Seattle Bike Blog

70-year-old triathlete Gordon Gray dies after collision in Kenmore

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 11, 2015

The man biking in Kenmore who collided with a cement truck Wednesday has died. The medical examiner has identified him as Gordon Gray, the Seattle PI reports.

At the age of 70, Gray was an active and competitive triathlete. He lived in Kenmore.

Condolences to his friends and family.

The details of the collision are not entirely clear yet. Gray was apparently turning onto NE 175th Street from 65th Ave NE near the Burke-Gilman Trail (map) when he collided with a cement truck headed west on 175th. Detectives told the Seattle PI that Gray did not stop at a stop sign.

The collision happened shortly after 10 a.m. Wednesday. He died the next day in the hospital. (more…)

tags: deaths, gordon gray, kenmore

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Seattle biking legend Jerry Baker passes away

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 10, 2015

Photo from Cascade Bicycle Club.

In just about every way, Jerry Baker won the Seattle-to-Portland forever.

He won the STP in 1979, the first year of the now-legendary annual ride and the only year it was actually a race.

A few months ago, Baker completed his 36th STP, more times than anyone else.

But Baker’s impact on cycling in the Seattle region goes far beyond those 200 miles. In fact, it’s absolutely incredible how many vital cycling institutions in the area he helped create and grow.

“Surrounded by loving family, Jerry Baker passed away early on September 10th after the sudden onset of acute leukemia,” says a note from family members.

Notes from people he impacted and organizations he helped start are pouring out from all over. Cycling in the area today would be unrecognizable without Baker. (more…)

tags: jerry baker

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Banning turns-on-red is an exciting first step to taking back our crosswalks

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 9, 2015

We’ve all been there. You get the walk signal and step off the curb. But the person driving keeps inching towards you. You try to make eye contact, but they are looking left for a break in traffic, still inching forward. They don’t even know you are in front of their grill. Will they see you before they hit you? Should I dive back to the relative safety of the sidewalk? Should I yell Midnight Cowboy style?

Joking aside, turns-on-red are dangerous, especially in dense areas with lots of foot traffic. The city says 143 people walking have been hit by people making turns in just the past three years (usually these are right-turns-on-red, though one-way intersections often allow left-turns-on-red). And though turn-on-red collisions are typically low-speed, any collision can be dangerous especially for our youngest and oldest neighbors as well as people with mobility challenges. People can get knocked over, have their feet run over, or worse.

The worst part is that the people who get hurt are crossing with the light. We are taught over and over that it’s safest to wait for the walk signal to cross the street. But that’s exactly when turns-on-red are the most dangerous. This means even the walk signal phase is not a safe space for people on foot. For vision impaired people who depend on the audio signal to cross, people driving into the crosswalk are even more dangerous.

In our twisted road culture, if you cross the street without a walk signal, you are a “jaywalker” and it’s your fault if you get hit. But if you wait for the walk signal, well, you still might get hit (though then it would be an “accident“).

In a way, banning turns-on-red is just a common sense and low-cost way to increase safety and start trying to address downtown’s traffic violence public health emergency. But in another way, it’s one step towards taking back the walk signal for people who are walking.

This year, Seattle will ban turns-on-red at ten downtown intersections with collision history as part of the city’s Vision Zero efforts. The turn bans will also apply to people on bikes, according to SDOT spokesperson Rick Sheridan. Here’s a map of them from KUOW: (more…)

tags: downtown, kuow, right turns on red, sdot, vision zero

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Let’s pass Move Seattle to build ‘communities where all families thrive’

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 8, 2015

“Last year, the citizens of this city stepped up to fund the largest bus system expansion in history,” Mayor Ed Murray said to press, flanked by safe streets, business, labor and social justice leaders Tuesday. But putting more buses on our existing traffic-clogged and deteriorating roads isn’t enough. “We’re asking for this plan to make [all the recent transportation investments] work together.”

This was a theme throughout the presser: New Metro funding passed last year, the state transportation package passed this year and next year’s Sound Transit 3 vote all need to build on each other to create a multimodal transportation system our growing city needs. And Move Seattle is the cornerstone that makes it all work.

For example, more buses on the road is good, but Move Seattle gets those buses out of chronic traffic jams and creates seven new better-than-Rapid-Ride express transit routes.

The press conference marks the real start of campaign season. There is a kickoff party for the Let’s Move Seattle campaign tonight in Belltown (5–7 p.m. at the Spitfire, $50 suggested donation). And, of course, you can volunteer for the campaign.

There are worries that Move Seattle is too big, but there are also worries that it doesn’t go far enough.

