Seattle Bike Blog

UW accepts bike-friendly campus award, leaders talk about how to expand biking even further

By

Jack Truitt

| Posted

November 4, 2014

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is by Jack Truitt, a UW News Lab student. It is published here as part of a partnership between Seattle Bike Blog and News Lab.

UW Associate VP of Facilities Services Charles Kennedy accepts award from League of American Bicyclists President Andy Clarke. Photo: Jack Truitt

Biking needs to become an issue of climate change and personal health in order to escape the category of fitness hobby, according to the president of a national biking association who was in town last week to recognize the UW as a premier bike-friendly campus.

League of American Bicyclists President Andy Clarke awarded the University of Washington designation as a Gold Level Bicycle Friendly University Oct. 30. He then sat down with a panel of local cycling advocates to talk about how to expand cycling on campus and beyond.

Out of roughly 200 applications this year only six moved up to gold status. UW is now one of ten universities to earn gold, and only two universities have ever earned the highest designation of platinum: Stanford and UC Davis.

Clarke praised the efforts the UW has made since earning the silver level designation in 2012, citing a rare combination of cooperative leadership in state and city politics, and an effective advocacy community at the grassroots level.

“You’ve got all those things in place right now in bucket-loads, that doesn’t happen very often,” he said. “It may not be two years but two months before you get to platinum.”

Following the award presentation, a panel joined Clarke to discuss the role universities have as catalysts for creating bicycle-friendly communities. The major theme of the discussion was how to shift cycling from something seen by many as a hobby to a normalized mode of transportation part of everyday life. (more…)

tags: andy clarke, bicycle friendly university, Charles Kennedy, elizabeth kiker, holly houser, jack truitt, league of american bicyclists, Nancy Rottle, news lab, scott kubly, uw

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Seattle’s speed humps cut excessive speeding 80 – 90%

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

November 3, 2014

Photo from SDOT

Seattle started installing speed humps as part of neighborhood greenways and Safe Routes to School projects a couple years ago. And wisely, SDOT staff measured speed data before the speed humps were installed so they could see whether the humps are actually effective.

The answer: Oh yes.

Total speeding on the streets near three elementary schools dropped between 79 – 88 percent after speed humps were installed, and high-end speeding was nearly eradicated according to SDOT.

That’s why speed humps are sometimes referred to as “sleeping police officers,” though they cost a lot less and stay on duty forever.

Car speed is among the most important factors that determine how serious a person is injured in a collision and, of course, whether the collision occurs in the first place: (more…)

tags: sdot, speed humps, traffic calming

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Seattle Bike Blog and BikeIndex partner to provide Seattle stolen bike listings

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

November 3, 2014

I am excited to announce a new feature on Seattle Bike Blog designed to battle bike theft and help reconnect people with their stolen rides.

We have partnered with BikeIndex.org to create a listing of stolen bikes in the Seattle area and an easy form to add your bike to the Stolen.BikeIndex.org database, which can be searched by people anywhere in the world.

Bikes submitted will also be automatically tweeted by the @StolenBikesSEA account to help spread the word via social media.

This summer, BikeIndex combined with the stolen bike database formerly known as the Stolen Bicycle Registry. Bryan Hance, the founder of SBR, is a tireless bike theft fighter who has helped reconnect a lot of people with their bikes and helps to report thefts and suspicious sellers to authorities.

Hance is now working with BikeIndex to developing tools to help make the stolen bike listings more useful to more people. He designed a web app to work with Seattle Bike Blog and other local bike blogs to make it easier to battle the problem of bike theft that plagues communities everywhere. We are very excited for this service to go live today. (more…)

tags: bike thefts, bikeindex, bryan hance, stolenbicycleregistry.com

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Join us November 9 for #ILookGoodOnAPronto, a bike share scavenger hunt

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 31, 2014

In fact, everyone looks good on a Pronto. There’s just something attractive about using efficient and fun modes of public transportation, especially when they’re bright green.

Well, Seattle Bike Blog invites you to an afternoon multimodal scavenger hunt around Seattle using only bike share, public transit and your own two feet. And, of course, you’ll have have to take a bunch of selfies along the way and post them to #ILookGoodOnAPronto (you don’t actually need a smart phone to join the event, but you will need a camera of some kind).

Participants will get a list of locations to get to and photo challenges to complete before time is up. You are not allowed to use a personal bike or any kind of car/ride sharing, but you can mix public transit, Pronto and your own two feet. Remember that Pronto users must be 16 or older (family bike folks are allowed to bring their own bikes if they’re hauling kids, and people under 16 can ride their own bikes as well).

The event will end with an afterparty at Pike Brewing where we will have all kinds of prizes, like Pronto schwag and, if you’re lucky, a Top Banana Award (some mystery person mailed me a dozen of these last month and I don’t know why, but now you have a chance to win one!).

It’s free to enter, but you will be responsible for your own Pronto and public transit costs. And, of course, you gotta buy your own food and drinks.

The event starts at 11 a.m. November 9 on the covered sidewalk in front of the Washington State Convention Center at 7th and Pike (get there early to sign the waiver and such).

See you there!

If you want to help spread the word, RSVP via Facebook and invite your friends! You can print this pdf and hang ’em up or hand ’em out.

tags: events, ILookGoodOnAPronto

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City will install temporary protected bike lane on Roosevelt + Neighbors urge city to extend plans further

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 30, 2014

For much of northeast Seattle, Roosevelt Way is the primary bike route connection to the University of Washington, the University Bridge and beyond. Unfortunately, it is also a hotspot for collisions and injuries for people biking. Nearly 20 people have been injured in collisions while biking on Roosevelt in just the past four years.

As Andres Salomon noted in a guest post here in September, the city has plans and funding to repave Roosevelt Way and parts of 11th Ave NE. But early plans included few if any bike facility updates despite the street’s collision history and recommendations in the city’s Bike Master Plan for protected bike lanes.

Well, the city listened and is planning to try out a temporary one-way protected bike lane on Roosevelt between NE 45th Street and the University Bridge before paving begins. Crews are scheduled to install this bike lane in December and January.

The current bike lane is a skinny, paint-only lane squeezed between fast cars and buses headed downhill and parked cars. Much of the bike lane is well within the door zone, meaning someone opening the door of a parked car could easily open it in the path of a person biking down the hill.

The city’s proposed temporary bike lane upgrade would move the bike lane to the curb and use the existing bike lane as a buffer space lined with reflective posts. Here’s what that would look like, according to SDOT: (more…)

tags: protected bike lanes, roosevelt, sdot, u district, university greenways

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SDOT and PeopleForBikes make a video about 2nd Ave that’s … well, just watch it

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 29, 2014

There are a couple ways to encourage and teach people to use a new piece of bike infrastructure. In the first handful of days after the 2nd Ave protected bike lane opened, for example, volunteers and SDOT staff were out telling people face-to-face how to use it. Then the police focused enforcement on the bike lane, handing out tickets and warnings to people driving or biking who were still using it wrong.

Or, of course, you can do this:

tags: 2nd ave, people for bikes, sdot, video

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