Seattle Bike Blog

Who is going to step up and fix the planned waterfront surface highway?

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

December 14, 2015

Base images from Waterfront Seattle. Lower image modified by Seattle Bike Blog.

So many of you submitted comments shocked by the gigantic waterfront highway presented in the most recent Waterfront Seattle plans that you triggered a requirement mandating the city study a road design that has fewer lanes to cross between the downtown core and the rebuilt waterfront.

The proposed eight-lane road is so wide that people who move slower — like children, many elderly people or people with mobility issues — won’t be able to cross the whole street in one signal. They will have to cross to the center median and wait a couple minutes before continuing across to finally reach the other side. Or they’ll just get stuck in the middle of traffic when the light turns green, a terrifying and dangerous situation.

Obviously, this is not acceptable. So good job submitting your comments! You all were very clear about the problem, and you demanded a solution from our city and state. And they heard you, so now they are studying an option that removes the … transit lanes?!?

That’s right. Even though essentially nobody asked to get rid of the transit lanes, that’s the study we’re getting. Because everything about this process is backwards.

In a short bullet point during a mostly-fireworks-free Transportation Committee meeting last week, a planner for the Waterfront Seattle project mentioned that they were adding a study to analyze the impact of removing the promised transit-only lanes on the planned Alaskan Way surface street. These transit lanes are vital for moving all the buses that currently use the viaduct, including most service to West Seattle.

But the comment did not go unnoticed. Transit boosters, including Zach Shaner at Seattle Transit Blog, heard the new bit of news and asked, and I’m roughly paraphrasing here, “What the fuck?”

Well, it turns out the problem stems from an agreement between the Port of Seattle and the State. Zach at STB explains: (more…)

tags: alaskan way, seattle transit blog, waterfront, zach shaner

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So, how did the city do at building the Bike Master Plan in 2015?

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

December 11, 2015

After years and years of planning, 2015 was the year Seattle’s Department of Transportation finally tried to hit a stride delivering bike network additions and upgrades regularly and consistently. In order to keep the Bike Master Plan on track, the city needs to build many miles of protected bike lanes and neighborhood greenways every year.

And they are going to get close to meeting their goals in 2015, especially if you count Westlake and other projects ready to begin construction in early 2016.

And perhaps more importantly, SDOT can keep their roll going in 2016 and beyond thanks to voter approval of the Move Seattle levy. If the levy had failed, progress would have ground nearly to a halt.

Of course, there is still a ton of room for improvement, both in delivering projects on time and in the quality of those projects. Seattle still has not built a single protected intersection on any protected bike lane project, and many of the neighborhood greenways suffer from insufficient busy street crossings and too much cut-through traffic due to a lack of diverters.

Much of the protected bike lane miles included in the 2015 count are on Ravenna Blvd, a project we praised for doing a lot with little budget. But ultimately, Ravenna was already mostly there, making it very low hanging fruit. There aren’t many projects that easy out there.

But the biggest problem with essentially every project is a lack of connectivity to other quality bike routes. And that’s a problem we can only solve by keeping up the work every year to build out the Bike Master Plan and by focusing hard on the biggest and most difficult missing links, like downtown and Rainier Ave. (more…)

tags: bicycle master plan, bicycle master plan implementation plan

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Bellevue endorses Vision Zero

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

December 10, 2015

The Bellevue City Council unanimously endorsed Vision Zero Monday, setting a goal of zero deaths and serious injuries on Bellevue streets by 2030.

In fact, there was very little discussion or debate about the resolution (PDF), which sailed right through. You can watch the very short proceedings here or in the video posted below.

“I know there’s still a tremendous amount of work to be done” to integrate the policy into the city’s comprehensive plan and the bike/walk initiative we reported about previously.

