Seattle Bike Blog

Transit GO app now includes scooter and bike share rewards + Use new micromobility parking areas to get ride discounts

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

December 7, 2022

Transit GO is an interesting and mostly functional mobile app that allows riders to pay for transit tickets on their phones while also gamifying the transit riding experience. And now scooter and bike share services are now part of the game, too.

The app is only for people paying full price for transit as they go, so it’s not really useful for folks who have a monthly or discount ORCA pass. But if you pay as you go, like I do, then it may be worth checking out. It’s not as convenient as an ORCA card with autoload because you have to buy tickets individually based on zones or light rail distance. But it has a trick up its sleeve: Rewards.

As you ride, you earn reward points that you can spend on more transit tickets or free scooter and bike share time. You earn 125 points for taking a train or bus ride, for example, and the bike and scooter share rewards cost 280-300 points. So every three or so transit rides get you a discounted scooter or bike share ride. There is also an ever-changing list of bonus reward options to juice your rewards balance further. You also get 800 points just for joining, so that alone is probably worth signing up.

Meanwhile, you can get up to $8 in ride credit or discounts per week for Lime, LINK, Bird or Veo thanks to the Bike & Scoot to Transit program running through March 31. You just need to end a ride within one of these “discount parking zones” near transit stops: (more…)

tags: bike & scoot to transit, bike share, bird, king county metro, limebike, link, scooter share, sound transit, transit go, veo

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Thorness: 5 Seattle holiday light bike routes

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

December 7, 2022

My spouse Kelli and our kid riding through Candy Cane Lane by bike.

I like holiday lights as much as the next person. In fact, I like them so much that I never took the lights off my house after last winter!

But sitting in idle traffic in the middle of a neighborhood waiting for a chance to see some lights outside a car window? No thank you. Biking and walking is without a doubt the way to go.

To that end, Bill Thorness wrote a piece in the Seattle Times highlighting five short-to-moderate bike loops in all parts of the city for folks looking to tour some holiday lights. Check it out and let us know if you have any favorite holiday season bike routes in the comments below.

tags: bill thorness, seattle times

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Packer: The public won’t build a new surface parking lot near Pike Place Market after all

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

December 6, 2022

From the City of Seattle via The Urbanist.

Ryan Packer has some wonderful news: Seattle City Light will not build its planned surface parking lot at Western Ave and Blanchard Street after all. Word of the proposed parking lot, located within the Western Ave business strip that extends north from Pike Place Market, was a huge disappointment after a public process revealed a clear desire for a park or other public space on the parcel that was formerly home for a Viaduct off-ramp.

From the Urbanist:

Seattle City Light has announced that plans will not move forward to build a new surface parking lot for electric vehicle (EV) charging on a city-owned property adjacent to the Seattle waterfront redevelopment in Belltown. The charging lot, which would have included approximately six to eight parking stalls, was intended to provide public EV charging infrastructure in a part of the city where it might not otherwise be available. But the proposal to build a surface parking lot in one of the densest areas of the city raised a number of questions about the process to determine the highest and best use of city-owned land in Seattle’s densest neighborhoods.

Read more…

Not only would this parking lot have been a huge missed opportunity for the neighborhood, it also would have been constructed within close proximity to several other surface parking lots: (more…)

tags: belltown, blanchard st, parking lots, ryan packer, seattle city light, the urbanist, western ave

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This bike lane detour is so simple, so why isn’t it the standard in Seattle?

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

December 6, 2022

While taking the kid to preschool this morning, we passed this crew working on a utility of some kind underneath the 2nd Ave bike lane at Pine St. The crew had lined up cones directing riders into a temporary bike lane they created in the adjacent lane. It’s a simple and effective solution, especially for situations where the bike lane is only closed while workers are present who can adjust any cones that get displaced. For closures left overnight, a sturdier barrier would be needed.

Why is this not the standard for every bike lane and sidewalk closure in Seattle?

Seattle supposedly changed the rules seven years ago to all but require temporary walking paths when closing sidewalks, but the rule is rarely followed. Seattle’s leaders have to do something to force all construction projects to follow this rule. Does it need a big fine attached to it? Are they waiting for somebody to get injured or killed and then sue the city for failing to enforce their rule? (more…)

tags: construction, sdot, SDOT DR 10-2015

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Listen: Packer and Freemark discuss rising traffic deaths in the US

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

December 5, 2022

While other nations are reducing their traffic deaths and serious injuries, the US is heading in the wrong direction. KUOW’s Soundside asked Seattle’s Ryan Packer and DC’s Yonah Freemark why the US is exceptional.

Listen to the 20-minute story.

An excerpt:

“When you look at countries in Europe and Asia, what you find is that there’s been a tremendous effort to reduce the scale of their arterial roads to increase improvements for pedestrians, such as improved sidewalks and crosswalks,” Freemark explained.

Another contributing factor in traffic fatalities is vehicle size. There has been an increase of strikes to the head, neck, and chest, due to the increased height of many of the trucks and SUVs that are on the roads today. Freemark says that problem is uniquely American.

“We have made absolutely no effort to restrict the size of the increasingly giant vehicles that we see on the streets throughout our communities,” he explained. “In other countries, there’s been more of an effort to essentially encourage people to drive smaller vehicles by creating weight taxes on vehicles, and by requiring different hood designs on these large SUVs and trucks.”

Read more or listen…

tags: kuow, listen, ryan packer, soundside, yonah freemark

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Sunday Theater: Danny MacAskill rides around San Francisco (Open Thread)

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

December 4, 2022

Every new Danny MacAskill video is a burst of joy and wonder. He and his film team have been creating love letters to Scottish industrial ruins and natural beauty for years, so it was really fun to see them visit the West Coast for their latest work. MacAskill is an extremely skilled trials rider, but the profound creativity and artistry of both his riding and the filmmaking reaches people who would not typically seek out trials videos. My 4-year-old has been asking to watch “Danny Mskaskill” videos all week, giving us a great excuse to revisit the classics. She has some understandable concerns about his babysitting style. It’s been great.

This is an open thread. Feel free to discuss anything even vaguely related to Seattle biking below.

tags: danny macaskill, open thread, sunday theater

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