Tuesday 9/2 WSBC monthly meeting

6:30 to 8:00 pm at HomeStreet Bank on SW Alaska Street near 41st Ave SW just east of the West Seattle Junction.

Open meeting  – you  are invited to meet, plan and report on activities and share your ideas about bike transportation in, to and from West Seattle.

We can use new volunteers for Greenways, for safe routes to schools, for commuting routes and trails advocacy, for social rides and events, and for bike parking at local businesses.  Please join us in creating a more sustainable and sociable West Seattle. No dues, no fees, no obligations – participate as much or as little as you wish.

Sad day downtown for all of us

A tragic day in a week filled with mayhem caused by lawless and inattentive driving of motor vehicles. Our hearts go out to the family and loved ones of Sher Kung, killed on Second Avenue today in a crash with a truck whose driver did not see her and failed to yield the right of way.

So sad that this is a week before physical lane separation and new signals with no-left-on-red for motor vehicles while bikes have green to go through will be in place.

Memorial ride next Thursday or Friday late afternoon is in the works.

Yesterday in Bonney Lake a pickup driver drifted off the roadway while texting and hit a 40 year old man who was riding a bike on the shoulder, the WSP reports. Monday, two drivers hit two boys riding bikes across Airport Way in Georgetown,

Mayor Murray and Scott Kubly, SDOT Director, have already received letters that cruelly take advantage of this tragedy to push anti-bike agendas, claiming bike riding is too dangerous for city streets.

But yesterday, three people were injured in a hair salon in Columbia City and three others were injured in the restaurant next door when the driver of an SUV plowed into the salon. The building was in danger of collapse. Can a bike rider cause this kind of damage?

Eating in a restaurant is not dangerous.

Getting your hair cut is not dangerous.

Riding a bike is not dangerous.

DRIVING A MOTOR VEHICLE IS DANGEROUS,

and that is where the focus should be for safety, for lower speeds, for law enforcement and for protection of everyone else.

photo from Lars HalstromDSC_4924email

Another Public Meeting for White Center Bike Corral

Good turnout of merchants and customers at White Center public meeting on the bike corral 8/26. Thank you to Sili Savusa, Executive Director of White Center Community Development Association, for leadership and Sokha for moderating the lively discussion. Thanks to Theresa and Jason Beaulieu, Lyanne, Joe, Marlowe, Isabel, Charity and family, Matt, Aaron, Gregg, Alex, Billy, Lynn, Don, and others who showed up to support the owners of Proletariat Pizza and Cafe Delia and let the other merchants know why a bike corral will make it easier to be their customers and will add customer parking to the business district on 16th. 

This was a repeat of the required public meeting held at Luso’s on June 17 for the grant that was awarded in March.

SeveralDSC04290 DSC04287 DSC04286 DSC04295 merchants have concerns about losing two car parking spaces, As Joe pointed out, if 12 customers park bikes instead of parking cars, in the same space as two cars, that actually frees up 5 to 10 car parking spaces for others to use.

Merchant concerns, especially from Smoke Town tobacco store and Stan’s Adult Superstore, were loss of car parking; the number of vagrants in the alley that make it feel unsafe for employees to park there; the lack of County enforcement of the 2-hour time limit that results in non-customer all day car parking in many spaces on the block. Some of the all-day parking is by shop owners and employees who choose not to park away from the businesses. Brian, who owns the record store, went out looking this afternoon and sketched two alternative bike rack locations at curb bulbs,

Sili Savusa described next steps to reach a community solution, including sitting down with Theresa and Brian to look at the design that was submitted for the grant that was approved last March (!) and comparing it to the ideas from Brian and others tonight.

All agreed that there are deeper issues of law enforcement, homelessness, crime, lack of Sherriff Department staffing and county neglect of White Center business district that go way beyond the bike parking issue. Elizabeth Gordon invited participants to attend an upcoming North Highline Unincorporated Area Council meeting with the Sherriff’s office to give them the message of what White Center wants to see most to address the issues.

