Seattle Bike Blog

Pause the Denny Way repaving project until it is safe and aligns with Seattle’s transportation policy

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 2, 2023

People are injured and killed in preventable traffic collisions on Denny Way every year, yet Seattle is planning to invest more than $5 million in the street without addressing its dangerous street design. Instead, the project is moving forward without regard for the city’s Vision Zero goals and without addressing needs specifically called for in the city’s Pedestrian and Transit Master Plans.
The project has strayed from Seattle’s existing transportation policy and needs a reset so it can be brought in line with the city’s safety and transit mobility goals.
If you had not heard about this project until this post or Ryan Packer’s recent story in the Urbanist, that’s part of the problem. While projects investing to improve safety get bogged down in enormous amounts of public process and delay, projects investing to maintain dangerous streets like Denny Way seem to get a free pass from the Seattle Process. Had there been a proper public process earlier, the team would have heard loud and clear from residents that we expect safety and transit improvements to be included. There’s even a whole community-led campaign to Fix the L8 that is focused largely on making improvements to this section of Denny Way so that the packed and unreliable Route 8 bus can better serve its 5,000+ daily riders (a count that would surely be higher if the thing ran on time). Now the city is left with the frustrating decision of pausing a project that is already in the design phase, sending it back to project development so safety and transit mobility are included. This could mean that it would not be ready for paving in 2024 as currently planned and that the budget may change, but pausing it is the right thing to do.
Excerpted from the Seattle Pedestrian Master Plan.
Denny Way is listed in Seattle’s Pedestrian Master Plan (PDF) as part of the “priority investment network,” noting that much of the project area scores a “high” safety prioritization, meaning it is in the top 20% of all streets in the city in need to safety improvements. Denny Way is also one of eight “priority bus corridors” highlighted in Seattle’s Transit Master Plan (corridors section PDF), which notes that “investments in the corridors identified through the TMP have the highest potential benefits to Seattle and its residents.” The plan specifically recommends:
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tags: complete streets, denny way, pedestrian master plan, ryan packer, sdot, traffic operations division, transit master plan, vision zero

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The joy of biking in the rain

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 28, 2023

I got caught out without rain gear the other day, but that’s just a book promo opportunity, right?
We’ve published guides to biking in the rain in the past, and the advice in those posts still holds true (especially this one with lots of advice from readers). Finding proper rain gear that works for you is vital, but it’s about so much more than defense from the elements. For people who want to get around by bike all year, the goal isn’t just to tolerate the rain. The goal is to seek joy in it.
I’m guessing some of you reading this just got finished ringing your socks out in the sink and are thinking, “OK, Tom’s finally lost it.” I know rainy bike rides can be tough, especially when you are caught out without your gear or if you’re just feeling tired and not up for any additional challenges today. I’ve been there.
But I’ve also biked ten miles round-trip taking my kid to preschool in a major downpour and genuinely loved it. Knowing you can keep biking through even the worst Seattle rain does more to keep seasonal depression or malaise away better than anything else I have ever experienced because you no longer feel trapped inside. The rainfall here is a big part of what makes Seattle the amazing place it is. Don’t hide from it. Embrace it.
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tags: autumn biking, rain, winter biking

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Alert 10/7–14: Spokane Street Swing Bridge to West Seattle will be closed again

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 26, 2023

The upcoming closure is to install a repaired turn cylinder. Image from SDOT.
Seattle’s least reliable bridge will be unusable for a week from October 7 through 14, creating a major headache for people who walk or bike between West Seattle and mainland Seattle.
The bridge will need to remain in the open-to-sea configuration while crews replace the faulty turn cylinder that was removed during the previous unexpected closure at the start of the year. Unfortunately, the other three turn cylinders and the control system will also need maintenance soon, so more closures are on the horizon over the next two years but are not yet scheduled.
The King County Water Taxi is running on a 7-day schedule, and the vessel can hold up to 26 bikes. Seattle is covering one round trip on the water taxi per day during the bridge closure if you buy your ticket on the Transit Go app using the rewards code LOWBRIDGE. Learn more in the SDOT Blog post about the closure.
1st Ave S on January 5, 2023. SDOT is not planning a similar temporary bike lane this time.
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tags: 1st ave s, Bike Route Alert, lower west seattle bridge, sdot, west seattle

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Join a celebration for the new Rainier Valley Greenway connector path

