A $19.8 million project to rehab the historic Yesler Way bridge downtown starts today.
Yesler Way will be under construction from 6th to 3rd Avenues downtown until fall 2017. You should also expect construction and detours on 4th and 5th Avenues.
The city recently extended the 2nd Ave bike lane to S Washington St, so people biking westbound (downhill) on Yesler can make a left at the stop sign at 6th Ave, then go right on Washington to reach the bike lanes on 2nd. But note that this is pretty steep (I don’t expect too many people to head eastbound on this route).
When the project is complete, there will be a raised seven-foot bike lane under the bridge on 4th Ave where the current bike lane is located:
Above is a map of commute stations around the region. Take your time and take the long way to work this morning. And if you don’t have work this morning, even better! The secret of Bike Everywhere Day (formerly Bike to Work Day) is that its more fun if you don’t actually have to go to work.
And don’t forget that you can get a free 24-hour pass to ride Pronto Cycle Share today (unlimited 30-minute trips). So if you still haven’t even tried it, go out of your way to make it happen. Even a trip around the block will at least let you get the feel for it.
To get your free Pronto pass, you need to fill out this very short form online. They will email you a promo code to use at the kiosk.
Aside from the commute stations in the morning, you can also swing by one (or more) after parties this afternoon:
5 Bike Everywhere Day After Party hosted by Velo Bike Shop & ViaBike
Sixth Avenue & Blanchard, Downtown Seattle, 4:30–6:30 p.m.
Bike Everywhere Bash at 192 Brewing in Kenmore, 4–7 p.m.
Redmond Bike Bash at Redmond Central Connector Park, 4–7 p.m.
The day I first met Clint Loper, he was surrounded by an endless sea of kids biking off a Top Pot doughnut on their way to class at Bryant Elementary. Nearly a quarter of the school’s students biked to class on Bike to School Day 2013, an astounding and jaw-dropping increase from the dozen or so who biked just a few years earlier.
Clint passed away Wednesday after a two-month battle with acute lymphocytic leukemia. He leaves behind his wife Leslie and children Berkeley and Emmie.
Clint was a kind, open-hearted force for change in his community, inspiring school communities across Seattle and helping them through Walk.Bike.Schools, an organization he helped start. I know he and his family also have other strong communities, but I mostly knew the Loper family through their bike to school work.
Longtime readers of this blog may know Clint best as Seattle Bike Blog’s Bike to School Expert. Since hearing that he passed, I’ve spent much of the day re-reading his posts and crying. Like this heartfelt post he wrote in April 2013 in the wake of a tragic collision on NE 75th Street outside Eckstein Middle School where he was so active in safe streets work. Clint was still processing such a big loss in his community, so it’s oddly comforting and inspiring to read it as we deal with losing him. (more…)
Yesterday in Part I, we reported on a protest at City Hall over the city’s delayed bike plans, especially downtown. In Part II, we look at how Seattle got so far off their bold safe streets path, and how the city can get back on track.
How did we get here?
Councilmember Sally Bagshaw speaks at a July 2015 downtown bike lane network open houseFrom a July 2015 open house
SDOT hosted an open house last July showing the concept and timeline for a network of downtown bike lanes they called the Center City Bike Network. Over 100 people attended, and from what I could tell everyone was in favor of the plan. In fact, the only consistent complaint I noted in my post afterwards was, “Why isn’t this moving faster?”
The open house showed a handful of corridors being considered for 2016 implementation, which at the time was already a frustrating delay for people hoping to have bike connections completed in 2015.
The corridors studied for 2016 included complete connections to both the north and south, SDOT just didn’t know which exact routes would be picket yet. The basic takeaway: Wait just one more year and the 2nd Ave bike lane will finally be connected, and pass Move Seattle if you want the rest of it to happen.
The July 2015 open house timeline
Now we are heading into summer 2016, and there are no plans for any of these corridors to be completed this year. The city passed Move Seattle, yet the bike plan is getting shorter, more fragmented and more delayed. Worse, city transportation leaders are acting as though no such promises were ever made. (more…)
Cathy Tuttle of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways and Kelli Refer of Cascade Bicycle Club (also my amazing spouse) address the crowd.Shirley Savel takes the mic.
Seattle has not built a bike lane downtown since October 2014. The 2nd Ave bike lane was supposed to demonstrate what could be, but going into summer 2016 it remains all that is.
Holding signs saying, “My Family Bikes” and “Safe Streets Now,” bike plan supporters chanted “We can’t wait!” in the City Hall lobby. The noontime rally Tuesday was designed to urge city leaders to stop delaying its bike plans.
“We want safe streets, we don’t want anybody injured or killed,” said biking mom from Rainier Valley Shirley Savel.
It really is that simple.
The reasonably polite protest made a statement by filling the lobby and chanting, but the message was clear: After years of plan making and campaigning, the city has the tools it needs to make our streets safer. The people expect them to do it.
The pressure is getting some results. After Councilmember Mike O’Brien asked directly, SDOT staff committed to restarting the downtown bike plan in July when the Center City Mobility Plan releases its analysis of 2018 bus movements (buses will be kicked out of the tunnel as early at 2018, so the city wants to make sure it knows where those buses will go). This still represents a year of delay, but it probably would have been much longer had people not spoken up. (more…)
Slide from 5/17 SDOT presentation to Transpo Committee (PDF), modified by @NEGreenways to highlight projects delayed from 2015. Subtract them, and the 2016 plan is even more dismal
This moment right now was supposed to be the time Seattle finally took bold action on bike safety projects, taking our years of planning and making them real. The big electoral victory in November should have given the city both the political power and the funding to build a long-needed network of bike routes across the city, especially downtown. 2016 is not a big city election year — there are no City Council or mayoral campaigns to get in the way — so if there was ever a year set to revolutionize our streets, this is it.
But instead of coming out of the gates this year with a sense of urgency and a set of bold projects ready to hit the ground, Mayor Ed Murray and SDOT are poised to blow this golden opportunity completely. After accomplishing the hard part by demonstrating a protected bike lane through the heart of downtown, creating multiple plans — fueled by lots of difficult public debate — and winning votes to pass a huge transportation levy expansion that signs off on those plans and funds them, city leaders bailed.
Or at least they are trying to bail. But the people aren’t having it. After months of advocacy work behind the scenes falling flat and weeks of public outrage over the slashed bike plans largely ignored, it’s time to protest.
Cascade Bicycle Club and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways are organizing an afternoon of actions Tuesday, starting with “Take Your Bike to Lunch Day” at City Hall at noon, followed by showing up to the City Council Sustainability and Transportation Committee meeting at 2 p.m.
And while it’s not a “protest” exactly, Cascade is also hosting a “Hidden Gems” scavenger hunt downtown today (Monday), a fun event to explore downtown and help support downtown bike safety plans. There will be an after party at the Crocodile from 7–9 p.m.
A $19.8 million project to rehab the historic Yesler Way bridge downtown starts today.
