Joe and his family are what we are all about. Here’s Joe’s introduction to our group:
My family lives in Highpoint. I got back into riding about a year ago when I discovered how much fun it is to ride with my daughter on the back of my bike. We’ve done a lot of family rides and we just started bike commuting this month. I work for a transportation company on Harbor Island and my wife works on East Marginal so it works out quite well. Our daughter is in daycare also on East Marginal so it’s been a family bike commute for the past couple weeks!
I actually do the commute to her office each day because I’m carrying the kiddo. So we ride from West Seattle to her office on East Marginal, drop off the child, and then I turn around and go back to Harbor Island.
The bike commute along East Marginal south from Harbor Island is rough. [ed. note: this is the “other” East Marginal Way S, south of S Spokane St.] Bikes have to be very careful. The first danger area is the concrete plant. Trucks are constantly coming and going in the morning. Then there are exposed railroad tracks all over the place. If you don’t take them at close to 90 degrees you’re going down for sure. The next hazard is watching for trucks at each cross-street. You practically have to come to a stop and look behind you to make sure no trucks are getting off East Marginal and turning right into you. The only good news is you don’t have to actually ride on the street (which would be suicide.) There is either a sidewalk or gravel path or frontage road all the way from Harbor Island to my wife’s office (Federal Center South) on East Marginal. I suspect those gravel/dirt paths get pretty muddy in the rain. Even several days after rain the puddles in the “path” still have water. The frontage roads are in terrible condition – beat to heck by trucks.
If any area is begging for improved biking infrastructure it is East Marginal Way south of Harbor Island. That would be money well spent. There are lots of employees in Federal Center South coming from West Seattle. In the meantime, it is bikable. But you have to be very careful and I’d only recommend it for a moderately experienced cyclist.
I’ve gotten to know Jeff and Stu through DIY Bikes and I’m really enjoying learning some great bike repair and maintenance skills at the DIY workshops.