Seattle Bike Blog

We just hit 10,000 miles on our 3-year-old family cargo bike

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 7, 2024

Our family cargo bike just rolled over to 10,000 miles. It took three years as our primary mode of kid transportation to get there.
Even as much as I talk up how great an electric cargo bike can be as a family-hauling vehicle, I may still be underselling it. 3,333 miles per year is equivalent to biking from Seattle to Florida every year. And we’re just getting around town, buying groceries, doing school drop-off, etc. Doing all this by the average US car would burn about 150 gallons of gas. Sure, in the grand scheme of global climate change, 150 gallons is barely anything. But at the same time, 150 gallons is a shit load of gasoline.
Better yet, we are having a blast. We all love this bike (a Tern GSD). Riding around this beautiful city, rain or shine, is a joyful part of each day. It is possible to be a car-free family without a cargo bike. We take transit often, and you all know I love our buses and trains. But the cargo bike makes so many tasks so much easier, and the electric assist means we choose the bike even when I’m feeling tired.
Want to shake up your life and stop spending so much time looking at the taillights in front of you or planning your life around freeway closures and major event traffic? Get yourself an electric cargo bike (or any bike). You might just find that you didn’t actually need your car as much as you thought you did, and you’ll discover a world of joy and adventure in its place.

tags: cargo bikes, tern gsd

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Proposed 2025 Seattle budget shows why passing the transportation levy in November is so important

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 3, 2024

The trail budget if the Seattle Transportation Levy fails in November. Some Move Seattle projects delayed beyond 2024 will get funding in 2025, but it will not be ongoing. From the mayor’s proposed 2025-26 budget for SDOT (PDF), which much assume no new levy funds.
The already insufficient sidewalks and crosswalks budget would be nearly halved.
Mayor Bruce Harrell’s proposed 2025-26 SDOT budget (PDF) had to be written assuming the 2015 Move Seattle Levy will expire at the end of 2024 without a replacement. So it is a grim look at how SDOT’s work would be gutted if voters do not approve the Seattle Transportation Levy (Proposition 1) on the November ballot.
“With fewer financial resources available, SDOT will focus on capital project delivery for existing work and commitments made in the levy,” the budget overview notes. “Less will be spent on maintenance and preservation of assets (roads, bridges, transit, pedestrian and bike facilities), while innovations and system enhancements will be delayed to a future time when more resources are available. This slowing of maintenance and asset preservation work will affect transportation safety, mobility of goods and services, and climate and environmental goals.”
The expiring levy has provided $103 million per year, and the only way to craft a budget without that $103 million is to slash pretty much everything. The result is a budget that focuses on the non-optional functions of the department like moving bridge operations, emergency weather response, court-mandated accessibility fixes, some safety elements of the Vision Zero program, fixing dangerous road deterioration, and keeping lines painted. Investments to get ahead on road maintenance, expand the bike network, maintain or improve trails, fully rebuild roadways (rather than simply adding yet more patches), complete seismic retrofits for bridges, provide bus and streetcar operating costs, or build new sidewalks would all be slashed hard. SDOT staffing would also be reduced, which would harm the effectiveness of essentially every department team.
(more…)

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Bike Portland answers my question: Where are the downtown Portland protected bike lanes?

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

October 2, 2024

We would have used these blue lines a lot during our trip, especially Taylor/Salmon and 12th Ave. From the very incomplete Central City in Motion plan (PDF).
Last week, I published a story recapping a wonderful train plus folding bike trip my kid and I took to Portland shortly before the start of the school year. Though we had a great time biking around and exploring the city together, I was surprised by the lack of complete and connected protected bike lanes downtown. Especially since so much of the city’s biking experience is very friendly and low-stress, it felt incongruous to be biking in mixed traffic on busy downtown streets. So I noted, “Seattle is learning for itself what Portland learned previously: Many more people will bike if there is a safe and inviting space to do it. Has Portland forgotten its own lessons?”
Jonathan Maus over at the venerable Bike Portland responded yesterday with a recap of some of the frustrating behind the scenes political and institutional struggles that have gummed up progress on downtown bike lanes. As I assumed, the city has been working on plans for all ages and abilities bike routes through downtown for more than a decade, and they’ve even funded a plan in 2016 called Central City in Motion. But then, well, most the bike stuff didn’t happen for a variety of reasons, some of which make sense and some of which do not.
From Bike Portland:
So what happened?
(more…)

tags: bike portland, jonathan maus, portland

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Everyone in the Puget Sound region should fill out this road safety plan survey