The resolution does not itself do anything direct, like funding specific safe streets projects. But it does realign Bellevue’s often car-movement-at-all-costs point of view evident by anyone trying to walk or bike in many parts of the major Eastside city. The staff memo (PDF) for the resolution acknowledges the role of “unforgiving” street design in the deaths and injuries of people on Bellevue streets: (more…)

tags: bellevue, vision zero, vision zero bellevue

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Cascade Bicycle Club and WA Bikes merge, form nation’s largest statewide bike advocacy organization

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

December 9, 2015

Washington State now has the largest statewide advocacy organization in the nation.

The Boards of Cascade Bicycle Club and Washington Bikes voted Tuesday to merge the two organizations, following months of negotiations and member outreach by both groups (see our previous story for background).

The reworked organization will now have two arms operating under one roof. “Cascade Bicycle Club” will now be a tax-deductible 501(c)(3) non-profit focusing on rides, education and non-political advocacy, and “Washington Bikes” will be a politically-engaged 501(c)(4) advocacy force funded largely by the annual 10,000-person Seattle-to-Portland ride (Full Disclosure: My spouse Kelli is the Seattle Advocacy Director).

Members of both organizations will automatically become members of Cascade Bicycle Club when the changes go into effect January 1.

An email to WA Bikes members calls the merger “a big win”: (more…)

tags: barb chamberlain, bicycle alliance of washington, blake trask, cascade bicycle club, elizabeth kiker, washington bikes

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Here are the Seattle Neighborhood Greenways 2015 safe streets champions

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

December 8, 2015

Rainier Valley’s Shirley Savel was recognized for her work demonstrating a Rainier Ave protected bike lane

Seattle Neighborhood Greenways hosted their annual volunteer appreciation party late last week. And aside from booze and snacks, the night also included a list of people and campaigns that have helped further the cause of safe streets in our city.

People were invited to vote for their top choices, but all the nominees are impressive and deserve recognition. You can read more about each nominee in the SNG facebook album. So without further ado, here are the safe streets champions for 2015: (more…)

tags: #party4ourstreets 2015, merlin rainwater, seattle neighborhood greenways

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It’s well past time to build safe bike lanes on Eastlake Ave

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

December 7, 2015

Map of 2010-2014 collisions from the project’s draft existing conditions report (PDF)

Eastlake Ave is a white knuckle bike ride. Even though it’s also the only reasonably flat street that directly connects the city center to the University Bridge, there are no bike lanes. Instead, people have to try to navigate the busy street in a wide shared lane, often squeezed between car traffic and parked cars.

Dozens of collisions between people biking and driving happen every year all along the street. Far more collisions occur between people driving or between people driving and people walking.

In total, there were 229 collisions on Eastlake between 2010 and 2014, according to the project’s draft existing conditions report (PDF). 97 people were injured.

And these dangers on Eastlake Ave are huge impediments to people who want to bike, but are not willing to mix with cars on busy streets. The dangerous and stressful conditions also hurt Eastlake businesses because the road is so clearly focused on moving people through, not to, the commercial areas.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

The city is moving forward with plans for a Roosevelt to downtown high capacity transit project mostly along the Roosevelt Way and Eastlake Ave corridors, so this is the time to make sure biking, walking and efficient transit are the top priorities. Funded in part by the Move Seattle levy, this project is an example of the kind of change people want to see in our city. Passing the levy with such a strong margin was a mandate to be bold and finally connect these major missing links in our bike and transit networks, improving walking safety as we go.

But even with such a strong voter mandate, bold changes won’t happen without clear direction from the public. You have two chances this week to get involved and help make sure bike lanes on Eastlake not only happen but are high-quality and safe:

Details from Cascade:

Wednesday, Dec. 9, 6 – 8 p.m.
TOPS School, Cafeteria
2500 Franklin Ave. E, Seattle
RSVP

Thursday, Dec. 10, 6 – 8 p.m.
UW Tower, Cafeteria North
4333 Brooklyn Ave. NE, Seattle
RSVP
(more…)

tags: cascade bicycle club, eastlake, roosevelt to downtown hct

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