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It’s time for the Bike News Roundup! I’m still healing up from the flu, which tragically put me out of commission for the Youth Bike Summit over the weekend. I’ll try to piece together coverage in the next couple days, so stay tuned. It sounded like an inspiring experience.
First up in the roundup, here’s one way to advertise your bus agency (not as good as the first one, though):
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The city is ready to start construction on a much-needed trail connection improvement between the Delridge neighborhood and the trail hub under the West Seattle Bridge.
Today, people biking or walking from the bridge to Delridge are spit out onto a skinny sidewalk on the east side of Delridge Way SW that is not wide enough for comfortable two-way travel and is directly adjacent to fast-moving traffic entering the freeway. As you move south and cross 23rd Ave SW, the sidewalk gets even skinnier.
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Seattle leaders will announce Vision Zero today in Lake City, calling for an end to traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030.
Mayor Ed Murray, Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, and folks from SDOT and SPD will be at Lake City Library at 3:15 Thursday afternoon to make the announcement.
Technically, this is the second time city leaders have gathered press and called for an end to traffic violence. We wrote this story back in 2012:
The city’s Road Safety Action Plan did not use the phrase “Vision Zero,” but it clearly called for an end to traffic deaths and serious injuries. It was the product of a series of community meetings (the “Road Safety Summit”) and was the work of people from many Seattle departments. It makes the case for ending traffic violence as a public health scourge, framing traffic collisions preventable causes of death and serious injuries. It also includes known solutions.
Since that plan, the city has launched a brilliant and successful school zone speed camera program, which slows down traffic and helps to fund safety projects like Safe Routes to School. The city also crafted a new Bicycle Master Plan.
But more must be done. Will the new Vision Zero plan be bolder? Will there be serious funding? Stay tuned for details.
UPDATE: The Vision Zero website is now live, including this document. Below are some quick highlights. More coverage coming soon. (more…)
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You have to hand it to the SR 520 Bridge design team. Their designs for bike/walk connections in Seattle have come really far since we first saw them. What was once looked like a doomsday neighborhood highway expansion interchange is getting much closer to having complete walking and biking connections.
But it’s not there yet. This post will lay out how people walking and biking will get around under the most recent design concept (see this large PDF) and will include suggestions for further improvements.
WSDOT is currently collecting thoughts on the Seattle design. Definitely complete this online survey by Friday.
This detailed letter from a long list of neighbors and safe streets leaders (including people from Washington Bikes, Madison Park Greenways, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, Montlake Greenways, Cascade Bicycle Club, University Greenways, Arboretum Neighbors for Safer Streets, Montlake Community Club, Feet First, Capitol Hill Community Council, Transportation Choices Coalition) sums up the needed biking and walking goals this way:
This $1.5 billion project will be set in concrete for the next eighty years. It must work for kids walking to Montlake Elementary, elders walking from the Husky Light Rail Station to the Arboretum, or a physician in scrubs biking from the Central District to the UW Medical Center.
WSDOT created this handy video showing a lot of the bike/walk connections: (more…)
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Young people from all over the country are heading to Seattle this weekend to talk bikes. The annual Youth Bike Summit has been held in New York City for the past four years, so Seattle is the second-ever host city for the summit.
Bike Works has been working hard as hosts of the three-day event, all of which will take place around Columbia City.
Most of the workshops and panels are led by young people, and the lineup includes sections on leadership, advocacy, business, social justice and more.
Yours truly will be on one panel (Bik’innovation) and will moderate another (The People’s Bikes – How bike share systems can work for everyone) Saturday, and I can’t wait to hear great ideas from a bunch of young people who are clearly much cooler than I was.
You can check out the full schedule online. Interested in attending? Register online. It costs $35 for people under 25, $65 for everyone else.
Here’s a good video from StreetFilms about the 2012 Youth Bike Summit: (more…)
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Save this email address: [email protected]
The city’s Access Seattle program wants you to email whenever you encounter a construction zone that you find hazardous. No walking path? No way to safely cross the street to access an open walkway? Signs placed in the middle of the bike lane or sidewalk? Dangerous bike wheel-grabbing seams or ruts in the temporary street surface? Email Access Seattle and let them know.
With so many projects going at the same time, it’s easy for crews to knowingly or unknowingly fail to properly accommodate people who need to get around their construction. Some crews are better than others, and some may not actually know the rules. But no construction company wants to be responsible for an injury (or worse).
Readers sometimes tell me about their efforts to contact construction companies to address concerns directly, and results vary dramatically form firm to firm. So it’s great that the city is trying to get this email out there so they can do that work for residents. Some firms may just take them more seriously.
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