Sam Zimbabwe speaking at the opening of the John Lewis Memorial Bridge in Northgate.
It feels like Sam Zimbabwe never had the chance to lead the Department of Transportation without an emergency beyond his control dictating the work of the day. With the news that Mayor-Elect Bruce Harrell will not keep him on after the year’s end, Zimbabwe’s tenure as Director ends with some remarkable accomplishments considering the circumstances.
Zimbabwe arrived in Seattle in early 2019 to discover an agency in shambles and a city in the midst of major traffic and transit crunches downtown as buses were kicked out of the transit tunnel and the Alaskan Way Viaduct finally closed for good. He had essentially no role in planning these shutdowns, but he was in the big office when they happened. Oh, and there was a big snow storm in the middle of it all. Then shortly later he had to defend the Mayor’s decision to cut bike lanes from the repaved 35th Ave NE, which immediately put him in a tough spot with safe streets advocates who were already very frustrated with the total lack of progress on the city’s bike network since Mayor Durkan took office in 2018.
But things started to change under Zimbabwe’s leadership. Bike lane construction restarted, focused on connecting the downtown bike network. Morale at SDOT also seemed to improve (I don’t have any hard measurement of this, but it sure seemed like staff were happier than they were before).
Then COVID hit. Then in the early days of the pandemic shutdown, the West Seattle Bridge was discovered to be at risk of collapse and had to be closed indefinitely. It’s as though a decade worth of major city transportation challenges all hit during the first year of Zimbabwe’s tenure. Yet through it all, SDOT was still able to innovate solutions to make the city’s streets better for everyone. The department opened a series of Stay Healthy Streets, designed to clearly prioritize walking and biking while still allowing slow local car traffic. They also continued working on the downtown bike network, completing the final pieces of a protected bike route connecting from the Burke-Gilman Trail through the heart of downtown to the International District. You can see this route in action: (more…)
Example cross-section for Shilshole Ave NW, from SDOT.
As expected, longtime opponents of the Ballard Missing Link of the Burke-Gilman Trail have filed a complaint in King County Superior Court (PDF) challenging SDOT’s claim that their redesigned trail project is exempt from the State Environmental Policy Act (“SEPA”), the primary legal tool opponents have used to delay the 1.4-mile trail for two decades. Because SDOT anticipated an appeal, they built some legal delay time into their anticipated project construction timeline. If all goes well, the department hopes to begin construction in 2022 or 2023 and complete the project using the funds earmarked for this specific trail project in the voter-approved Move Seattle levy.
The latest trail design significantly scales back the previously planned package of roadway changes, especially along NW 45th Street between Shilshole Ave NW and Fred Meyer. Because the Ballard Terminal Railroad pursued action to block the city’s plans to realign the tracks, SDOT’s new design would leave them where they are, build the trail along the south side of the street, and maintain one-way travel for general traffic rather than reopening two-way traffic as was planned. This dramatically reduced the cost and scale of the project. The new design also decreased the planned trail width to ten feet plus a buffer. Added together, the total area of new pavement falls beneath the threshold for environmental review, SDOT says.
The appeal will test SDOT’s environmental review argument. The complaint also argues that SDOT needs a Shoreline Substantial Development Permit from the Shoreline Hearings Board and a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”) Construction Stormwater General Permit from the State Department of Ecology. As has proven effective in previous appeals, the new complaint throws a lot of different arguments at the city in hopes that at least one of them sticks. We will see how this one goes.
“It is unfortunate that legal challenges from special interest groups have delayed this important safety project for so many years,” SDOT spokesperson Ethan Bergerson told the Seattle Times, “and we believe this new plan will resolve this issue in court so we can finally move forward and give the bike, walking and rolling community a safe route to enjoy the treasure that is the Burke-Gilman trail.”
There are no new substantive arguments in the appeal. It’s all about legal technicalities at this point. Does the project exceed such and such criteria for this or that permit, etc. The latest court defeat for the trail also had nothing to do with the trail itself or even with SDOT. Instead, appellants somehow completed a legal Hail Mary by arguing that the then-Deputy Seattle Hearing Examiner Ryan Vancil had “violated the appearance of fairness doctrine” in making his decision about SDOT’s environmental impact statement. So years of court battles were erased on a technicality that had nothing to do with the trail design itself. With the prospect that redoing court battles would stretch beyond the expiration of the Move Seattle Levy, SDOT decided to pursue their simplified project instead.
The public debate portion of this project is long behind us, with the public very clearly advocating on behalf of the city’s planned Shilshole route for the trail. About 89% of people who commented on the city’s exhaustive environmental study and specified a preferred option said they supported the trail on Shilshole. Now it is simply up to the courts. Again.
Meanwhile, Washington Bike Law (Disclosure: Washington Bike Law advertises on Seattle Bike Blog, though they did not pay for this mention) is building a case representing people who have been significantly injured (broken bones, ligament damage, head injuries, anything requiring surgery, etc) due to the unsafe biking conditions along the Missing Link. They are encouraging people to get in touch if they have been injured while biking in the Missing Link area. Unfortunately, this applies to a lot people.
