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…)
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…)
A temporary traffic garden was part of Seattle’s Park(ing) Day 2014. (Photo feat. Gordon Padelford of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways)
With mini versions of streets, traffic control signs, crosswalks and other elements of a real life street, a traffic garden is a safe and fun place for people (especially kids) to learn and practice the rules of the road.
Such gardens are somewhat common in other parts of the world, but they are rare in the United States. They can be great resources for traffic safety education, but they are also simply fun to play in when classes are not in session. Maybe it seems boring to adults to pretend to drive, bike and walk on mini streets, but that kind of thing is crazy fun for kids.
Learning how to be safe and comfortable with active transportation is also a good thing for the community, which is why White Center leaders and Cascade Bicycle Club’s Major Taylor Project worked to develop a plan and win a King County Parks grant to open Washington State’s first traffic garden in Dick Thurnau Park (the recently-approved new name for Lakewood Park).
“Having access to cycling is important for health reasons and all sorts of other reasons,” said Pat Thompson, Director and Co-Founder of the YES! Foundation of White Center and a lifelong resident of the area. “To me, cycling is a justice issue.”
She said cycling is on the rise in White Center after decades where she rarely saw any bikes on the streets.
“It’s not normal yet,” she said. “It’s not something you see everywhere. It’s not something every home has.” Part of the problem is King County’s lacking bike infrastructure compared to Seattle.
“You can cross Roxbury and suddenly there are bike lanes, and on the other side there are not.” SW Roxbury St is the city limit dividing White Center and Seattle. (more…)
Since then, people have used the bikes to complete 144,000 trips, traveling 335,694 miles. That’s the equivalent of biking around the equator 13.5 times or biking to the moon and making it half way back.
That’s a whole lot of bike sharing, and puts the Seattle system about on par with the first year of use in Denver, a step behind the Bay Area system and quite a bit behind DC.
The current ratio of bikes-to-bike station is just over 9:1.
Breaking those numbers down further, we find a mix of good and less-than-good numbers. For instance, the average bike station saw 512 customers purchase short-term passes and the network generated 935 miles of bike riding daily. Meanwhile, 144,000 trips were made on Pronto bikes throughout the year, but if you parcel that out on a per bike per month basis, that comes down to 24 trips. In context though, that’s within a range closely mimicking peer systems in Denver and San Francisco.
Additionally, that first data point in the list above suggests that the bike share system is meeting a key target — the 30-minute target. With average trip time at 19.05 minutes, most users are not exceeding the 30-minute threshold at which additional charges kick in for each half-hourly block. Bike share is predicated upon the concept of rotating bikes throughout the system as quickly and as balanced as possible. This helps realize a primary goal of ensuring that bikes remain accessible to users at most locations in the system and on demand.
The good news is that King County Parks has begun work on an Eastside Rail Corridor Regional Trail Master Plan, and they need your feedback to help lead the designs.
I totally screwed up and didn’t post this before yesterday, when the first of three open houses on the master plan was held in Bellevue. But there are still two more chances to attend an open house in person:
You will also have a chance to give feedback online starting next week. We will post an update when the online open house is ready.
Public feedback received during the Environmental Impact Statement scoping process wisely put the environment, safety and connectivity front-and-center. These are fantastic goals, though I would add economic development to the list. A complete Eastside Trail would be a boon to any business along the route and would provide opportunities for new ones, as we have already seen with the awesome Chainline Brewing in Kirkland.
More details on the developing master plan from King County Parks: (more…)
The folks behind the Cheasty Trails and Bike Park project have been working for years to receive city permission and win grants to restore and activate the hilly Cheasty Greenspace between Rainier Valley and Beacon Hill.
The idea gained a lot of steam and community support, but it also encountered some pretty serious opposition. The ensuing debate was often difficult, but it also shifted the plans and helped develop a more complete set of goals.
For example, the original name for the project was the Beacon Bike Park, but through working with community members it became clear that some of the best and most-needed improvements the project could provide are walking paths connecting Rainier Vista homes to schools, businesses and nature. Now those walking trails are a central part of the plan, providing routes from Rainier Vista to Jefferson Park and Kimball Elementary that avoid some otherwise unavoidable busy streets. The name of the project has since changed to the Cheasty Trails and Bike Park.
The bike park element also got clarification. It’s not just for privileged Seattle residents to have a place closer to home to go mountain biking. It’s about providing this hugely popular recreation opportunity to people who don’t have access to the excellent mountain bike parks around the region, most of which are hard to reach without a car and — especially if you’re a young person — a parent with the time to drive you there. (more…)
