Seattle Bike Blog

What do you think of Seattle’s low-cost sidewalk plans?

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 30, 2015

SDOT map, via the Urbanist.

Building neighborhoods without sidewalks was a truly terrible idea.

I mean, seriously. What the hell? If you’re building a place for people to live, how can you leave out the space for people to walk? It’s absolute insanity, and it happened in suburbs all over the nation (and no, it wasn’t an accident).

And the Seattle area is no exception. There aren’t too many places within the old Seattle borders without sidewalks, but many neighborhoods north and south that have since been annexed were built by people who never intended for people to walk beyond their front yards. I mean, flying space cars were just on the horizon, so why waste money on something as mundane as walking?

Well, it turns out people like walking. But retrofitting sidewalks onto existing streets is way more expensive than just doing it right the first time. In fact, it costs about $300,000 just to build one side of one block. The estimate to build all the city’s missing sidewalks? A whopping $3.6 billion. That’s three Move Seattle levies.

So if we realistically want to solve the walkability challenges in the north and south neighborhoods, we need to find cheaper ways to build more safe and comfortable walking routes more quickly. There are a variety of different ways to improve walking safety and comfort beyond the standard sidewalk, and the city wants to hear your thoughts on some of their ideas as part of the ongoing updated to the Pedestrian Master Plan.

Take this survey and let them know.

Some streets may need little more than a raised curb or line of parking stops to create a new dedicated walking space, as shown in these photos from the survey: (more…)

tags: pedestrian master plan, sidewalks

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Weeks-long U Bridge bike lane closure starts Monday

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 30, 2015

From the construction notice (PDF)

The roof on the east tower of the University Bridge is leaking. There’s also a water pipe that needs replacing. And, unfortunately, the city needs to close the northbound bike lane in order to make these repairs.

Work is scheduled to begin Monday and last two or three weeks, depending on the weather.

The good news is that the sidewalk will remain open, and work will only be conducted mid-day to avoid most of the commute rush. But the sidewalk is very skinny and pretty busy already, so be prepared to walk your bike if needed.

You can bike in the general purpose lane, but we do not recommend it. Especially when it is wet, the metal grate surface can be extremely slippery.

The closure will only affect the south section between the tower and Fuhrman Ave E. But there is a knee-high cement barrier between the sidewalk and the bike lane, so you’ll either have to stay on the sidewalk all the way or lift your bike over the barrier. For many of you, that’s not a big deal, but it might not be option for people with cargo/family bikes. Well, unless you want to practice your Disaster Relief Trials skills…

tags: construction, sdot, university bridge

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Vancouver BC will tear down its only freeway remnants, replace them with more city

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 29, 2015

Biking on Vancouver’s Dunsmuir viaduct with a group from Seattle that recently went to on a study trip of Vancouver’s bike infrastructure, organized by Commute Seattle.

This 1963 rooftop photo of downtown Seattle during the construction of I-5 says a lot about the priorities of the time. (looking NE from 5th/James). Photo: Seattle Municipal Archives

Imagine you have two major highways leading into your Pacific Northwest city. One comes from the south and goes all the way to Mexico, the other comes from the east and connects all the way to Midwest and Atlantic ports. It would be crazy not to connect them, right? I mean, your city could be the nexus of freeway travel. That’s a good thing, right?

Well, people from Seattle don’t need to try very hard to imagine this scenario, because we did it. We demolished entire neighborhoods, dug huge trenches, bore giant tunnels and built elaborate elevated structures to build and connect I-90 to I-5 right in and through downtown and nearby neighborhoods. Protests to “Stop the Ditch” were ignored.

This was the vision of progress at the time, and cities all over the planet were doing the same things. And Vancouver, BC, was no exception to these kinds of plans. But Vancouver residents and leaders were able to see first hand what freeway construction means for neighborhoods by looking at Seattle. And it was devastating. (more…)

tags: dunsmuir, vancouver

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What a “no” vote on Move Seattle actually means

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 28, 2015

Better walking, biking and transit all add up to create a multimodal city. Not only will we give this vision up if we vote “no” on Move Seattle, but we’ll also slash more basic transportation work. Base image: Madison Bus Rapid Transit concept

In the lead up to next week’s vote, the Let’s Move Seattle campaign has been focused on the exciting and new elements of the nine-year transportation levy proposal: Seven new rapid bus lines to all parts of town, Safe Routes to School projects at every single public school, up to 250 blocks of new sidewalks and replacing our city’s final timber-supported bridge on Fairview Ave N before an earthquake takes it down for us.

