Seattle Bike Blog

Watch: City Inside/Out takes on Seattle’s slashed bike plans

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

May 31, 2016

Seattle Channel’s City Inside/Out produced a quality segment on the city’s recent bike plan cuts and the public protest against them.

The episode begins with a five-minute intro report outlining how the cuts came about and what people protesting the changes think about them (Spoiler: They don’t like ’em). The intro features interviews with Davey Oil of G&O Family Cyclery, Shirley Savel of Familybike Seattle, Cathy Tuttle of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, Councilmember Sally Bagshaw and my amazing partner in life Kelli Refer of Cascade Bicycle Club.

Yours truly is on the panel discussion that follows, along with SDOT Project Development Director Darby Watson, Councilmember Mike O’Brien and Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board Member Phyllis Porter.

In the end, SDOT is promising to get back to work on the downtown network when in the next month when the Center City Mobility Plan released a report on future bus mobility needs. Meanwhile, I pushed for the city to hit the ground running and make some major connections to 2nd Ave in 2016 (specifically, north to the new Westlake bikeway, east to Broadway or at least the bike lanes at 9th and Pine, south to Dearborn and west to the Alaskan Way Trail that heads towards West Seattle).

Cascade has launched a petition pushing for four main points needed to make sure the bike plan gets back on track: (more…)

tags: bicycle master plan implementation plan, cathy tuttle, city inside/out, darby watson, davey oil, kelli refer, mike o’brien, phyllis porter, sally bagshaw, seattle channel, shirley savel

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Bicycle Sunday is this weekend, 2016 gets two extra car-free days on Lake Washington Blvd

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

May 27, 2016

We missed this news earlier this spring, but there will be two more car-free days on Lake Washington Boulevard this summer than in recent years.

The city will host 14 Bicycle Sunday celebrations in 2016, the 48th year of Seattle’s classic, family-friendly open streets event (two dates have already passed).

For the past five years, there have only been 12 Bicycle Sundays, but previous years saw as many as 19, or most Sundays May through September (the event typically avoids major events like Seafair).

The route runs from Mount Baker Beach to Seward Park. Remove car traffic from the street for a few hours and it fills with people of all ages smiling and having fun.

More details from Seattle Parks: (more…)

tags: bicycle sunday

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Carlson: Biking Seattle with Summer by Rail’s Elena Studier

By

Madi Carlson

| Posted

May 26, 2016

EDITOR’S NOTE: Thanks to Madi Carlson for this post. It comes on the heels of several great posts she’s been writing recently on her blog FamilyRide.us. I especially like her post about family bike camping at Illahee State Park. Forget the station wagon this Memorial Day weekend, family biking adventure is within reach. That’s one reason Seattle is such a special city. Also, did you know she wrote a book?

I had the pleasure of biking around Seattle with Elena Studier Tuesday, visiting as part of her Summer by Rail trip.

From the National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) press release:

With school and finals behind her, college sophomore Elena Studier this summer is taking her bike on an epic 38-day multi-modal “road trip” across the country by rail, visiting more than 18 cities and 15 states. Studier, 20, spent her school year interning with NARP and sketching out her big adventure. She kicks off her trip in New York City and will make stops in 20 locations—including Glacier National Park in Montana–before concluding more than 10,000 miles later in Washington, D.C. on June 20, 2016.

She’s about a quarter of the way through her trip, having visited six cities over nine days.

I caught up with Elena and Sean Jeans-Gail of NARP shortly after her arrival to the Emerald City, at Zeitgeist Coffee, conveniently close to King Street Station. They were just wrapping up a meeting with representatives from Sound Transit, whose offices are in Union Station, our former train station, located just across the street from King Street Station. The lobby, the Great Hall of Union Station, is open to the public and worth checking out.

I was doubly excited about the opportunity to connect with Elena, having just taken the train with my bike the day before. My trip was a pretty exciting one–something was going wrong with the radiator and just before we made it to Tacoma where they would add more water we stopped to let a train go by in the other direction and couldn’t get started again. A freight engine came 12 miles down from Tacoma to take us the rest of the way to Seattle and we were only an hour and a half late. I add this to a growing list of Amtrak Cascades mishaps with: (more…)

tags: elena studier, familyride, madeleine carlson, national association of railroad passengers, summer by rail

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Woman who crashed along First Hill Streetcar route passes away

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

May 25, 2016

Desiree McCloud.

A week and a half after a bad bike crash along the First Hill Streetcar route, Desiree McCloud passed away Tuesday.

We send our deepest condolences to her friends and family.

A message on a fundraising page set up to support her and her recovery announced the sad news late Tuesday. Any funds beyond her funeral costs will be donated to the Girl Scouts, where Desiree was a troop leader:

As many of you probably heard, Desiree passed away this morning. I want to thank everyone who donated here; the amount of love and support shown here and elsewhere was amazing. Thank you.

As promised, the funds you donated here will be used to pay medical bills, help cover the costs of her funeral, and any remainder will be donated to the Girl Scouts.

Her friend Greg describes Desiree as an “amazing person and a great friend.” From an email to Seattle Bike Blog (see many more notes at the bottom of this post): (more…)

tags: deaths, desiree mccloud, first hill streetcar, yesler

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Times: Stop building places for people until we can fit more cars

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

May 24, 2016

The Seattle 2035 plan assumes that congestion downtown is already bad enough, so we should try to maintain current car levels and grow other modes to accommodate new homes and jobs. Brier Dudley calls this a “war on cars.”

Seattle Times Editorial Board Member Brier Dudley penned his magnum opus on the rights of cars in Seattle this week, arguing that Seattle should stop building places for people to live and work until we can figure out how to get more cars into the city.

And he exhumed the “WAR ON CARS” rotting horse carcass so he could kick it a few more times, just to illustrate his point. No, I’m not joking. Here’s his opening:

Seattle can no longer deny it’s engaged in a war on cars.

Mayor Ed Murray’s new growth plan is a shock-and-awe campaign targeting anyone who dares to drive in, through or around Seattle.

Shock-and-awe! Donald Rumsfeld has been hired to bomb Seattle’s parking garages into submission. Well, Brier, you’ve got my attention. What is this menacing military strategy Seattle has against the car?

But the most radical change is Murray’s plan to stop using congestion as the criteria for whether streets are performing.

…. uh, seriously? That’s it? You’re mad the city is changing the metric they use to measure roadway level of service so that it counts people and goods instead of only counting cars? Zzzzzzzzzzz…

Come on, man! I thought you had something better than that. (more…)

tags: brier dudley, seattle 2035, seattle times, seattle times editorial board

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Want to host your own July FREE BIKE ride, but don’t know how? Join us Thursday!

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

May 24, 2016
FREE BIKE is a new kind of bike festival for Seattle, one that puts the creativity and leadership in the hands of people like you.

Yes, you.

Our goal is to pack early July with so much bike fun you won’t possibly be able to do it all, and we need your help.

FREE BIKE is a people-powered, DIY bicycle festival running July 1 – 10 where everyone is invited to host their own bike rides and events. It’s your idea, and you make it happen. Just submit your idea to the FREE BIKE calendar and we will help spread the word. It’s free and easy.

We are also hosting our first ever optional FREE BIKE Planning Party 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Pike Brewing. If you
- want to help with the festival
- get ideas from the group about how to refine an event or ride idea
- learn some tips for leading group rides
- learn how to promote your FREE BIKE event or
- just want to hang out and talk about bike fun
then join us! (more…)
tags: FREE BIKE, FREE BIKE Party

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