Waiting and Wondering – Five Ways

The little island at SW Chelan / West Marginal / Spokane/ Delridge 5-way intersection was crowded this morning. The signal to go SE from Chelan seems to be skipping us sometimes, not responding to the push button. Gives us some time for wondering when SDOT and consultants will share notes from the brainstorming workshop that happened six months ago, and when they will produce some design proposals.photo

Tues 8/26 White Center Bike Corral Public Meeting – Again

10645269_10152715191509078_1761274735638513553_nTuesday, August 26 at 6:30 PM

at the Sherrif’s storefront, 9609 16th Ave SW, White Center across from Caffe Delia and Proletariat Pizza

Second public meeting about the proposed bike corral in front of Proletariat Pizza and Caffe Delia Coffee on 16th Ave SW

Caffe Delia and Proletariat Pizza want to swap 2 car parking places for 12 bike parking places in front of their businesses. Good for them and all of the WC business district.  Support is needed at this meeting! Please come if you can!  Some businesses are opposed, not realizing that people arriving on bikes are customers just like people arriving by car, bus or on foot. This does NOT take away customer parking!  It ADDS customer parking.  Additionally, some of the car parking is not really customer parking, because there is no parking fee or enforcement of any time limit. Caffe Delia, Proletariat Pizza and Theresa Beaulieu have obtained a grant to pay most of the cost of the bike racks. Just need to convince King Co and the CDA that this is needed and has community support.

We have been through all this before!  Help us bring this ill-defined process to resolution!

 

Heavy Haul Corridor – Ready or NOT

IMG_0194 IMG_0192 IMG_0190 IMG_0188 IMG_0187 IMG_0185 IMG_0181 IMG_0176 IMG_0174 IMG_0172 IMG_0171 IMG_0169 IMG_0167Freight Advisory Board 8/19 meeting highlight:

The proposed Heavy Haul Corridor on West Marginal, East Marginal, Hanford, and Spokane will allow >25% heavier axle loads on these streets that are substandard construction on crappy fill soils and are way past due for complete roadbed rebuild.

Pavement disintegrates already. We ride the unswept gravel paths that result. The oil dripping onto the roads drains directly into Puget Sound.

What will the new plans do for safety? Nothing.

What will they do to rebuild the road?  Nothing.

What WILL they do? Charge a couple hundred bucks for a permit to be over legal, with the revenue to pay for a cop to check that they’ve paid their fee.

It is important for our port to be competitive with Vancouver, Tacoma and Oakland. But not with a short term “solution” that destroys the roadway and compromises safety. Why should this be allowed before the road is rebuilt for  truck loads and bike safety, including bike lanes with concrete barriers, from Spokane to Atlantic on East Marginal and south of Spokane to the Federal Center? We need investment upfront in roads for freight and bike traffic, equal to the quality of the Atlantic St crossover and Portside Trail, all the way south.

WSBC ride with Councilmember Rasmussen

Councilmember Tom Rasmussen went for a bike ride this morning with seven of us from West Seattle Bike Connections, to get a first-hand look at some of the routes and intersections in the Seattle Bicycle Master Plan that we think are high priority for funding and implementation.

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Just a small group, so we could keep it conversational.  We started at Highland Park Improvement Center.  First stop:  The crosswalk at 11th Ave SW (a planned Greenway route) at SW Holden St, a busy arterial.  We are supporting the Highland Park Action Committee’s application to SDOT for flashing beacons DSC04141to help make this a safe crossing for kids going to schools and playgrounds in Highland Park and Riverview.

Then south on 10th Ave to SW Thistle at Highland Park Playfield. These are mapped as future Greenway routes, and seem ideal low traffic streets for walking and riding bikes. A set of public steps at 14th allows pedestrians to continue though on Thistle, but stops cars and bikes. We’d like to see a “runnel” gutter for bike wheels added to the steps, which are under construction now.