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 30, 2024

This map of high crash locations across the region point to state routes as an outsized part of the problem. From the PSRC’s State of Safety in the Region report (PDF).
As with other places across the nation, traffic deaths and injuries are rising at a desperate rate. Across the Puget Sound Region, annual traffic deaths have nearly doubled since 2010. We have almost reached one per day.
If you live in King, Kitsap, Pierce or Snohomish Counties, take this survey about the Puget Sound Regional Council’s Safety Action Plan. The plan’s goal is to “establish and foster a regional culture of safety with a focus on protecting vulnerable roadway users and communities,” according to the online engagement hub. The plan would take a safe system approach to traffic management, helping to guide high-level funding, such as Federal grants, while also helping local communities develop safety action plans for their local investments.
Yes, it’s another plan. But Cascade Bicycle Club’s Vicky Clarke put it well in an email urging folks to complete the survey:
I’ll be real; I’m sick of plans. I want action. That said, this plan is different by seeking to understand resident’s openness to particular street safety improvements, like bike lanes, sidewalks, crosswalks, and safer vehicle speed limits.

This is your chance to say “yes please” to things that will make it safer to get around. Please spend 5 minutes completing it, because one thing’s for sure: without caring neighbors like you and me asking for change, the status quo on our streets will remain.
The PSRC also recently released a 50-page State of Safety in the Region report (PDF) with a lot of information about traffic safety trends across the region. Stay tuned for a follow-up post about this report, because there is a lot to unpack. But the short of it is that this is a problem the state and the entire region need to take on together because it is much bigger than any one place. We need a regional approach. The report predictably did not find a clear single cause of the increase, but it led them to the following “key findings.”
(more…)

tags: cascade bicycle club, puget sound regional council, regional safety action plan, state of safety in the region

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Alert 9/28-29: Trail to Montlake Playfield and 520 Bridge Trail across Lake Washington closed

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 27, 2024

From the construction alert.
The 520 Bridge Trail will be closed from 11 p.m. tonight (September 27) until 5 a.m. Monday (September 30).
The Bill Dawson Trail, which connects from Montlake Boulevard to Montlake Playfield, will also be closed starting 10 p.m. Friday until the same time Monday.
(more…)

tags: Bike Route Alert, bill dawson trail

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Sunday: Cascade and SN Greenways will co-host free ride to promote November’s transportation levy

By

Tom Fucoloro

| Posted

September 27, 2024

View the event listing on Cascade’s Free Group Rides calendar.
Seattle has made a lot of big improvements to biking using voter-approved funds from 2015’s Move Seattle Levy. That levy ends this year, but voters have the chance this November to approve an even better version to replace it.
Cascade Bicycle Club and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways have both endorsed the 2024 Seattle Transportation Levy and joined the Keep Seattle Moving campaign to approve Prop 1 on the Seattle ballot. They are co-hosting a leisurely ride from Beacon Hill Station to Rainier Beach Station highlighting some of the improvements in place thanks to the Move Seattle Levy as well as potential future improvements if voters approve the next levy.
The ride meets 9 a.m. Sunday (September 29) at Beacon Hill Station. More details from the event listing:
Explore Seattle’s latest biking infrastructure with Cascade Bicycle Club and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways! Join us on a ride celebrating the safer bicycle routes created through the Move Seattle Levy, showcasing the improvement that make it easier and safer to bike around Seattle. Along the way, we will highlight upcoming project planned under the Keep Seattle Moving Levy, offer glimpses into the future of Seattle’s bicycle infrastructure.

We will meet at the Beacon Hill Light Rail Station and end at the Rainier Beach Light Rail Station. Be there, ready to go at the time listed above. We will start with a required safety briefing, and roll out when that’s done.

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