Promo photo from Veo.Veo bikes are live in Seattle. App available for iOS and Android.
A new bike share competitor has entered Seattle. Today, Chicago-based Veo is rolling out 500 e-bikes onto Seattle streets, the first legitimate bike share competitor to Lime since Lime acquired Jump in spring 2020.
Veo is launching its new Cosmo e-bikes, which are a pedal version of their sit-down electric scooter. Unlike the “pedelec” Lime/Jump bikes, which provide electric assist automatically as you pedal, the Veo Cosmo has a throttle similar to a scooter. So it’s sort of like the Wheels scooters already in operation in Seattle, except you have the option of pedaling in addition to the electric motor. If you have ever tried going up a long hill on a scooter, you can probably see how pedals could be a very welcome addition (I have yet to try Veo, so I can’t say for sure how they handle Seattle’s hills).
Veo’s pricing is also competitive, undercutting both Wheels and Lime by charging $1 to unlock plus 29¢ per minute (to promote their launch, they are waiving the $1 unlock and giving $5 of ride credit with promo code RIDESEA). For comparison, Lime charges $1 plus 36¢ per minute and Wheels charges $1 plus 39¢ per minute (with a $4 minimum). Saving 7–10¢ per minute can add up. A half-hour ride on Veo would be $9.70 compared to $11.80 on Lime or $12.70 on Wheels. Take 10 30-minute rides, and you’ve saved $21 to $30. It will interesting to see if other services lower their prices to match Veo.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Caroline Carr is a student in UW’s News Lab program.
Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, celebrated 10 years of working towards a more walking and biking friendly Seattle last month.
Three groups from Beacon Hill, Wallingford and the Central District realized they were working towards the same goal in 2011, so they formed a nonprofit and began collaborating on larger citywide projects. The organization has since grown to encompass 15 smaller neighborhood committees that span from Lake City to Rainier Valley.
When it first began, the group focused around its namesake: neighborhood greenways. Greenways are streets with a low volume of vehicles where pedestrians and cyclists can feel more comfortable. Before they were introduced in Seattle, greenways were incorporated into cities like Vancouver and Portland. During its early days, the nonprofit was successful in their efforts to implement greenways in a few neighborhoods. From there, the organization expanded their goals to larger projects.
The organization contributed much to the 2014 Seattle Bicycle Master Plan, a large plan of how the city can better accommodate cyclists and allow bicycles to be a more safe and functional form of transportation. Safe bike lanes are integral to this plan, and over the years the goalposts have shifted from the mere existence of bike lanes to bike lanes that will tangibly make riders safer. Previously, the city painted skinny bike lanes and sharrows, or shared lane markings, that only demarcated the biking space but did not protect riders from the traffic beside them. The 2014 Bike Plan pushed for protected bike lanes. The city has since created plastic flex posts that provide the illusion of protection in some areas, along with adding more durable and protective concrete planter boxes alongside bike lanes.
The goal of these lanes and protective barriers is to protect riders while also serving to encourage more apprehensive riders. Executive Director Gordon Padelford explained that previously, the infrastructure was designed for a very narrow group of people that was thought to be mostly white, able-bodied, middle-aged men who were willing to bike in traffic. With a new, more inclusive vision, biking can be a more viable option for more demographics.
“The vast majority of people are not comfortable biking traffic,” He said. “If you want to make cycling more accessible and more useful to everyone, then you’ve got to implement things like trails, neighborhood greenways and protected bike lanes.”
One of the group’s newer initiatives is turning Seattle into a 15-minute city, where residents can reach all of their daily activities within 15 minutes by foot, bicycle or public transit. Robert Getch, co-chair of Beacon Hill Safe Streets, spoke about the recent expansion of public transit in Seattle, emphasizing the importance of transit for all aspects of life.
“I think the one mistake we have in a lot of people’s heads is that transit is for commuting and we really need it to be for everything.” Getch said. “I think high quality frequent trains really make that a possibility.”
Another goal that Seattle Neighborhood Greenways has been working towards is equity in traffic enforcement. Along with other organizations who are pushing to defund the Seattle Police Department, the organization hopes to shift the job of traffic enforcement from SPD to the Seattle Department of Transportation. Whose Streets? Our Streets! is a majority-BIPOC fronted group within Seattle Neighborhood Greenways that aims to review current laws regarding the use of public space and seek to make the streets safer for residents, specifically BIPOC who have been historically excluded from these conversations. With disparities in law enforcement in Seattle that disproportionately target people of color, residents have been supportive of policies that aim to remedy the issue. Staff at Seattle Neighborhood Greenways stated that the public has been supportive of shifting traffic enforcement responsibilities to SDOT.
“How can we make our streets safer for everyone and in a way that doesn’t involve the police and doesn’t criminalize poverty and rely on archaic, punitive measures?” Said Community Organizer Clara Cantor. “How can we make this supportive of our communities instead of detrimental?”
