Seattle Bike Blog

Support the Pronto expansion at today’s 2016 budget hearing

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 20, 2015

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

Pronto is just one year old, and already people have pedaled the equivalent distance from the earth to the moon and halfway back. That’s not too shabby considering the average trip on Pronto is less than 20 minutes and only 14 percent of Seattle residents live within an easy walk of a station.

Well, that could all change, but it’s going to need your support. We’ve already outlined the city’s plan for a “massive” expansion of the bike share system. If funded fully, the system could be within an easy walk of 62 percent of Seattle residents. The expansion is especially focused on access to transit and reaching more low-income residents.

Mayor Ed Murray proposed funding for the expansion with a $5 million one-time budget expenditure in 2016, hopefully bolstered by more funding from a Federal grant request.

You can support the mayor’s budget funding today at a public hearing on the 2016 budget. 5:30 p.m. in City Council Chambers in City Hall.

The Seattle Times Editorial Board has come out against the Pronto proposal arguing in part that we should build out the Bicycle Master Plan first. That’s rich coming from a Board that also doesn’t want to pass Move Seattle, our city’s current effort to fund all kinds of transportation improvements including the Bicycle Master Plan.

Pronto is urging members to support the budget at the hearing and by emailing City Council. Here’s the email they sent: (more…)

tags: 2016 budget, city council, pronto emerald city cycle share, seattle times editorial board

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The Times is wrong. A megaproject won’t fix our traffic, we need Move Seattle

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 19, 2015

Better walking, biking and transit. Why you should vote YES on Prop 1 to Move Seattle. Image: Madison Bus Rapid Transit concept.

The Seattle Times Editorial Board put all their backing behind Bertha and the SR 99 deep bore tunnel highway, a multibillion-dollar, cars-only underground toll road that bypasses downtown Seattle — our state’s biggest employment center. They are not worthy of your trust when it comes to transportation projects.

So when the Times says to vote against Prop 1 (“Move Seattle”) because it isn’t “chock full of big fixes, specific big projects,” you should respond, “Yes, and that’s exactly why this plan is so smart.”

The real solution to Seattle’s transportation crunch is a lot more walking and biking, and much more efficient transit. There is no debate about it. We can’t keep squeezing more cars into our city, and burying them won’t solve the problem. Our city cannot handle the cars it has, and it cannot grow if our new residents have to bring cars, too. It’s that simple.

Even if Bertha had worked perfectly rather than turning into a disaster, it would still be a huge waste of money, proposed and promoted by people willing to ignore common sense and real life experiences in truly multimodal cites because they were blinded by a hopeless belief that one big silver bullet could fix Seattle’s chronic transportation problems.

Protect your neighbors

The good news is that it does not take a megaproject to make walking and biking safer and more inviting to more people for more of their trips. What we need are thousands of relatively small improvements in every neighborhood in our city: (more…)

tags: move seattle, move seattle levy, seattle times editorial board

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Two chances to guide Seattle’s Trails Upgrade Plan + Check out this crazy trail condition monitoring bike

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 16, 2015
A flyer for the upcoming open houses

Photo of the trail conditions monitoring bike, from SDOT

In recent weeks, workers have been biking a crazy bike outfitted with instruments to measure trail conditions all over the city.

The results are just one tool the city will use to craft its Trails Upgrade Plan, which will guide investments in repaving and redesigning Seattle’s great, though sometimes incomplete or deteriorating trail system. For more on that plan, see our previous story.

The plan also depends on people like you giving input on the most needed work, and you have two chances next week to tell staff in person:
- Monday, 6 – 7:30 p.m. at Northgate Branch Library
- Wednesday, 6 – 7:30 p.m. at Hillman City Collaboratory
Staff at the open houses will have some results from their data collecting efforts.

More details from SDOT: (more…)
tags: meetings, sdot, trails upgrade plan

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New protected bike lanes in Ravenna complete smart new connections at a low cost

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 16, 2015

Seattle quietly opened 1.5 miles of new or upgraded protected bike lanes in Ravenna and the U District recently. The low-budget projects cut a couple corners, but still add huge value to bike safety and mobility in some of the city’s bikiest neighborhoods.

Let’s start with Ravenna (post about Campus Parkway bike lanes coming soon, stay tuned). I swear I did not stage the super happy photo above. What you can’t see is the middle school kid biking home solo in the protected bike lane on the other side of the Ravenna Boulevard median. This stuff really does work. Create a long, connected and truly safe bike route, and the city opens up to our youth and everyone else who doesn’t feel comfortable mixing with traffic.

The physical changes to Ravenna Boulevard itself aren’t all that significant. The bike lanes were already wide with quality painted buffer space. But just adding some plastic posts every few feet does a lot. They are not as good as a curb or planter boxes, but the posts are effective at keeping people driving from using the bike lane as a passing lane. And they cost way less to install, which is how all this work was done on a $200,000 budget (that might sound like a lot, but it’s very cheap in terms of transportation infrastructure).

Perhaps the single biggest improvement to Ravenna Boulevard itself is this new stop sign at the I-5 ramp: (more…)

tags: 15th Ave NE, andres salomon, Cowen Pl NE, NE 62nd St, ravenna, ravenna blvd

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Nearly two years later, Broadway Bikeway finally open at north end

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 15, 2015

For the first time, the entire length of the Broadway Bikeway’s first phase is now open.

Since it opened officially exactly two years ago, the north end of the project has been a bike route dead end due to construction for Capitol Hill Station at Denny Way. That means one of the city’s most visible and ambitious protected bike lanes has had limited usability, acting essentially as a local-access-only facility.

The reopened section makes it easier to access the businesses and homes on the north end of Broadway, but the transition from protected bike lane to a busy street with only sharrows is still fairly jarring.

There is also a key piece of the design that is still missing: A bikes-only turn lane southbound at Denny to give people an easier way to transition from the shared lane to the bikeway. According to plans, this lane should look like this: (more…)

tags: broadway, broadway bikeway, broadway streetcar extension, ethan melone, first hill streetcar

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‘Sidewalk Closed’ must be a last resort for construction, proposed city rule says

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 15, 2015

A familiar scene on Seattle Streets. Image from Google Street View.

Parking for one truck preserved at the expense of these people’s safety. Nike Store, downtown Seattle in June

They are two of the worst words you encounter every day in the city: “Sidewalk Closed.”

You face a conundrum. Do I wait for the walk signal, cross the street, walk a block, wait for another walk signal, then cross back? Or do I just try to squeeze along the construction barrier?

A lot of people choose the latter. And they probably regret the choice halfway down the block when people in cars start whizzing by, but then it’s too late.

The most frustrating part of this extremely common problem is that it is entirely avoidable. Temporary and protected walking spaces are easy to create.

So often on Seattle streets, multiple vehicle lanes remain open, often including on-street car parking. Yet so many construction mitigation plans can’t possibly find any space for basic accommodations for people walking (and definitely not for people biking). That’s not acceptable.

The good news is that SDOT agrees. That’s why they released a new rule proposal today that would require temporary walkways for most construction projects. The rules also specify the use of stronger barriers, providing better lighting and adhering to basic accessibility standards.

The new rules do not specifically outline how to manage bike lane closures, but they are one big step in the right direction. The rules do give SDOT the right to evaluate bike traffic impacts, but they don’t go as far as mandating and specifying temporary bike lanes in construction zones. (more…)

tags: construction, sdot, sidewalk closed

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