Mayor Ed Murray gave his first State of the City speech Tuesday in the City Council chambers, and he used the spotlight to announce progress on launching a public bike share system and cutting the current drive-alone commute rate in half.
“Seattle is one of only five cities where less than half of commuters are in single occupancy vehicles,” he said. Noting that “nearly half of our region’s carbon emissions come from transportation-related sources,” Murray said continuing to reduce the drive-alone commute rate “will have significant impact on our overall efforts to reduce climate change.”
His goal: 25 percent of Seattle residents driving alone to work.
To get there, Murray mentioned expanding the streetcar network, saving Metro funding, passing the Bike Master Plan (which he recently helped get back on track) and launching a bike share system.
“I will announce later this month, with some of our friends at Puget Sound Bike Share, an exciting new bike share program, with funding,” Murray said. “And it appears it will be the only one launched in 2014 in North America.” (more…)
Seattle police were called to the western slope of Capitol Hill Saturday afternoon after a cyclist called 911 and said he was attacked for riding on the sidewalk.
The cyclist called police around 1 pm and told officers he was slowly riding east up Denny Way near Summit Ave when he passed a man on the sidewalk.
The man, who was carrying a full can of soda in his hand, took a swing at the cyclist, striking him in the neck and knocking him off his bike.
The suspect then told the victim ”this is what you get for riding on the sidewalk.” (more…)
Despite having a $45 million budget and being billed as a “complete streets” project, the city has proposed no safety improvements for the stretch of 24th and 23rd Avenues connecting the Montlake neighborhood to Capitol Hill and the Central District (north of Madison).
Instead, the current proposal — which project heads will present to the public in two upcoming meetings — includes four lanes, with curb lanes wider than lanes on many freeways: 14.5 feet. Wide lanes are proven to encourage speeding, a leading factor in traffic deaths and injuries. In fact, the city’s own Road Safety Summit Action Plan notes, “Reducing speeding can be accomplished by ensuring that our travel lanes are not overly wide” (page 20).
The city’s proposal is not a complete street and does not belong in any neighborhood, especially not one with so many people of various ages and abilities walking and biking.
You will have two chances coming up to hear from SDOT officials and give feedback on the project: A community meeting at 6 p.m. today (February 18) at the Miller Community Center and a project open house 5 p.m. February 26 at Thurgood Marshall Elementary.
You are needed at these meetings to speak up for walking and biking safety in Montlake, Capitol Hill, Miller Park, Madison Valley and the Central District. If you can’t make it to a meeting, email your thoughts to [email protected].
Outreach about this project has been rather confusing, so I will attempt to break it down into a couple easier-to-digest sections. (more…)
King County is working on a couple area trails in the coming months, leading to some temporary closures.
Biking Bis has done a great job staying on top of all the closures and schedules. Below is a brief summary (see Biking Bis for more details and maps).
The Cedar River Trail will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday near Maple Valley so the county can repair a bridge over the river. Details from King County: (more…)
Westlake community members hold signs during a bike ride in support of a safer Westlake
The group suing to delay the Bike Master Plan has dropped its legal challenge, opening the door for a City Council vote on the plan.
Ed Murray took office after the lawsuit was filed, and staffers said the mayor’s office quickly started meeting with the group to find a settlement.
“With the appeal now behind us, I look forward to working with the City Council as it moves to adopt the Bicycle Master Plan in the near future,” said Mayor Murray in a statement.
As part of the deal, the city will create a “design advisory committee” for the Westlake bikeway project (a model that may also be used for other projects around the city). The committee is designed so people “can see some of the sausage-making,” said Andrew Glass Hastings of the mayor’s office.
A common concern among some Westlake residents and business owners was that they felt they were not included in early stages of planning.
Dropping the lawsuit is a smart move by the so-called Westlake Stakeholders Group. Continuing to hold the city-wide Bike Master Plan hostage was threatening their position as a reasonable party in discussions about the Westlake project. Delaying the city-wide plan, a high-level document developed over 2012 and 2013, would have no impact on the Westlake project they are upset about. After all, as we wrote last month, who wants to deal with a bully?
Dropping the suit is a big sign that members of the group do want to help guide the design to create a better Westlake corridor for everyone. They deserve credit for making this call instead of dragging their appeal out to at least May, which they could have done.
Members of the Westlake Stakeholders Group I have spoken to say they felt a little steamrolled by the process, but they recognize that the current parking lot design is not comfortable or safe for people on bikes, which creates headaches for everyone.
At this point, City Council approval of the bike plan is really only delayed about a month, and planning work for road safety projects around the city have not been significantly impacted.
Here’s Mayor Ed Murray’s statement about the settlement: (more…)
The city has announced 12 Bicycle Sundays for 2014, the same number of events as 2013.
The open streets events on Lake Washington Boulevard in south Seattle date back to the 1970s. The iconic and beautiful lakefront road is closed to cars and opened to people running, biking, scootering and any other happy, people-powered way to move around you can think of. You may never see so many kids learning to ride a bike at the same time.
The events run from noon to 6 p.m. The street will be closed to cars from near Mount Baker Beach to Seward Park. Here are the 2014 dates:
May 4, 11 and 18
June 1, 15 and 29
July 6 and 13
August 10 and 24
September 14 and 21
Bicycle Sunday was an innovative event that — purposefully or not — made a powerful point: When the danger of cars is removed from a street, people fill the space. Other cities around the world have taken this idea and run with it, temporarily closing portions of their streets to cars and holding big city-wide parties.
Called “Ciclovia” in Colombia, “Via RecreActiva” in Gudelajara and many other names in other places, cities throughout the Americas hold huge monthly open streets events, carving out a cross-city pathway of major commercial streets and hosting big street parties. People fill the streets, get some much-needed exercise and discover new businesses and new parts of their city.
This idea has made its way to the US in recent years, with Los Angeles holding CicLAvia several times each year and drawing more than 100,000 people each time. Here’s a taste from StreetFilms: (more…)
Mayor Ed Murray gave his first State of the City speech Tuesday in the City Council chambers, and he used the spotlight to announce progress on launching a public bike share system and cutting the current drive-alone commute rate in half.