Looking out into the next 10 years, the organization is focusing on several different initiatives. Along with the 15-Minute City initiative and the traffic enforcement equity work, the organization hopes to advocate for a pedestrian-only street, a project the city has not carried out since the 1970s. Padelford described the pedestrian-only outdoor dining setups that popped up due to COVID-19 restrictions as a “successful experiment showing the way towards a better future.”
Regarding all of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways’ current and prior initiatives, Getch encourages his fellow Seattle residents to remember that none of our current infrastructure was done by accident.
“Everything is designed, everything was planned. We did this; we built giant roads, we put in parks,” He said. “It’s important to think about it because we designed it to be this way and it can be anything we really want it to be.”
In the middle of the 2020 COVID shutdown, Seattle missed an opportunity to celebrate a remarkable achievement. With completion of the Bell Street protected bike lane and implementation of the Stay Healthy Street through the Bell Street Park, Seattle had fully connected a downtown protected bike route. For the first time, it became possible to bike all the way through the heart of downtown without needing to mix with car traffic.
Unfortunately, there was bigger news at the time, and many downtown workers were working from home. So this monumental achievement many years in the making went by without fanfare. But it’s still an incredible asset to our city, and one deserving of a belated celebration. Because there are a lot of people in our city who are not interested in mixing with cars in busy downtown traffic, and they may be very excited to learn that they no longer need to.
The protected bike route network through downtown keeps growing, with 4th Avenue now connected through Bell Street, providing a connection to City Hall. And the connection from 2nd Avenue to 5th Avenue in the International District brings the downtown network very close to the new Jose Rizal Bridge bike lanes to Beacon Hill and the Mountains to Sound Trail. The Pike Street bike lane are still missing a couple blocks near the Convention Center, but then they connect all the way to the Broadway Bikeway, which goes all the way to Yesler Terrace. It’s becoming a real network.
To highlight one example of what is now possible, I created this short video of a bike ride from Gas Works Park to Pike Place Market. The entire trip takes place on trails, protected bike lanes and very slow streets like the Bell Street Park and Pike Place. I think this route is viable for people of all ages and abilities. Think about that! This was barely a dream ten years ago. And thanks to an enormous amount of work by a lot of people, now it’s here.
The vast majority of Seattle voters support the city’s safe streets efforts, including pedestrianized streets, on-street café seating, bus lanes and bike lanes. According to a recent survey commissioned by the Northwest Progressive Institute in partnership with Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, it’s not even close.
The survey, conducted online by Change Research (methodology), asked likely voters in Seattle how much they support various value statements, infrastructure changes and policy ideas. And the results are very vindicating for the city’s safe streets movement. Opinion is not actually very split about many concepts that people assume are controversial, such as bus lanes, bike lanes and even fully closing streets to cars. People are confidently for them. I wish we had survey results for these questions from 10 years ago, because I think public opinion has massively shifted.
Among the infrastructure questions, support for protected bike lanes was the most divided, but even those had 71% support versus 26% opposed. Of course that 26% can still be very loud, which is why organizing to support bike lane projects is still so important. But it is important to understand where the majority opinion lies.
Interestingly, people were also very supportive of moving traffic enforcement duties from the Seattle Police Department to the Seattle Department of Transportation. 73% supported the idea while only 17% opposed it (10% were not sure). Many instances of police violence start with a simple traffic stop, whether it’s “jaywalking” or biking without a helmet or driving with a broken taillight. It is very encouraging that Seattle is ready to make a dramatic change to the way we enforce traffic safety laws. I hope Mayor-Elect Bruce Harrell and the City Council see this result and are encouraged to take bold action.
Meet up in the center of the park at 7ish. Leave at 730. Every Thursday from now until forever rain or shine. Bikes, beers, illegal firepits, nachos, bottlerockets, timetraveling, lollygagging, mechanicals, good times.ShareMastodonTwitterFacebookRedditEmail
Details from Seattle Parks: On scheduled weekends from May to September, a portion of Lake Washington Boulevard will be closed to motorized vehicles from 10 a.m. Saturday to 6 p.m. Sunday. “Seattle Parks and Recreation[…]
Details from Seattle Parks: On scheduled weekends from May to September, a portion of Lake Washington Boulevard will be closed to motorized vehicles from 10 a.m. Saturday to 6 p.m. Sunday. “Seattle Parks and Recreation[…]
Meet up in the center of the park at 7ish. Leave at 730. Every Thursday from now until forever rain or shine. Bikes, beers, illegal firepits, nachos, bottlerockets, timetraveling, lollygagging, mechanicals, good times.ShareMastodonTwitterFacebookRedditEmail
Meet up in the center of the park at 7ish. Leave at 730. Every Thursday from now until forever rain or shine. Bikes, beers, illegal firepits, nachos, bottlerockets, timetraveling, lollygagging, mechanicals, good times.ShareMastodonTwitterFacebookRedditEmail