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 25, 2023

Rainier Valley Greenways-Safe Streets and SDOT are hosting a community celebration of the long-awaited pathway connecting the I-90 Trail in Sam Smith Park to the start of the Rainier Valley Neighborhood Greenway at 28th Ave S.
There will be a community walk at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday (September 26) starting at College Street Park followed by a gathering along the I-90 trail at 4:45.
The new connection may be short, but it was a major headache to get it completed. This tiny trail dramatically improves the usability of the route, linking it with major regional bike routes. You can learn more about the history of the project in our previous post.
More details:

tags: I-90 trail, rainier valley greenways, sam smith park, sdot

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This is the right time for CM Morales’ proposed sidewalk ordinance

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 22, 2023

A 2018 sidewalk assessment report found a lot of deficiencies with the city’s existing sidewalks.
When Seattle invests in a major road repair project, the city does not always repair the adjacent sidewalks or build new sidewalks if they are missing. Councilmember Tammy Morales has proposed an ordinance that would fix this glaring omission, requiring that “the construction project shall include an evaluation of existing sidewalk conditions and correct any deficiencies identified in the evaluation that are within the major paving project,” according to the proposed ordinance text.
Obviously, this added work would not be free. But there’s no ethical argument for making improvements for people driving while leaving the sidewalks in disrepair. Adding sidewalk assessment, repair and construction work to major paving projects will increase the per-mile cost of the projects, but it’s the right thing to do. Seattle should simply price it into the next transportation funding measure that will replace the expiring Move Seattle levy at the end of 2024.
“Just like we can expect our city to build and maintain roads, the same should be true for our sidewalk network,” wrote Disability Right Washington in a letter of support.
Additionally, repairing sidewalks will be an extremely popular sales pitch to voters, who all have personal experience navigating chunks of Seattle sidewalk heaved comically out of place thanks to a nearby tree root. A 2018 sidewalk assessment study (PDF) found 11,000 blocks that are missing sidewalks and 154,000 instances of sidewalk “deficiencies.” The most common deficiency is the familiar “height difference” issue. The worst deficiency, however, is a sidewalk that’s missing entirely. At our current rate of about 27 blocks of sidewalk per year, it will take 407 years before every street in Seattle has a sidewalk. Voters will certainly agree 407 is too many years.
In addition to requiring sidewalk work as part of major road projects, the ordinance would also direct SDOT to assess nearby sidewalk conditions when conducting smaller projects and prioritize sidewalk repair and construction if the location meets certain conditions. For example, if the location is along a school, park or transit access route or if “the absence of a sidewalk substantially impairs pedestrian movement” within the project boundary. This section does not outright mandate such work, but perhaps it could insert sidewalk work into the department’s regular workflow when it goes out to make patch jobs and other smaller fixes to the streets.
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tags: sdot, sidewalks, tammy morales

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Bellevue seeks feedback on 11 bike projects, part of a less incremental approach to making bike improvements

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 20, 2023

Rather than going project-by-project to build one-off bike projects, Bellevue is currently planning a more comprehensive and less incremental approach. The Eastside city is currently seeking feedback on what they are calling “Bike Bellevue,” a network of 11 projects that will build on existing work to create a connected network of bike routes in and near the city center and Spring District.
You can learn more about each of the proposed projects and submit feedback via their online survey.
Not only are many of these projects very promising, but approaching them as a network rather than single projects in isolation is smart. It puts each project in context rather than engaging the community about each individual and incomplete piece of what might some day be part of a network.
Bike Bellevue did not come out of nowhere, though. It’s based on more than a decade of previous planning as well as the city’s adopted strategic plan, as the city notes in the project description:
Bike Bellevue is the next step in improving the safety, connectivity and comfort of the bicycle network in the city. It builds on planning undertaken through the 2009 Pedestrian and Bicycle Transportation Plan, the 2016 Bicycle Rapid Implementation Program, the 2020 Vision Zero Strategic Plan and the 2022 Mobility Implementation Plan. These past efforts informed the council-approved project principles, which the Transportation Commission’s guide in developing Bike Bellevue.
The overall goal is to “allow people to travel on a dedicated network of bicycle facilities throughout the project area, greatly expanding access between homes, transit, jobs and recreation.” The improvements also target the city’s “high injury network,” which are the streets where most of the deaths and injuries occur. When all the projects are complete, about half of the city’s current high-injury streets will have “a bicycle network improvement,” according to the project description. That’s up from 13% today.
The survey includes project information about each of the 11 projects, complete with photo-realistic concept images. You can also look at the design concept diagrams for the projects and leave a comment about a specific location in the plan, which is pretty neat. Below is a quick look at all 11 projects. You can find their number on the map above. Click on the project name to go to that segment’s survey page.
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tags: bellevue, bike bellevue

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