Cascade Bicycle Club recently posted their top 5 Seattle bike improvement priorities, though it’s really more like like 4 projects and a citywide plan.
They go into more detail about each in their blog post, so go check it out. Here’s the list:
Georgetown to Downtown Bike Connection
West Marginal Way Bike Connection
Seattle Waterfront Bike Connection
Burke-Gilman Missing Link
Seattle Transportation Plan
Two of the spots are in industrial districts, which have seen far more than their share of bicycle injuries and deaths. Until now, safe streets improvements in Seattle have largely ignored the industrial areas, but that was a terrible mistake. People like in and bike through SoDo and the Duwamish Valley, and they need to have a safe place to do so. We can’t change the past, but we can make safe industrial areas a priority now. (Note: I updated this section 8/25 to clarify location names as noted in the comments.)
It’s sad that the waterfront bike connection needs to be on this list, but it does. I cannot believe the city is going make advocates fight for a safe and direct bike lane to connect the existing Elliott Bay Trail with the under-construction waterfront bikeway. It is so obviously in everyone’s best interest for this bike route to be connected in a safe and direct manor that it really shouldn’t have to be said. Yet here we are.
No more words need to be said about the Missing Link, but they gotta stay on it until it is finally completed.
The Seattle Transportation Plan is not exactly a project, but it’s very important that the final plan reflects the people’s vision of a safer, more equitable and more sustainable Seattle.
My lovely spouse Kelli carried the heavy, dense stuff while I had the tent, sleeping bags and kid. We were also so loaded down with old and new Swift Industries bags that we could have been named MOSAI: The Museum of Swift and Industries.
Like so many adventuring plans, this wasn’t how we originally saw it going. But somehow I ended up biking myself and our kid on a gravel path up mountain using a folding bike. And it was great.
The Palouse to Cascades Trail is an incredible place, and I can’t recommend it enough. This was the first time we’ve done it with the kid, which did present some additional challenges. But it was worth it.
The trail starts at Rattlesnake Lake. If you have access to a car that can carry bikes, that’s one option of getting to the start. There is a parking area for the trail, though parking can get tight because Rattlesnake Lake is so popular.
If you don’t have a car (or don’t want to use one), then you have some options. The Trailhead Direct runs weekends and holidays through September 11 this year. From the North Bend Park-and-Ride, you have an eight-mile bike ride to Rattlesnake Lake almost entirely on the wonderful Snoqualmie Valley Trail. If Trailhead Direct is not running, you can also take Metro’s Route 208 from Issaquah Transit Center to North Bend. However, the 208 has limited runs and does not run at all on Sundays. If you take the 208 and want a longer bike ride, I recommend getting off near Snoqualmie Falls, then riding to the Snoqualmie Valley Trail via Mill Pond Road.
At Rattlesnake Lake before the ride.
We were initially planning on taking our full-size bikes on the Trailhead Direct, then biking up to Middle Fork Campground. But right before we left, we saw a Q13 News report that rangers had closed the campground and nearby dispersed camping areas due to bear encounters. So we switched our destination to Carter Creek Campground about 13 miles from the start of the Palouse to Cascades Trail. But then our friends decided to join, and they have a car with a bike rack for three bikes. So that’s how I ended up on the Brompton, which we folded up and stashed in the back with the rest of the camping gear. (more…)
I stumbled on this photo today in the Washington State archives and, well, I have no idea what the hell is going on here.
Let see if the archive’s description can shine any light on it: “Shows 16 men standing on top of a log resting on a railroad flatcar, along with a dog and a bicycle. The train car is labeled ‘Northern Pacific 69318’. A bear den is visible inside the log, and 2 openings. A man stands inside the opening to the right.”
I mean, OK, yes, that is a description of what the photo shows. BUT WHY?!? It gets stranger the longer you look at it. Why are all those guys standing on top of that log? Why is the log on a train? Why is there a bear inside the log? And why did that one guy haul his bicycle all the up on top with him?
It was published between 1907 and 1915 by Lowman & Hanford Co. in Seattle. That’s where my clues run out. I welcome your theories and your photo captions.
Claudia Mason holds a photo of Robb near the site of his fatal hit and run near the Spokane Street Bridge. Critical Mass riders held a memorial ride for Robb in July.
Claudia Mason is incredible. In the midst of heartache I cannot imagine, Claudia has bravely shared her story of loss in hopes that others might be spared the pain she has felt since her husband Robb was killed while biking home from work July 15. He was 63.
Critical Mass turned their July ride into a memorial for Robb, and Claudia was waiting at the crosswalk where he died holding his photo. She spoke to the crowd gathered about how much she and Robb loved Seattle.
“Now I have to enjoy everything we loved about Seattle without him. And it’s going to be hard,” she said. She described herself as usually quiet and reserved, but said she must speak about this so that the problems are fixed.
I woke up today, Aug. 15, in an empty bed. It was the 31st morning that I woke up alone since the death of my husband.
On the evening of July 15, I waited for hours in fear, not knowing why my husband, Robb, was not home and not answering his cellphone.
I called the police and the hospitals, over and over, in a futile attempt to find out where he was.
