Seattle Bike Blog

Beacon Hill trail is a big neighborhood greenway improvement

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

April 6, 2016

The Beacon Hill Neighborhood Greenway was one of the city’s first attempts at creating a great community-led neighborhood greenway, and it just got a lot better.

This route was already one of my favorite neighborhood greenways in the city, connecting from the I-90 Trail to Georgetown via Beacon Hill Station and Jefferson Park. But as pleasant as the ride through Jefferson Park is, it requires winding park pathways and some fairly steep climbs. If you’re on a joyride, the park is great, but if you’re trying to get somewhere as directly and easily as possible, it’s quite a detour.

With leadership from community members like Beacon Hill Safe Streets and Mercer Middle School, Seattle’s Safe Routes to School program constructed a new, flat trail that bypasses the park’s hills and connects 16th Ave S near the school to Lafayette Ave S north of the park.

A previous park access project built a great new crossing from Lafayette to Jefferson Park, so this new trail builds on that project to make it even easier for people of all ages and abilities to get around the neighborhood on foot and bike. (more…)

tags: beacon hill, jefferson park, neighborhood greenways, safe routes to school

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Specialized apologizes for ‘better bike shop’ ad on wreckage of Greenwood bike shop

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

April 5, 2016

Photo from G&O Family Cyclery

The bicycle giant Specialized apologized today after G&O Family Cyclery tweeted photos of a street advertising campaign pasted on the wreckage of their former Greenwood shop that says, “BETTER BIKES COME FROM BETTER BIKE SHOPS.”

G&O was severely damaged in a major gas explosion a month ago, prompting a big community effort to raise money to help the shop find a new location and keep its expert staff (including a fundraiser organized by this blog, Peddler Brewing and Familybike Seattle). G&O recently announced a new temporary location a block north on Greenwood Ave.

“I feed bad about it,” said Erick Marcheschi, Global Marketing Manager at Specialized. “It was 100 percent not intentional.”

Marcheschi said the company contracts with street advertising companies in several cities including Seattle. Specialized provides the artwork for the ads, but the contracted companies (in this case Poster Giant) finds and chooses the locations.

“They’re looking to opportunities where there are plywood surfaces they can put these wheatpastings on,” said Marcheschi. “It’s really unfortunate that this was one of those surfaces.”

He has contacted Poster Giant to have them remove the ads as soon as possible. (more…)

tags: #greenwoodexplosion, g&o family cyclery, poster giant, specialized

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Snohomish County buys rail corridor in major regional trail missing link

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

April 5, 2016

The trail may be constructed in segments. Map from a 2013 presentation to the Council

After lengthy negotiations with the Port of Seattle, Snohomish County purchased a key stretch of rail corridor that could someday link the region’s trail network from Seattle to Skagit County.

The purchase process was going strong back in 2013, but negotiations fell apart as it became apparent that maintenance costs for the segment were going to be significant. But in early March, the County and Port agreed to a lower purchase price of only $3.5 million for 12 miles of the Eastside Rail Corridor running from the City of Snohomish to Woodinville, the Herald reports.

Unlike Kirkland and King County, Snohomish County plans both a trail and active rail use on the corridor. Removing rails and building a trail on the existing railbed is by far the easiest, cheapest and quickest way to build a rail-trail. Preserving both uses of the corridor adds significant challenges and costs (and, therefore, time) to building the trail, bringing the estimated total trail construction cost to about $20 million, the Woodinville Weekly reports. Currently, there are “a few cars per week that travel those tracks, delivering goods to several businesses, such as Spectrum Glass in Woodinville,” according to the Weekly.

But with the Cross Kirkland Corridor already operational and King County moving full speed ahead on the Eastside Trail, the pressure will only increase on Snohomish County to connect their communities with their neighbors to the south.

The good news is that the two southernmost segments of the trail are the easiest to build, according to a 2013 presentation (PDF): (more…)

tags: centennial trail, eastside rail corridor, eastside trail, maltby, port of seattle, snohomish, snohomish county, woodinville, woodinville weekly

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For a few hours, two Seattle freeways were bike-only (Photos)

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

April 4, 2016

For a few short hours just after sunrise Sunday, two major Seattle freeways were beautiful places filled with smiling people.

There were no honking horns and no road rage even as a rush hour’s worth of people traveled some of the most traffic-clogged freeways in the nation. That is, of course, because the 7,000 people on the 520 Bridge and I-5 Express Lanes were on bicycles.

Cascade Bicycle Club’s newest major event was a smash hit. The first ever Emerald City Bike Ride sold out, making it the club’s second-biggest event in their line-up (the annual Seattle to Portland ride sells out 10,000 spots).

Governor Jay Inslee opened the event with a short speech to a huge crowd gathered at the start line next to UW Station. He told the crowd to thank Former Transportation Secretary Lynn Peterson, who was on the ride months after the state Senate fired her in a surprise political attack.

“She’s done more for bikes in Washington state than anyone,” said Inslee.

(more…)

tags: cascade bicycle club, emerald city bike ride, i-5, jay inslee, lynn peterson, sr 520

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G&O Family Cyclery finds new temporary Greenwood home

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

April 1, 2016

Photo from the Party to Save (& Grow) G&O by Taylor Kendall.

Great news from G&O Family Cyclery today: They found a new temporary home just a block north from their old spot that was severely damaged in the Greenwood gas explosion last month.

Not sure if they were going to be able to weather the storm, people rallied around the shop and raised tens of thousands of dollars to help them make it through. Seattle Bike Blog even partnered with Familybike Seattle and Peddler Brewing to throw a fundraiser, and hundreds turned out to party with and support the shop.

This is a very special shop, and I know they were determined to stay in Greenwood. So this is great news.

They hope to have the new shop open and fully operational “within a week or two.”

From Davey Oil: (more…)

tags: #greenwoodexplosion, davey oil, g&o family cyclery, greenwood

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Cascade’s sold out Emerald City Ride takes to the freeways Sunday + Route Map

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

March 31, 2016

Cascade Bicycle Club’s first ever Emerald City Bike Ride takes to area freeways Sunday.

The ride sold out all 7,000 spots, and I’m not surprised. People have wanted to bike across the 520 Bridge since it opened half a century ago.

And while Bicycle Sunday was held on the I-5 Express Lanes decades ago, biking on them (legally) is a rare opportunity. Hey, maybe once people get a taste they’ll want to support my I-5 Express Trail idea. A blogger can dream…

Unfortunately, there will be no registrations at the start. Only the 7,000 people registered can go. But anyone can attend a free public party on the 520 Bridge 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday if you want a taste. Apparently they built a new bridge or something? All I know is that the 520 Trial won’t connect to Seattle until 2017, so I’m not celebrating until then.

If you did register for Emerald City Ride, congratulations! Note that there has been a route change from the map you got in the mail. Here’s the new map (PDF): (more…)

tags: cascade bicycle club, emerald city bike ride, i-5, i-5 express trail, sr 520, tacoma wheelmen

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