 FREE BIKE Party is shaping up to be a blast, and we could use your help to make sure this bike-loving block party in Ballard goes off without a hitch.
The FREE BIKE Party is home to the fifth annual Pedaler’s Fair. So check out some local bike-inspired businesses, listen to music, eat and the food truck rodeo, drink Ballard beer and maybe play some bike trivia (details soon!).
The party is just one part of FREE BIKE, a new ten-day, crowd-sourced bicycle festival in the Seattle area. That means that FREE BIKE will be what you make it.