It wasn’t until later that night that the King County Medical Examiner called my home to say that my husband, Robert J. Mason, my Robb, had been struck and killed in a hit-and-run collision. It happened just east of the West Seattle Low Bridge on West Spokane Street where, like many nights before, he had been riding his bike home from work. They told me that his injuries were so severe, he died at the scene of the crash. Witnesses reported that the car that hit him just sped off, leaving his battered and bleeding body strewn in the street. The paramedics tried hard to save him, but they could not undo the sheer violence inflicted on his body. It’s everyone’s worst nightmare come true, and now it is my nightmare.
She pleas for the driver to have “the courage or common decency to come forward and take responsibility for this tragedy.” Anyone with information should call SPD’s violent crimes tip line at 206.233.5000.
But she also has a request for people driving cars: Be late.
Be late and don’t become a killer.
It’s just not worth the risk. Your actions behind the wheel are the result of your choices. So, please, look at the big picture and choose wisely, because one day, it might be your loved one who does not come home … and like me, you could be the one counting the mornings you wake up to an empty bed.
Thank you, Claudia.
You can help offset some of the financial losses following Robb’s death by contributing to a GoFundMe.
The new and improved 15th Avenue NE bike lanes opened last month, and much of the project is excellent. But the opening celebrations have been a bit dampened due to the city’s decision to ignore people’s requests to help them cross the biggest barrier to biking on this route: Lake City Way.
I have been a bit slow to write about this project because the city has put safe streets advocates in a bit of an awkward bind here. On one hand, they did build nearly one mile of new protected bike lanes. As important as it is to watchdog transportation projects, it is also important to celebrate wins. This is a mile of bike lane that is now part of our city, and that’s great. People will be able to travel by bike more comfortably and, hopefully, more safely. The bike lanes also significantly reduced the crossing distance for people walking across this street, which is far too wide for the relatively low amount of car traffic it carries. Bike lanes are not just about biking, they are part of a complete street that is safer for all users.
It is worth celebrating every time the city makes our streets significantly safer than they were before, and most of this project does so. I feel like I need stress that there’s a full stop after this sentence, even though I know you can sense the word “but” coming soon. This street is safer, and if this project works as well as we all hope then as many as 10 people will be spared from serious traffic injuries or death every year from now on. That’s a huge and very real improvement.
But (there’s that word) the project has some major shortcomings that undercut the effectiveness of the rest of the improvements, and it’s difficult to want to heap too much praise on the city because of them. However, the problems happened during the previous administration, and I hope that SDOT and Mayor Bruce Harrell can learn from these issues and avoid them in the future.
The highest-level takeaway is that SDOT and the mayor need to listen to advocates, who were genuinely engaged in this project’s design process. Mayor Jenny Durkan chose to completely shut out and ignore community members who volunteered their time and energy to engage with this project and suggest improvements. This was a major problem with Mayor Durkan’s leadership in general, and it’s consequences show up once again in the way this project turned out.
Project shortcomings
The paving plan near Lake City Way.
The biggest and most obvious problem with the street’s design is that all safety improvements end one block before reaching Lake City Way, one of the most dangerous streets in Seattle. The paving project continues all the way to the busy street, but the bike lanes and their related street safety benefits end at NE 80th Street. As the new roadway approaches Lake City Way, it balloons out from two general traffic lanes to four despite the fact that traffic volumes actually drop from 10,000 vehicles per day to 8,000 according to the city’s 2020 Traffic Report (based on pre-pandemic 2019 data). Even 10,000 vehicles per day is not much at all for an arterial street, and 8,000 will easily fit in two lanes. As the new lanes are added, all safety elements disappear. It is an enormous missed opportunity to keep people safe.
But to make matters worse, people made it very clear to the project team during the design phase that this was not good enough. Two years ago, when there was definitely enough time to make changes, I summarized what I had been hearing: (more…)
The volunteer-powered Bikery has long provided resources for people to obtain and learn how to repair bikes. Their 30 or so regular volunteers share their bicycle mechanic knowledge with the community through the shop on Hiawatha Place S near S Charles Street. But the organization’s latest service hopes to reach beyond the mechanical to help answer people’s other questions about bike commuting, like with route to take or what kind of bike they need.
“There are probably some barriers keeping people from transitioning from car to bike,” said project founder Jordan Sampson. Yet the Bikery’s volunteer base was full of people with lots of experience getting around the region on bike. “There’s knowledge about urban cycling that we weren’t really tapping into.”
The Bikery’s Bike Commute Help Desk is a “100% free service” (though of course donations are always welcome) designed for people who are considering trying to commute by bike or who struggled with their first attempts and would like advice. Send an email to [email protected] and ask your questions. The Help Desk will work to get you answers or connect you with a volunteer in your area who can help.
Most people who are biking now got started with help from someone who was already familiar with biking. It’s so much easier to have someone guide you through the process of getting started than to try to figure it all out alone. It would be amazing to see the Help Desk serve that function for people who don’t have a close friend who’s already into biking.
What the Help Desk needs most now are users. So help them out by spreading the word. If someone you know is interested in bike commuting and you aren’t in a place to advise them, point them to the Help Desk. You could also spread the word at your workplace.
If you’re interested in volunteering with The Bikery, email [email protected]. They are always looking for people who help staff the shop, though they also have other events and tasks. And then maybe you’ll be able to help someone through the Help Desk, too.
