Seattle Bike Blog

Help count people biking and walking in King County next week

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 22, 2015

How many people are actually out biking and walking in Washington State? We don’t really know.

But believe it or not, the state tries to get a handle on this number by getting a bunch of volunteers to hang out in the same locations every year and count people as they bike by. Eyeballs, paper and pen. Old school.

Sure, that’s a little crazy. But as someone who has volunteered to count a couple times in the past, it’s also kind of fun. How often do you really sit and people watch for two hours straight? You notice all the different ways people choose to move through a space, you notice the latest bike trends (drop bars are out, upright bars are in) and you get to help make sure the state knows people really are biking and walking.

Andrea Clinkscales — Principal Planner at Cascade Bicycle Club, which is coordinating volunteers — says there are still several Seattle shifts open and a lot of other King County shifts to fill. So if you have time in the morning or afternoon next week, sign up!

Details from Clinkscales: (more…)

tags: andrea clinkscales, bicycle count, cascade bicycle club, wsdot

— Advertisement —
Headed downtown during Xi Jinping’s stay? You better bike

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 21, 2015

Click here to view in Google Maps.

Biking is already the most reliable way to get around Seattle’s everyday traffic. But that will be especially true Tuesday through Thursday as Chinese President Xi Jinping stays at the Westin downtown.

Security measures will close a several-block radius around the hotel bounded by (but not including) Olive St., 7th Ave, Lenora St and 4th Ave to vehicles. However, those streets “will be significantly impacted by the security zone,” according to SDOT.

People can access the area on foot by passing through a security checkpoint. You can probably bring your bike through the checkpoint, but don’t expect to easily bike through. (more…)

tags: china, downtown, scott kubly, sdot, xi jinping

— Advertisement —
Campus Parkway protected bike lanes will come tantalizingly close to connecting U Bridge, Burke-Gilman

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 21, 2015

The city has started laying out the spray-paint outlines for new protected bike lanes on NE Campus Parkway and one block of Brooklyn Ave NE in the U District. The project should be complete by the end of September.

The new bike lanes will connect much of UW campus and the U District to the bike lanes on the University Bridge, which are also due for some significant upgrades as part of the Roosevelt repaving project.

The road will still have two lanes in each direction despite having relatively low traffic levels. But they will be skinnier, which should slow speeds a bit and make space for five-foot bike lanes with two feet of buffer and plastic reflective posts. The new bike lanes will be aligned next to the median, sort of like on Ravenna Boulevard.

The project will also add protected bike lanes to one block of Brooklyn Ave NE south of Campus Parkway. This stretch currently has a paint-only uphill bike lane and sharrows downhill, so this is a significant upgrade.

Unfortunately, the bike lanes will only go for a block, stopping one block short of the Burke-Gilman Trail. Looking at the map above shows you just how close we are to finally making a solid connection, but a series of maddening mistakes in planning by both the city and UW mean this connection will remain incomplete.

I asked SDOT why they are stopping short. Their response: (more…)

tags: brooklyn, brooklyn station, campus parkway, protected bike lanes, u district, uw

— Advertisement —
Happy Park(ing) Day 2015! Photos from around town

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 18, 2015

It’s Park(ing) Day! As in recent years, I will be biking around town visiting as many parks as I can. I’ll post photos here as I go. So check back throughout the day or follow along on Twitter at @seabikeblog.

On Pike Street: Delicious baked snacks …. IN OUTER SPACE! (more…)

— Advertisement —
Huge open streets weekend: Bicycle Sunday extended into Mt Baker, Ballard Summer Parkways + Park(ing) Day

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 18, 2015

Summer ain’t over yet, dammit.

This weekend is by far the biggest open streets weekend Seattle has ever seen.

We’ve already told you about today’s Park(ing) Day, the biggest in Seattle yet. More than 50 pop-up parks will appear in on-street parking spaces throughout the city, including some ambitious bike lane and safe streets demos. The parks will be open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Here’s the map.

We’ve also already told you about Ballard Summer Parkways. Tomorrow, seven miles of residential streets will become a giant linear park. There will be music, food, festivals and more along the route. It will be open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL! (I feel like Oprah, “You get open streets! And you get open streets!”)

Sunday is the final Bicycle Sunday of the year, and for the first time in a long time, the route will be extended from Lake Washington Boulevard, continuing up Mount Baker Boulevard to the Mount Baker Town Center Street Festival near the light rail station. The route will then even connect across Rainier/MLK to Cheasty Boulevard leading up Beacon Hill.

It’s a car-free tour of historic Olmsted Boulevards long cut off by busy streets, so this is a rare treat. The route is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Details from SDOT: (more…)

tags: ballard, bicycle sunday, mt baker, open streets, park(ing) day 2015, summer parkways

— Advertisement —
Seattle’s bike-to-work rate faces challengers from big cities in all corners of the US

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 17, 2015

The 2014 Census data on work commute modes is out, and it shows that biking to work in Seattle remains somewhere between 3.1 and 4.3 percent. The survey (** see disclaimer about the survey below) has returned biking numbers within this margin of error since 2010. That’s about 14,200 Seattle residents biking to work all or most days.

Driving alone to work was, once again, below the the 50 percent mark, showing a continued trend in which more and more Seattle workers depend on a multimodal transportation system to get to their jobs. As we reported previously, 57.3 percent of Seattle workers drove alone to work in 2005. So driving alone is still the dominant mode for getting to work, but it’s losing its hold steadily.

Perhaps the biggest news is that transit had it’s strongest year yet, clocking in between 20 and 22.4 percent. If these trends continue, it may only be a couple years before half as many workers in Seattle take transit as drive alone.

As of 2014, 34.7 percent of Seattle residents bike, walk or take transit to get to work, up from 26.2 percent in 2005. That’s compared to 49.5 percent who drive alone to work. If trends keep going as they are, biking, walking and transit combined could overtake driving alone in the next decade. When exactly will it happen? That depends on how boldly the city, region and state invest to support and grow multimodal transportation.

Passing Move Seattle, for example, is vital to achieving this goal. So is a strong Sound Transit 3 in 2016. (more…)

tags: american communities survey, american communities survey 2014, census

— Advertisement —