The expanded levy will also grow exciting work to provide more transportation options for everyone, like dramatically expanding the city’s ability to implement transit-efficiency projects, connecting our scattered bicycle route network, replacing old street corners with ADA accessible curb ramps and much more.

As we wrote recently, the brilliance of Move Seattle is that it makes thousands of relatively small investments that add up to create a multimodal city. It doesn’t rely on questionable megaprojects like Bertha or even the massive remake of Mercer Street. Instead, it goes all in on expanding transportation choices in every neighborhood, maintaining the roads we have and improving safety and transportation access for everyone.

Seattle needs more smart transportation investments if we have any hope of helping more people and goods get around our city. We have a lot of catching up to do.

But even if you aren’t convinced by all this, voting “no” on Seattle’s Prop 1 is also a vote to slaughter the city’s current transportation budget, including the kinds of work we have simply come to consider basic maintenance. Because the Bridging the Gap levy (“BTG”) expires in December whether we replace it or not.

To give you the doomsday version of what your “no” vote would mean (not even counting the 16 seismic upgrades for earthquake-vulnerable bridges included in Move Seattle), let’s look at some of the big stuff we lose without a levy in place: (more…)

tags: move seattle, move seattle levy, tim eyman

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Rain?!? Pshhh, whatever. Seattle’s a year-round bike town

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 28, 2015

One of Seattle Bike Blog’s all-time most read stories has a simple title: How to bike in the Seattle rain.

Some people thought the post was a cop-out since, in a way, it contains little real advice about what to buy and what to wear. But that’s the point: Biking year-round in Seattle is totally awesome, and you don’t need lots of special gear to do it.

Well, here we are again, about to enter the darkest and rainiest time of the year. Daylight Savings Time ends 2 a.m. Sunday, so get ready for it to get darker sooner.

If you feel a bit lost on how to make sure you’re ready for the winter, there are two different efforts coming up to help you keep biking no matter the weather. You may learn that winter biking is the best way to generate a bit of your own sunshine amid the seemingly endless gray skies.

Light Up Your Ride

Commute Seattle is holding their annual Light Up Your Ride event 4 – 6:30 p.m. Thursday at McGraw Square (you may have seen this advertised on this blog).

Lots of the winter cycling gear out there is optional, but bike lights are not. A front headlight and rear reflector are required by law during dark hours, but we highly recommended that you have both front and rear lights at a minimum and that you also run them when it rains.

We live in a crazy country where lights are not a standard feature on bicycles, so it’s on you to buy, charge and remember your lights. I know it’s messed up, but for now that’s the way it is. (more…)

tags: bike lights

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No Federal money for Northgate bike/walk bridge, Pronto expansion

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 27, 2015

A plan to expand Pronto aims to reach “vulnerable” populations. Map from Seattle’s pending TIGER grant application.

Well, it was worth a shot.

The Feds did not pick Seattle’s TIGER grant proposal for funding the Northgate bike/walk bridge and a “massive” Pronto Cycle Share expansion, SDOT confirmed today.

The news comes one day after Senator Patty Murray announced a $15 million TIGER grant for Tacoma LINK and $10 million to construct a new ferry terminal in Mukilteo. The Seattle grant proposal was conspicuously missing from Murray’s announcement.

The Seattle proposal requested $25 million in Federal funds to help fill the $15 million funding gap in the Northgate bike/walk bridge project and to improve connectivity to transit by investing $10 million in a dramatically expanded bike share system. The city would match this with $5 million of its own, while Pronto’s private operator Motivate would pitch in $3 million.

Since the application, the state passed a transportation funding package that includes $10 million for the Northgate bridge project. UPDATE: The Move Seattle Levy also includes funding for the Northgate bridge, so with the TIGER grant out it’s that much more important to pass Seattle’s Prop 1.

But the city was still hoping at least for partial grant funding to help expand Pronto’s reach. Today, only 14 percent of Seattle residents live within an easy walk of a station. Under the expansion plan, 62 percent of residents would live within reach.

With the TIGER grant out of the picture for at least a year, the city still intends to move forward with an expansion. Mayor Ed Murray’s proposed 2016 budget includes $5 million for expanding Pronto. If that funding is approved by the City Council, the path forward really hinges on whether the city focuses on expanding the station area or on electric bike technology. (more…)

tags: ed murray, patty murray, pronto emerald city cycle share, scott kubly, TIGER, tom rasmussen

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