Seattle Bike Blog

The Westlake Bikeway’s ‘Glacial Canoes’ have eroded, and they’re not coming back

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

November 15, 2022

A reader on Mastodon asked the other day, “Does anyone know what happened to the big glittery pieces of art at the south end of the Westlake bike path?”

The blue and gray glittering sculptures on both sides of the Westlake Bikeway disappeared earlier this month, and I have some bad news: The Glacial Canoes are gone for good.

I asked SDOT about what happened to them, and they delivered the sad news that the sculptures had deteriorated and are not reparable. The pieces were part of a series of public art pieces along the bikeway that were funded by SDOT’s 1% for Art funds. The full series, created by Jennifer Dixon, is called JewelBoats, and the sculptures at the south end of the path were probably the most eye-catching elements. Called Glacial Canoes, the structures paid “homage to the glacier that formed the land and created Lake Union eons ago,” according to Dixon’s website. “The patterns on the sculptures’ backs represent the current lake and its surrounding topography. Split like a geode, Glacial Canoes’ watery insides provide an ever-changing portal for bicycles to pass through. Their basic shape refers to the history of boats and mirrors the constant motion and fluidity of the lake’s surface. Like glacial erratics, Glacial Canoes appear as displaced rocks transported by time and nature.”

I just happened to take some photos of the Glacial Canoes in mid-September, and zooming in reveals that much like an actual glacier in 2022, there was some deterioration and cracking. (more…)

tags: 1% for art, glacial canoes, jennifer dixon, jewelboats, sdot, westlake

— Advertisement —
Packer: Rainier Valley Greenway may soon connect to I-90 Trail

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

November 14, 2022

Where the greenway ends. 28th Ave S just north of S Massachusetts Street.

The Rainier Valley Neighborhood Greenway may finally connect to the I-90/Mountains to Sound Trail after years of delay and inter-agency disagreement.

In early 2021, Ryan Packer reported that WSDOT had refused to work with SDOT on completing the connection from the greenway route to the trail. So the greenway route on 28th Ave S has ended about a block short of the trail for years, greatly diminishing its usability. People who want to make the connection have to either navigate to a skinny sidewalk via S Massachusetts St, ride on the roadway on MLK or ride across a grassy hill through the freeway lid park. None of these options are great.

But things may be changing, tough the agreements between SDOT and WSDOT are still tentative. Once again Packer has the full story for the Urbanist:

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has announced that they’ve reached a preliminary agreement with the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) over a trail lease that will allow Seattle to finally complete the missing northern segment of the Rainier Valley Neighborhood Greenway running between Mount Baker and Rainier Beach.

The announcement was made last week at the monthly Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board meeting by SDOT greenways program manager Summer Jawson, with Jawson telling the board that there has been “a lot of movement” on the connection recently and that the department is anticipating starting construction in 2023. In a follow up, SDOT confirmed the news but did note that there are some boxes that need to be checked before it can truly move forward.

Read more…

You’re all signed onto Ryan’s Patreon, right?

tags: I-90 trail, rainier valley neighborhood greenway, ryan packer, sdot, wsdot

— Advertisement —
Take the city’s ‘visioning’ survey about the future of Lake Washington Blvd.

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

November 11, 2022

The Seattle Parks District has budgeted $404,000 to develop a new design for the Bicycle Sundays section of Lake Washington Boulevard, and they need your input on what is important.

Take the city’s “Visioning Process Survey” now to let them know. This is a whole new survey, so fill it out even if you already completed the 2021 survey last year. It is relatively short and easy.

The survey notes that “since January 2015, there have been about 100 reported collisions between people driving and people biking along Lake Washington Boulevard.” That alone should be reason for city leaders to move quickly through this process so that it can be made safer as soon as possible to prevent further serious collisions.

“Sharing the road” is not a viable solution to Lake Washington Boulevard unless vehicle access is dramatically reduced to essentially only serve driveway access (much how Bicycle Sunday has operated since 1968). Otherwise, separated and protected space on the roadway is the only viable solution. And we need a 24/7/365 solution, not just an expansion of Bicycle Sundays to cover more days.

