The Sustainability & Transportation Committee votes 4-2 to buyout Pronto.
At the end of the City Council Sustainability & Transportation Committee meeting Tuesday, the Pronto ordinance appeared to end in a 3-3 tie with Councilmembers Tim Burgess, Lisa Herbold and Debora Juarez voting NO and Rob Johnson, Kshama Sawant and Mike O’Brien voting YES. Even Committee Chair O’Brien thought it was a 3-3 vote, saying the ordinance would head to a vote of the full City Council with no recommendation.
But as we reported on Twitter last night, a review of the video shows that Juarez actually voted YES. But when O’Brien describes the vote as 3-3, nobody corrects him.
Johnson confirmed late Wednesday via Twitter than the vote will go to the Council as recommended to pass on a 4-2 vote. I have a question to Juarez’s staff to clear up her intended vote. Below is the video of the confusion (you can watch the whole meeting here):
Despite building few bicycle lanes, Seattle still stands out in a new national report as a walking and biking leader. In fact, we’re featured on the cover.
Both walking and biking to work has increased faster in Seattle than most other major U.S. cities, the report found. Across the country, as the number of people walking and biking increases, the fatality rate decreases. And Seattle is a leader in this trend:
This data comes from the Alliance for Biking and Walking’s 2016 Benchmarking Report, which was released Wednesday (the report comes out every other year). It’s packed with data comparing major cities by a number of different measures. Seattle appears most consistently comparable to San Francisco and Washington DC in terms of biking and walking rates and safety.
But this high safety rating comes despite Seattle’s relatively low investment in bike lanes and paths. DC has 52 percent more miles of bike lanes per square mile than Seattle. San Francisco has 63 percent more. In fact, Seattle falls somewhere in the middle-to-low end of the list compared to major U.S. cities:
But with all the talking Seattle does about bike lanes, how could we fall so low on this list? Well, because we talk and talk, but rarely actually build. If this were a list of miles of bike lanes included in planning documents, Seattle would leave everyone else in the dust. But actually building bike lanes is the only thing that counts.
Now, just imagine what Seattle could accomplish by following through and getting our planned bike network — especially downtown — on the ground and fully connected. We have the plans, funding and political support. Now we just need action.
Seattle has a big head start on biking safety due to a culture of year-round biking that have developed and grown over decades. But we need safe and comfortable bike connections to become a true leader nationally and to achieve our goals of more and safer biking. We know it works when we build it, so let’s keep going.
As a reminder, here’s what Seattle could build within a year or two if leaders give existing and funded plans the go-ahead:
Our society wastes an astounding amount of food. Meanwhile, people in our own communities struggle with food insecurity or could use some help making tight budgets work.
That’s where Seattle Food Rescue comes in. Founder Tim Jenkins told Josh Kelety at Capitol Hill Seattle about the organization he founded to help connect fresh, perishable foods that didn’t sell at smaller grocery stores to people who could use some free food.
Inspired by Boulder Food Rescue, Seattle Food Rescue started by delivering primarily to food banks. But recently, the organization has expanded to serve affordable housing buildings directly.
America has a major food waste problem. That’s why for the past two years Seattle Food Rescue—a small volunteer non-profit organization of mostly college students — has been biking to grocery stores around Central Seattle picking up excess consumable food and delivering the goods to food banks and community partners around the city. Now, Seattle Food Rescue is partnering with Capitol Hill Housing to bring groceries right to the doors of residents at several properties.
“In an ideal world, all the food waste would be diverted from landfills to people who need it,” said Tim Jenkins, founder of Seattle Food Rescue. “That’s where we’d like to be headed.”
Images from King County’s Eastside Rail Corridor Trail Master Plan (download PDFs here)
The Eastside Trail made a big step closer to reality this week when King County released its draft Master Plan and Environmental Impact Statement. These plans now head into public outreach, setting the trail up for a summer preferred alignment selection and an autumn King County Council vote.
Once the plan is official, work can start in earnest to seeks the funds needed to develop the trail into a remarkable, flat, complete and all-new walking and biking connection from Renton to Woodinville.
“We’re expanding one of the nation’s premier trail systems to better connect Eastside neighborhoods, and want the public to help us design it,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine in a press release. “I encourage residents to take this opportunity to share their ideas for a new multipurpose trail that will be enjoyed by walkers, runners and cyclists for generations to come.” (more…)
Images from City Council documents ahead of the March 1 Sustainability and Transportation Committee meeting.
Sustainability, access to healthy transportation choices, economic development, congestion reduction, innovation. Public bikes grow and support so many of Seattle’s goals and values as a city that it’s hard to believe we are even thinking about cutting modest losses and liquidating the system at the first sign of challenge.
The City Council’s Sustainability and Transportation Committee is preparing to vote on SDOT’s Pronto buyout proposal at their 2 p.m. meeting tomorrow (Tuesday). You can voice your support online using this handy form from Cascade Bicycle Club and by testifying in person at the start of the meeting.
The $1.4 million under debate is part of the $5 million buyout and expansion plan the City Council already approved (with conditions) in the fall. Though it feels like an emergency because the timing of the vote is under the gun as the system’s non-profit owner faces default at the end of March, the city would have needed to buy the system’s assets under any expansion plan. This isn’t an unplanned cost, just unplanned timing.
And the deal Seattle is getting is very favorable. For $1.4 million, the city will get $2.1 million in assets, bringing the city’s total bike share assets up to $3.1 million. But even better, the city would get a functioning bike share system already in operation complete with a valuable team of sponsors, 3,300 annual members and all the hard-to-measure marketing and habit-building investments already made. Like with any business, it costs money to get bike share customers, and the city is basically getting that existing customer base value for free. (more…)
Cascade Bicycle Club’s first major ride of the year is Sunday.
If you’re starting on the Seattle side of Elliott Bay, your ride starts with a ferry ride absolutely packed with people on bikes. Then you’re in for 33 miles of long, beautiful hills and usually some rain.
At this point, your only option is to register in person at the start line for $55 ($45 for Cascade members). The ferries leave at 7:55, 8:45, 9:40 and 10:35 a.m. Or if you’re starting on the Bainbridge side, you can save $5 by registering at B.I. Cycle Shop.
