Seattle Bike Blog

Cascade revamps Bike Month Challenge, now includes non-commute trips

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

April 20, 2015

Cascade Bicycle Club’s annual Commute Challenge has been a great and simple web tool to help motivate people to develop a habit of biking to work. People can organize commute teams at their workplaces to encourage people to give bike commuting a try and to motivate team members to keep it up all May. Because once you get in the habit of biking to work, you won’t want to get to work any other way.

But there’s one glaring problem: It leaves out the estimated 80 percent of bike trips that are not commute trips. And what about people who are unemployed or full-time parents? Could the challenge also be used to encourage people to bike to grocery store or to the park?

Well, that’s what Cascade Bicycle Club is hoping for. The Bike Month Commute Challenge is now simply the Bike Month Challenge. (more…)

tags: #unlockyourcity, bike month 2015, bike month challenge, cascade bicycle club

— Advertisement —
Governor Inslee signs the ‘Dead Red’ bill into law

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

April 17, 2015

It’s official. And Governor Jay Inslee even had a joke to go with it:

.@GovInslee at Dead Red bill signing: "Riding w/@CBC_Olympia yesterday got stuck at a red light, almost took an early executive action."

— Washington Bikes (@WAbikes) April 17, 2015

Basically, if a red light or turn signal cannot detect your bike and an entire traffic signal cycle goes through without changing, you can now run that light when you get a safe opportunity.

But don’t stop there! Help everyone else who uses that traffic signal by reporting the faulty signal to your local transportation agency. In Seattle, you can easily report traffic signals that don’t detect bikes using the Find It Fix It app and website.

For more details on the new law, see our previous post.

tags: 2015 legislature, dead red, jay inslee, washington bikes

— Advertisement —
Seattle Police bust Edmonds chop shop, find 60 stolen bikes

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

April 17, 2015

Image from SPD

Seattle Police have made their second big bike theft bust in a month.

After getting a tip from a bike theft victim, detectives posed as a buyer and bought a bike from a suspected thief selling bikes on Craigslist. When the detective confirmed the bike was stolen from a transitional housing program for homeless veterans (definitely a bad kharma multiplier), the suspect was arrested.

But here’s when the bust gets really good: The suspect tells police about a house in Edmonds where he has taken stolen bikes previously. When police arrive, they find 60 bikes in the backyard, part of a suspected chop shop. It is common for stolen bike sellers to swap out some bike parts before listing them for sale online, making it harder for owners to identify their rides.

Unfortunately, the original tipster’s bike was already sold. But 60 people owe him/her a debt of gratitude. Thanks for your work, and thanks Det. Scotty Bach at SPD for taking action and following up! With more busts like this, bike theft might just become a bit less attractive for folks looking to make some quick money.

Photos of all 60 bikes are below. You can see them in more detail on the SPD Blotter post: (more…)

tags: bike thefts, edmonds, scotty bach, spd

— Advertisement —
Snohomish-to-Woodinville trail discussions fall apart, put on hold

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

April 16, 2015

From a June 2013 presentation

Remember those amazing plans to build a 12-mile trail to connect the City of Snohomish (and the start of the Centennial Trail) to Woodinville, the Sammaish River/Burke-Gilman Trail and the Eastside Trail? Well, there’s bad news this week: Talks between the county and the Port of Seattle have collapsed, the Herald reports.

The trail link would have been a major improvement to bicycle mobility in the region, allowing people to travel from Ballard and Eastside communities all the way to the Skagit County border using only trails.

With the 520 Trail finally set to reach Seattle in coming years and with Bellevue making first steps to develop their section of the Eastside Rail Corridor to connect to Kirkland’s crushed gravel trail, a connection to Snohomish would be an amazing link that opens up huge swaths of Snohomish county to bicycle transportation and travel. In fact, the county has been promoting bicycle tourism with some help from WA Bikes in recent years, a sign that they understand the incredible opportunities these trails could bring.

So news that the trail connection has been put on hold is discouraging. From the Herald: (more…)

tags: eastside rail corridor, herald, karen guzak, snohomish, snohomish county, steven thomsen

— Advertisement —
SW Roxbury safety changes a good start, bike lanes must wait for repaving

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

April 15, 2015

This has got to be a Seattle Bike Blog record: Four posts in a row about West Seattle!

The city is hosting an open house tomorrow (Thursday) about planned safety changes to SW Roxbury Street, which forms the border between Seattle and White Center. The open house goes from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at the Southwest Branch Library.

The city has been studying the street for a while and — in consultation with King County, which governs White Center — has come up with a list of short-term safety changes for the street. These changes will be implemented this summer.

Unfortunately, the roadway conditions are too damaged to add bike lanes, planners say, though they intend to do so when the road is repaved. The city does not yet have a clear plan or timeline for repaving. The Bicycle Master Plan calls for protected bike lanes from 35th Ave SW to at least 8th Ave SW.

But there are a lot of lower cost changes the city can make right now to improve safety for everyone. Speeding is extremely high, and the odds of a serious injury in a collision is off the charts. People are injured in 50 percent of collisions on Roxbury, nearly twice the rate as the city average. From an SDOT presentation:

(more…)

tags: road safety corridor, sw roxbury street, west seattle, white center

— Advertisement —
West Seattle Blog: City begins outreach for Admiral Way bike lanes

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

April 15, 2015

SDOT is beginning outreach for new bike lanes planned on Admiral Way between Alki and California Ave SW.

Planners presented to the Admiral Neighborhood Association last night, according to West Seattle Blog. There will be more meetings in the next month including a May open house.

In addition to new buffered bike lanes, plans would also reduce travel lane widths to slow speeding.

At their most full, only 33 percent of on-street parking spaces are currently occupied. Underused parking lanes can be problematic because people use them as an extra lane to pass other vehicles. Plans would consolidate all the parking on one side of the street, where parking studies show the number of cars currently parking on the street should easily all fit.

Plans are still early at this point and will evolve throughout the public process. More specifics will be presented at an open house in May, according to a city press release posted by WSB:

Project Need

Collisions from 2011 to 2014 along SW Admiral Way

· 1 pedestrian collision along project extent (2012)
· 2 bike collisions along project extent (both in 2011)
· 45 vehicle collisions along project extent

Project Description

(more…)

tags: admiral, west seattle, west seattle blog

— Advertisement —