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Google Maps does not always give the greatest bike route suggestions, but it is a powerful tool for planning a ride to an unfamiliar place. The Street View and satellite image features are incredible ways to answer the questions: How busy is that street? Does it have a shoulder? Can someone biking get through that dead end?
Now it can help answer another question that is a big deal for people biking in Seattle: Which route has fewer hills? (more…)
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The Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board is a volunteer group of everyday folks who help guide the city’s decisions that relate to bicycling. Members do not need to be experts in urban planning or a “hardcore” cyclist. All you need is a strong interest in seeing more and safer cycling in Seattle and a desire to listen, learn and give feedback.
The board has been increasing its membership diversity in recent years, and I hope this member selection process continues that trend.
More details from SDOT: (more…)
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The city’s plans for a safe and comfortable bikeway on Westlake are at a pivotal point, and they will be gathering feedback during an open house Wednesday, 5:30 – 8 p.m. at Fremont Studios (N 35th and Phinney). The project presentation will start at 6:15 p.m.
As we reported in April, planners are gathering feedback to inform and develop the plan for the bikeway, which will be built in the super-sized publicly-owned parking area to the east of the roadway. Planners presented two basic ideas in April, both of which would be vast improvements over the dangerous and confusing status quo:
Concept A would travel along the west side of the area between the parking and the road. It would have more potential conflicts with cars turning in and out of the parking area, and it would also cause a larger reduction in the number of parking spaces.
Concept B (pictured above) would travel along the east side of the area between the parking and the storefronts. It would be closer to the waterfront and have fewer conflicts with cars. It would also have a lower impact on the number of parking stalls, a concern of some neighboring businesses and residents. However, designers would have to make sure interactions with people on foot are safe, since people walking from the parking lot would cross the bikeway to get to homes, workplaces and businesses. The existing raised crosswalks in the parking lot are a great start, but other design elements can make sure people biking can see and yield to anyone crossing on foot.
Both bikeway concepts will make Westlake a less stressful place for people driving and people on foot, since everyone will know where to expect each other to be traveling. The end result will likely incorporate elements of each concept, plus some other variations to make sure the bikeway works well and fits well within the existing business and residential uses.
Today, huge numbers of people bike their own paths through the puzzle of parked cars and driveways, since no clear good path exists. This increases stress for all users and creates dangerous situations for people on bikes, as this tweet from Sunday illustrates: (more…)
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Seattle Bike Blog Magazine typically comes out every Sunday, but Issue 8 was delayed a day due to a trip to Portland this weekend. Still so much bike fun happening there. To an outsider, this story makes no sense. But, seriously, are they going to let Seattle be the first of the two cities to build a protected bike lane on a major downtown street?
Anyway, the magazine is a touch-screen-optimized recap of some of our recent posts on this blog. So if you read everything on the blog, don’t expect to find any new content. But for those of you who like to kick back and get caught up, enjoy!
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Bike Month is barely half over, and the number of bike events going on show no signs of slowing down.
Here’s just a sample of some things to do this weekend, from our Events Calendar:
While not specifically a bike event, you gotta love any open streets event where you can hang out and play freely and without traffic.
Alki Ave SW will close to traffic at 9 a.m. for the West Seattle 5K run. The street fair starts at 11 a.m. and goes until 5 p.m.
Here’s how SDOT describes it. Do you need any more convincing that this?
This free event opens the city’s largest public space – its streets – so people can walk, bike, roll, run, skip and shop – without having to watch out for cars!
UPDATE: Still not convinced? Did I mention that THERE IS A BICYCLE PARADE AND SKIDDING COMPETITION!?
The Alki Beach Creeps Bicycle Club wants you to ride and party with us again on Alki Car Free Day. This is our second year throwing this parade and party celebrating freedom in the streets. The parade will start at 1:00pm, on the corner of 63rd and Alki Ave, please wear a costume. All ages are welcomed to join us. The parade will travel to the Don Armeni boat launch on Harbor Ave, then loop back around to the 2600 block of Alki Ave for the street party. This year we have put together a skidding competition. Complete with 1st and 2nd prizes from El Chupacabra for longest skid marks (on the concrete). Two DJs, spinning actual records. A live hip hop show. Buckets of sidewalk chalk. Please join us!
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You gotta love Bike to Work Day. It’s like a look into the near future when the everyday bike commute rate grows a bit higher. Plus there are people all over the region waiting at tables to wave at you and give you coffee, cookies and swag just because you’re on a bike. How cool is that?
Seattle City Councilmembers Tom Rasmussen and Mike O’Brien were among the throngs of people biking on Dexter to the KEXP commute station for a short rally. Once at the KEXP studio, they told the people gathered that “it’s on us” to fund the bike plan and make the city’s streets safer and more comfortable for biking.
“Keep whispering $20 million to us,” said O’Brien, echoing a number Rasmussen said the city would need to spend annually, on average, to complete the bike plan within 20 years. That’s the magic number to hit (or exceed) in the city’s budget, and would represent an 80 – 100 percent increase in current levels.
If Bike to Work Day 2011 was about “peace on wheels,” as Sally Bagshaw put it, and 2012 was the year that Seattle Public Schools jumped with both feet into the Bike to School movement, the biggest message from 2014 is that the bike plan gives us the blueprint to make both busy and residential streets safer and more comfortable.
We have had the debate about “bikes vs cars” and determined that it is nonsense. We are all just people trying to get where we’re going, and we should be able to do so safely and comfortably. We have done the hard work of figuring out where and how to make improvements.
Now, we just need to fund it and make it happen.
How was your Bike to Work Day? Let us know in the comments! (more…)
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