Seattle Bike Blog

Only 2 percent of center city curb space occupied by bike lane

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

January 8, 2015

The study area. The percentage outside the city center is likely even lower

For all the media attention Seattle has received for installing bike lanes in recent years, you might think these things are popping up all over the place.

But spend a little time on a bike, and that image is immediately shattered. Seattle streets are very much still focused on driving cars, and biking here with regularity requires a whole lot of sharing general traffic lanes with cars, trucks and buses or biking in skinny bike lanes squeezed too close to parked cars.

For example, an in-process effort to better understand the use of Seattle’s curb space found that most space is used for driving or parking motor vehicles. Only 2 percent of curb space in the center city study area is dedicated to bike lanes.

You can help with the study by taking this survey on curb use and how you get around the center city. (more…)

tags: curbspace study, downtown, protected bike lanes

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Bike access at Colman Dock changing soon + Mercer Project on schedule for fall finish

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

January 7, 2015

If you are among the scores of people who bike to the Bremerton and Bainbridge Ferries or the King County Water Taxis, get ready for more changes to how you get to your boats starting this month. The ongoing seawall project will need to close some space in front of Colman Dock, so detours for just about every user will switch around.

The changes probably affect people driving more than people walking or biking, but folks coming from south of the dock will no longer need to make that strange turn across temporary ferry queue lanes, though folks biking will no longer be able to access that little special cut-through to the bike-only ORCA reader.

For more details, check out the WSDOT website. Here’s a super exciting GIF:

Mercer Project on track for fall finish

(more…)

tags: colman dock, elliott bay seawall project, washington state ferries

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Seattle’s highway tunnel wins award! … for ‘Worst Highway Boondoggle’

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

January 7, 2015

Seattle is a city that is doing everything. Our city makes all the lists of places in the nation that are making smart decisions and getting results.* Best place to get a job? Made that list. Best new protected bike lanes? Made that list. Twice. Again.

But here’s a recognition that few city and state leaders will be proud of: Worst Highway Boondoggle. Actually, this is an award the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Project has won twice. US PIRG highlighted the project in a recent scathing report on misguided highway megaprojects, and Streetsblog awarded it that honor in the form of a Streetsie Award for 2014. Despite strong entries from Milwaukee and Dallas, Bertha “blew away the competition,” according to Streetsblog:

Worst Highway Boondoggle

Seattle’s deep-bore highway tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct blew away the competition for this Streetsie. The news keeps getting worse as the effort to “rescue” the tunnel boring machine, stuck for a whole year already, is now wreaking havoc on the buildings above. The city has no plan B, and the prospect of going billions of dollars over budget on an underground highway that should never have gotten the green light is frighteningly real. So no offense, Milwaukee and Dallas, your highway boondoggles just aren’t egregious enough this year. Try again in 2015! (I’m sure you will.)

(more…)

tags: alaskan way viaduct, deep bore tunnel, ed murray, nick licata, streetsblog, streetsie, tom rasmussen

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Lacking open space, First Hill looks to create space for people in the streets

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

January 6, 2015

Image of Terry Ave from the First Hill Public Realm Action Plan.

Overview map of potential public space projects.

The First Hill neighborhood is densely packed with jobs, homes and vital city services. But other than Freeway Park, it’s largely lacking in quality public open space where folks can gather or just take a load off. The First Hill Public Realm Action Plan is a bold way to change that, and at relatively low cost compared to buying lots and building traditional parks.

If you like these ideas or want to learn more about the plan, swing by Town Hall between 5 and 7 p.m. Wednesday for an open house. Details here.

Being such a dense neighborhood so close to downtown, nearly all First Hill residents walk, bike or take transit most often to get around. This presents a great opportunity for providing public open space at a low cost: Redesign some of the street space.

Sometimes, this might mean designing people-focused streets, like the Terry Ave image at the top of this post. In that concept, car access and some parking would remain, but more space would be allotted for people on foot, and traffic would be calmed to a slower and safer speed. Slower traffic and space for some benches and planters and such would go a long way to making living or taking a work break near Terry a more pleasant experience.

In other cases, street ends and low-priority intersections could be closed off and turned into small plazas or parks. The most developed example in the action plan is at the intersection of University, Union and Boylston: (more…)

tags: first hill, first hill public realm action plan, meetings

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Biking Bis: Whitehorse Trail repairs delayed a year + Green River Trail should open by end of month

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

January 6, 2015

Map of the Whitehorse Trail from Snohomish County

Work to repair the Whitehorse Trail, which was damaged in the devastating 2013 Oso Landslide, has been delayed a year, the Everett Herald reports. Officials originally planned to repair the trail over the summer, but now they plan to do planning and permitting work this year to get ready for a 2016 repair.

From the Herald:

Officials need additional time for planning and permitting. Meanwhile, they continue to monitor river levels and multiple washouts along the trail.

The county originally hoped to rebuild the mile-long segment of trail this summer, parks and recreation director Tom Teigen said. After conversations with state and federal teams in late November, it became clear that such a timeline wasn’t realistic, he said. (more…)

tags: green river trail, kent, oso, whitehorse trail

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Seattle Met names me a 2014 ‘Game Changer’

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

January 5, 2015

Photo by Brandon Hill. You’ll have to pick up a copy of the January 2015 issue to see it all (or check it out online here)

My mother wants me to send her “at least three copies” of the January 2015 issue of Seattle Met. That’s because the magazine and its political news arm Publicola named me one of 15 “game changers who will spend 2015 addressing the biggest challenges facing Seattle.”

Yikes! No pressure. :-)

I’m honored to be included in this list, which is packed with awesome people. You can read about all of them online or go out and pick up a copy.

The short profile talks about how I started my career in journalism at a terrible time to try to get a job in that industry (I graduated from college in 2008, when newsrooms were closing or hemorrhaging jobs in Seattle and around the nation). But, the profile notes, I “created a niche of his own: Seattle Bike Blog.”

Of course, it’s rather silly to give me all the credit for that. Seattle Bike Blog only exists because of our local sponsors and, critically, support from all of you who give a bit of your hard earned cash each and every month through our paid subscriber program. I cannot thank you enough. Everyone who reads and leaves comments or sends news tips is vital to keeping this site going.

But perhaps most importantly, the blog would be pretty boring if all you great bike leaders and inspirational folks were not out there doing great stuff worthy of writing and reading about.

I am just the lucky dude with the best job in Seattle: Writing daily about bikes and how they are making our city better. Thanks for reading, everyone. Here’s to an awesome 2015 on two wheels.

tags: publicola, seattle met

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