Then north on 17th Ave SW, which is a neighborhood Greenway route currently in the planning and design stage.  The proposed route jogs over to 15th Ave on Kenyon, then back over to 17th at Webster.  These jogs did not seem realistic to our group. Who would want to go 2 blocks east out of their way, and then 2 blocks west back to their route? And the intersections of Kenyon & 16th, 15th & Holden, and Webster & 16th would all need marked crosswalks and signals to be safe Greenway crossings. It looks much easier to just improve Holden for the short block from 17th to 16th, and then 16th to Webster, to get around the block that does not go through on 17th.

We started at Highland Park Improvement Center.  First stop:  The crosswalk at 11th Ave SW (a planned Greenway route) at SW Holden St, a busy arterial.  We are supporting the Highland Park Action Committee’s application to SDOT for flashing beacons to help make this a safe crossing for kids going to schools and playgrounds in Highland Park and Riverview.

Then south on 10th Ave to SW Thistle at Highland Park Playfield. These are mapped as future Greenway routes, and seem ideal low traffic streets for walking and riding bikes. A set of public steps at 14th allows pedestrians to continue though on Thistle, but stops cars and bikes. We’d like to see a “runnel” gutter for bike wheels added to the steps, which are under construction now.

Then north on 17th Ave SW, which is a neighborhood Greenway route currently in the planning and design stage.  The proposed route jogs over to 15th Ave on Kenyon, then back over to 17th at Webster.  These jogs did not seem realistic to our group. Who would want to go 2 blocks east out of their way, and then 2 blocks west back to their route? And the intersections of Kenyon & 16th, 15th & Holden, and Webster & 16th would all need marked crosswalks and signals to be safe Greenway crossings. It looks much easier to just improve Holden for the short block from 17th to 16th, and then 16th to Webster, to get around the block that does not go through on 17th.

Continuing north on 17th from Webster to Myrtle, there’s a spot that does not go through that is planned to have a bike/ped switchback ramp. This will be a ideal safe route to Stanislo Elementary.  If more kids can safely walk and ride to Stanislo, there will be less car congestion and hazards around the school and the beginning and end of the school day.

From there, we continued north on the partially completed 21st Avenue Delridge Greenway. It’s a great route along the ridge for bike riding, very attractive for commuting to SODO downtown, or connecting to the Alki or West Duwamish trails. Several on this ride use it regularly.  However, for pedestrians, and especially for wheelchair users, there is quite a bit of work left to do.

Then we dropped down to the 5-way intersection and Chelan/Spokane/Delridge/West Marginal, and talked about the planning in progress for that major connection point. From here to the Alki Trail. A look at the “Kitty Harbor” corner of Spokane and Harbor Ave, where we have an SDOT funding application in with Alki and Admiral neighborhood associations. Then a potty stop for our 2 year old rider at Luna Park Cafe, and a break before climbing up Avalon. Tom Rasmussen updated the group on the Fauntleroy Boulevard Project, which is now midway in design and public outreach, and promises to be a much friendlier welcome to West Seattle, with wide sidewalks, safer crosswalks, and bike routes to serve the rapidly developing area.

At mile 6.6, we reached the West Seattle Junction, and parked in the new bike corral, installed after a push from Councilmember Rasmussen, and much appreciated.  On to a bakery for food, coffee, conversation.

Thank you, Councilmember Rasmussen, for taking the time to ride with us, listen, and update us on projects. Thanks, too to Gordon Padelford at Seattle Neighborhood Greenways for suggesting the ride, and to Anthony Auriemma and Rose Smith at Councilmember Rasmussen’s office.

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Don Brubeck, with Theresa and Jason Bealieu, Jodi Connolly, David Geoffrion, Joe, Marlowe and Isabel Laubach.

Night Out with JuNO

Night Out at the Junction – basically, baby Nayla stole the show, but we did get to talk bike routes with some people new to West Seattle, and some not so new but wanting to ride, and Councilmember Tom Rasmussen stopped by to chat, AND we had a four-way water balloon toss!  Nice ride home past a bunch of other Night Out celebrations. Let’s go play in the street! DSC03844 DSC03837 DSC03850