The city’s neighborhood greenway plans are moving ahead on schedule, with 5.4 miles of improved residential streets ready for construction in 2014 and another 18 miles in the planning stage.

Meanwhile, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways continues its work inspiring neighbors across the region to change the transportation conversation where they live.

While there are no south end routes ready to be built in 2014, the city is in the process of planning several ambitious routes in Rainier Valley and West Seattle. Hopefully, these will be shovel-ready in 2015.

Several of the 2014 projects are very short, but three are more than a mile long. Below is a look at the details.

Central Area

I have written much about the Central Area Greenway, a so-called parallel neighborhood greenway that is part of the high-budget 23rd Ave Corridor Project. The city will build the 1.7-mile first phase of the project this year, traveling on streets east of 23rd Ave between Jackson and Columbia, then west of 23rd from Columbia to John.

The improved neighborhood streets will be great, but I maintain that this is a missed opportunity to dramatically improve bikeability on 23rd through a part of the city where biking is already very popular (and, full disclosure, where I live). It also sets a terrible precedent for so-called “complete streets” projects by suggesting that bike facilities can be skipped on busy commercial streets in lieu of a neighborhood greenway a block or two away.

Future phases planned for the next couple years will extend the project as far north as Roanoke St and as far south as Rainier Ave. Neighborhood greenway groups in Central Seattle, Montlake and Madison Valley teamed up with Cascade Bicycle Club recently to hold a community biking and walking event to determine the best (or, perhaps, least bad) greenway route at the hilly north end of the project area connecting Montlake to Capitol Hill/Central Area.

During the Silly Hilly, community members tried lots of different routes and came up with one that is as good as possible. But the Silly Hilly also pointed out the need for routes on both sides of 23rd/24th. And, as I have argued, points out the need for protected bike lanes on 23rd/24th, a currently-dangerous street that provides the flattest and most direct route.

You can watch the city’s presentation on the 23rd Ave Corridor Project and the Central Area Greenway here. (more…)