Back in February, we posted about this awesome bike party in Pioneer Square featuring live metalworking art, a bike ride and, of course, beer. But then it got cancelled. Sad face.
But while the “love” theme may have made a bit more sense closer to Valentine’s Day, it’s never too late to love biking. Join Back Alley Bike Repair, Pronto Cycle Share, Zipcar and WAbikes in Nord Alley Thursday evening (between 1st and Occidental just north of Jackson) for the third annual #BikeLove party.
Get there by 6 if you want to go on the ride, or just swing by the alley after 6:30 for the party. It’s free, though you will certainly have opportunities to donate to WAbikes. You can RSVP free online here.
The collision happened just three blocks from 5th and Pike, where Leo Almanzor was killed while walking to work in November. His death helped to prompt the city to include walking safety projects downtown as part of its Vision Zero plan. 5th and Seneca is on the list for improvements later this year.
The city is building a new high quality crosswalk between the Burke-Gilman Trail and Shilshole Marina, so expect delays and a detour for the next couple weeks if you’re heading out toward Golden Gardens.
Details from SDOT:
Beginning as soon as March 27, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) will build a new crosswalk, curb ramps and a pedestrian island on Seaview Avenue NW between the Burke-Gilman Trail and the south entrance of Shilshole Bay Marina. The improvements will make it safer and easier for everyone to cross the street, including cyclists, pedestrians and people who use wheelchairs or other mobility aids.
Building the improvements will require a temporary, up to 2-week detour of the Burke-Gilman Trail at this location to repair the trail asphalt and provide a smooth connection to the new curb ramp. SDOT will set up a clearly marked detour for trail users for the duration of construction.
What: Temporary closure and associated detour for Burke-Gilman Trail
Why: To build a safe street crossing at the south entrance of Shilshole Bay Marina
When: As soon as Friday, March 27 and lasting up to 2 weeks
Some people enjoy learning how to fix their own bike. Others can’t afford to take their wheels to a professional. Others just like to hang out in an inviting, inclusive space dedicated to fixing bikes and sharing bike knowledge.
The Bikery is a “bike kitchen” non-profit hidden on the neighborhood side of the Artspace Lofts building at Hiawatha and S Charles Street where the Central District meets the International District meets the north Rainier area.
Fatter tires (like the ones on Pronto bikes) are less likely to get stuck in streetcar tracks. But tracks can still be dangerously slick when wet.
Seattle plans to speed up buses and the South Lake Union Streetcar by making the curb lanes on Westlake Ave transit-only between 6th Ave/McGraw Square downtown and Valley Street/Lake Union Park. This is great news for transit reliability and could support some transit route restructures to greatly improve transit service on clogged streets in the area.
But any mention of this stretch of Westlake Ave (different from the segment to the north that is getting a bikeway) brings up cringes for the many people who have crashed while biking over the poorly-designed streetcar tracks. The gap in the tracks is wide enough to grab skinny and some medium-width bike tires, effectively locking people’s wheels and sending them into extremely dangerous falls, often over the top of their handlebars. Even if a tire is not “grabbed” entirely, wet rails can be surprisingly slick, causing slide-out style crashes.
And it happens to people of all levels of biking experience, even people who think they know how to safely bike around the tracks.
“It’s not a problem until it is, and that moment can happen very very quickly,” said Bob Edmiston, a Seattle Neighborhood Greenways organizer who crashed on the Jackson Street streetcar tracks in January. He broke his collarbone and has not yet been cleared to get back on his bike. (We spoke yesterday as he walked home after the bus system ground to a halt. A commute that takes 20 minutes by bike took him an hour and a half.)
“I’ve been riding on two wheels since I was six,” he said. “Going around railroad tracks at a 90 degree angle is no problem … When I made a left turn across the rails, that’s when my back wheel got caught. I thought I was in the clear, but watching the video, I clearly wasn’t.” Here’s that video from his rear-facing camera: (more…)
Decades of focusing nearly all major transportation investments on a few highways has not prepared the city to handle unexpected blockages. A single truck full of salmon overturned at the start of Tuesday’s evening rush hour, and the whole system collapsed. And this is not the first time.
When SDOT Director Scott Kubly was seeking his job, he told The Stranger’s Ansel Herz that one of the first problems he noticed about Seattle’s transportation system is how a single crash can bring everything to a standstill:
You’ve got a city that’s growing tremendously fast. You see it in all parts of the city. That’s a really good thing, but what it does is it puts stress on the transportation system. And this transportation system is pretty fragile. You can have one incident that sends the entire system into gridlock if it’s in the wrong place in the network.
Anyone who saw their commute take an hour or more longer than usual yesterday knows he is spot on.
But not only have Kubly and city leaders identified the problem, they also know how to fix it: Invest in more transportation options. And that’s the centerpiece to Mayor Ed Murray’s Move Seattle plan and transportation levy proposal. Here’s how the Move Seattle plan describes it: (more…)
Back in February, we posted about this awesome bike party in Pioneer Square featuring live metalworking art, a bike ride and, of course, beer. But then it got cancelled. Sad face.