We already know how this can work because we’ve been holding Bicycle Sunday events for more than half of the roadway’s entire existence. There are plenty of solutions that preserve car access to every driveway and parking lot while also making it safe for people outside of cars.

Here are Seattle Neighborhood Greenways’ suggested survey answers: (more…)

tags: lake washington blvd, SEAbikes, seattle neighborhood greenways

— Advertisement —
More details about Cranksgiving Seattle 2022 + Invite your friends!

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

November 10, 2022

I spent yesterday at Cascade Bicycle Club’s office for a work party to get everything ready for Seattle’s 13th Annual Cranksgiving food drive bike ride. Y’all, it’s gonna be so fun. It’s by far the best-organized event yet, but it preserves the free-wheeling style of previous years. You can even score a spoke card Cascade’s Executive Director Lee Lambert helped laminate.

People of all ages and abilities are invited. There is a competitive element for those who want to get the most points and go for the top prizes, but non-competitive riding is also welcome. The whole point is to have fun biking around town and gathering donations for community food banks. It is free to register, but expect to spend at least $20 on groceries for donation. The after party at Central Cinema is also set to be an excellent bike party.

You can find more complete and updated details on our calendar listing and the Facebook event page. Up to four people can form a team, so invite your friends!

If you have any questions, let us know in the comments below or in the comments on the event page. See you November 19.

tags: cranksgiving 2022

— Advertisement —
You can now find Seattle Bike Blog on Mastodon

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

November 8, 2022

You can now find Seattle Bike Blog on Mastodon. We aren’t leaving Twitter, though. We’ll try using both and see how things go.

There’s been a sizeable migration to Mastodon in the past week as people seek an alternative to Twitter now that Elon Musk has taken over, so it’s a pretty interesting time to join and check it out. It’s a bit chaotic right now, especially on the big general interest servers that are being overloaded with the sudden surge in use. But once you’re on, it’s pretty exciting to think about what it could become.

I’m interested in Mastodon because I believe in independent media and the importance of owning your own media if you are an independent journalist, artist, whatever. Mastodon is ad-free, open source and decentralized. You don’t go to a central site like mastodon.com and create an account. Instead, you find a server (or “instance”) to join. Instances are “federated,” meaning you can see, search and interact with posts from users on other instances. But your account and data is hosted on the server you signed up to use. This is a bit convoluted, but it’s what makes it decentralized. It also fosters online community within your server.

If you want to join a mostly Seattle-based transit-loving server, for example, you can join Seattle Bike Blog on @social.ridetrans.it. It was created by Wes Mills, who is a member of the Seattle Pedestrian Advisory Board, so you know it’s legit. There’s also another Seattle-based server @social.seattle.wa.us. Or you can just search around on the joinmastodon.org server list.

tags: mastodon, SEAbikes

— Advertisement —
Watch: Touring the now-complete Green Lake bike lane loop

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

November 7, 2022

Seattle just built a bike lane on Aurora, and it’s amazing.

Even though I knew in my head that a complete Green Lake Outer Loop bike lane would be great, riding it was even better than I expected. For decades, the west side of Green Lake has been a no-go zone for anyone on a bike. The crowded inner loop path in the park only allowed biking in one direction, and there was no real sidewalk along the side of the Aurora Avenue North faux-freeway.

To complete the Outer Loop, SDOT constructed new bike lanes on Green Lake Drive and along the curb lane of Aurora, and the result is excellent. They also dramatically improved the connection to N 77th Street. I was surprised how comfortable it felt to ride considering how close the new path is to general traffic on Aurora. They repurposed an old highway barrier that is big and heavy enough to feel reasonably safe while also saving some money in the process.

Riding the new path is very low-stress and fast. Green Lake is not that small, and riding around the other side has been adding a lot of time to many trips. From Green Lake Way North (toward Stone Way) to Green Lake Drive North (toward N 83rd Street), the new west path is about a half a mile shorter than the east path. Not only that, it also avoids busy areas like the intersection with Ravenna Blvd.

If watching our video above wasn’t enough for you, Best Side Cycling was there the same day:

tags: green lake, green lake outer loop, sdot, videos

— Advertisement —