“As we brought this out to people, they had lists that would make it much larger,” said Murray. “I think we got it about right.” (more…)

tags: brian fairbrother, move seattle, move seattle levy, puget sound sage, rebecca saldana, ref lindmark

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Party to kickoff the Move Seattle campaign Tuesday + Mayor will speak at bridge where Fairbrother died in 2011

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 7, 2015

Flanked by business, transportation and social justice leaders Tuesday, Mayor Ed Murray will mark the official kickoff of the Let’s Move Seattle campaign to pass Prop 1.

The 10 a.m. press event will be held next to the Fairview Ave timber-supported bridge connecting South Lake Union and Eastlake (unless you are on foot, you may not even realize you are going over a bridge). Move Seattle includes funding to replace the bridge, which is structurally deficient and in no way ready for a significant earthquake.

There will also be a campaign kickoff party and fundraiser at the Spitfire in Belltown (4th & Bell) early Tuesday evening. There’s a suggested donation of $50 (or more if you have it), but it’s a free event.

The mayor’s choice of the Fairview bridge is smart because it encompasses so many benefits the city will get from Move Seattle. It is one of the few ways to move from the city center to Eastlake and beyond, making it a vital road and transit structure.

It’s also a bridge that lacks proper walking space, though it does have a biking space shoehorned onto one side of it. People walking on the lake side must navigate stairs down to a dock at water level, which is difficult or impossible for people with mobility challenges.

But safe streets advocates may know the bridge better as the place where Brian Fairbrother crashed and died in 2011. Though we will never know for sure, he apparently missed an unmarked turn into the bike path on the bridge and crashed on the stairs. The city has since installed simple artsy barriers to prevent a similar mistake.

Fairbrother’s friends held an absolutely beautiful memorial for him shortly after he died, and his death was one of several that summer that sparked a renewed popular movement for safe streets and bike routes (it’s no coincidence 2011 is the year Seattle Neighborhood Greenways groups spread to neighborhoods all over the city). (more…)

tags: brian fairbrother, ed murray, fairview ave n, move seattle, move seattle levy

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Toward Zero: Honoring the 150 people killed or badly injured in Seattle traffic since Sher Kung

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 4, 2015

A crowd gathered on the steps of the Garden of Remembrance downtown Friday listened to 150 bell rings, one for every person seriously injured or killed in Seattle traffic in just one year.

They also heard ten names, all people who were killed in traffic in the same year.

“We are honoring today — not names, not numbers — but people,” Seattle Neighborhood Greenways Executive Director Cathy Tuttle told the crowd gathered at 2nd and University on the one-year anniversary of Sher Kung’s death. “People who are sisters and brothers, children and parents, wives and husbands, friends and lovers.”

The event was not specifically religious, but it was about faith. We have to believe that traffic deaths and injuries are preventable, that our collective action as residents of a city can bring changes that calm our streets. Because this is a public health emergency prolonged by our society’s inability to see these tragic moments that take or forever change so many lives as anything more than accidents.

“We are here because we believe in Vision Zero, that no one should die or suffer serious injury in traffic,” said Tuttle. “We here are the living, and we are here because we care. We are ready to do our part in the memory of the victims of traffic violence, and we are ready to dedicate our hearts and our energy to safe streets.”

Amen.

Bob Anderton, a safe streets advocate and (Seattle Bike Blog advertising) bicycle lawyer, read the names of ten people who have died in just the past year on Seattle streets. An eleventh person’s identity was not yet released, but he was remembered, too. Here is the list as he read them:

Sher Kung, 30-year-old mother and civil rights attorney, killed on August 29, 2014 while biking on 2nd Avenue to work, which was just across the street.

John Panzar, 37-years-old, killed on October 24 while walking across the street in North Greenwood.

Benjamin Ward, 52-years-old, killed on November 20 while walking across the street in Delridge.

Leo Almanzor, 68-years-old, killed on November 22 while walking at 5th Ave and Pike Street, just after getting off his work as a janitor.

Ashley Jenson, 32-years-old, killed on December 5, killed while driving on South Holgate Street.

Rui Xu, 42-years-old, killed on December 28 while driving.

Larry Fletcher, 76-years-old, killed on January 29 while walking in a crosswalk across 15th Avenue NE in the U-District.

Michelle Jozefink, 45-years-old, killed on March 26 while walking in a crosswalk at 5th Avenue and Seneca Street.

Sean Harris, 26-years-old, killed on April 18 in the Rainier View neighborhood while riding a motorcycle.

Andy Hulslander, 45-year-old father and husband, killed on June 27 when struck from behind while biking on NE 65th Street on his way home from work.

Unidentified man, killed on August 7 while driving in the Rainier View neighborhood.

(more…)

tags: bob anderton, cascade bicycle club, cathy tuttle, move seattle, move seattle levy, seattle neighborhood greenways, sher kung, vision zero

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