They’ll be back, but for at least a while you can now wear you favorite wool jersey or cashmere sweater without fear of snags from the blackberry canes. Al, Kathy, Keef, Bob, Steve, Rose, and Don worked, cheered on the Green River Marathon runners, and stopped for lunch at Marination Ma Kai this beautiful Saturday.
This Saturday 9 to 11 along Spokane St east of Harbor Ave/Avalon Way – come with work gloves, long sleeves and clippers. We will trim the blackberries back. Refreshments after at Marination Ma Kai. 
6:30 to 8:00 pm
Homestreet Bank at 41st SW and SW Alaska
open meeting – you are invited and welcome.
Agenda includes planning for summer events and advocacy for West Seattle, SODO and South Park bike facilities and routes.
Meeting agenda and notes can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GYAz2E-rN1bpOKq1hPQFoK9Bn8fldqpxNsNvQwQIh3E/edit?usp=sharing
One that you cause? Report from Al J, who earlier in the day was fitting helmets and leading middle school kids on a ride, helping them learn to ride safely on the streets:
Around 4:30 Saturday (5/31) afternoon while riding to the Mariners game I was traveling eastbound on the bike trail along Spokane, as I approached the turn onto E. Marginal Way (to head north) I looked through the chain-link fencing to see a group of cyclists heading towards me and yelled a heads-up to announce my presence. Which I’m guessing they didn’t hear.
Making the left turn (probably a bit too fast in hind-sight) I see they are riding 4 abreast leaving me very little room to get by. My speed and the lack of room forced me into the (approx.) 6’ x 6’ concrete support column for the overhead bridge traffic.
Hitting the concrete with my right forearm and shoulder I immediately bounced off and fell to the ground onto my left forearm, shoulder and knee and then ended in an up-right sitting position to find the force of one of the collisions had knocked the wind out of me. As I sat there grunting and trying to catch my breath I hear a female voice off to my right asking “Are you alright?” and I look to see one the women from the group (2 men and 2 women) had stopped to check on me. As far as I could tell, the 3 other riders had continued as they were not in my field of vision.
Almost immediately I heard a male voice yell “Come on Rachael, G** damn-it, lets go!”, which prompted her to ride off leaving me there alone.
After catching my breath and doing a self and bike assessment I decided that the uber-sore shoulder is probably all muscular pain and continued on to the game. (Die-hard baseball fan here!)
While at the game I did stiffen up considerable however was able to score 4 ibuprofen from a woman sitting behind me which, in combination with the M’s exciting 3-2 win over Detroit I had enough grit to ride back to west Seattle and even climb California Way and make it home.
Rachael, if you’re or anybody in your party is reading this, other than being pretty damn sore and slightly scraped-up, I think I’m okay however tomorrow morning will give a better assessment of that. And I will be contacting the SPD tomorrow and letting them know of this so they have it on record.
Fortunately my injuries are not worse, or even anywhere near those sustained by John Macy, but if they were who knows how long I would have sat there until someone came along to help.
In closing all I have to say is…Come on people, make smart(er) decisions and do the right thing!!!!!
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.
West Seattle Blog reported on the School Road Safety Meeting last night at the Southwest Library. Besides their reporter, only four citizens attended. Three are members of West Seattle Bike Connections: Jay Guettler, Theresa Beaulieu, and Craig Rankin. Theresa and Craig are parents actively involved with safe routes to Denny MS and the K-5 STEM program at Boren.
from Theresa’s notes:
I would like to see more parents, teachers and community members/groups involved. These improvements around schools are going to be great opportunity for change around our culture and how kids get to school. If schools are safe to get to via walking or biking and it is challenging to drive close to schools, then more parents will feel it is safe to allow their kids to ride a bike, scooter, skateboard or walk to school.
One thing that resonated with me that the West Seattle Blog did not cover is that the posted signs and cameras that are going up around schools are for 20 mph, and actually have a leeway before a ticket is issued, even though studies show that at 20 miles per hour, 9 out of 10 pedestrians who are hit by a car will survive, but the death rate increases dramatically at greater speed. That study only counts deaths, not major injuries. 1 fatality for every 10 collisions is too high. All of us at the meeting agreed the cameras should be set to 15, NOT 20 mph, Note was taken.
Two more opportunities to learn and give input:
Tuesday, May 27 at 6 PM to 7:30 PM Northeast Branch Seattle Public Library, 6801 35th Ave NE
Thursday, May 29 at 6 PM to 7:30 PM Garfield Community Center, 2323 E Cherry St
We had a fun bike rodeo today at Alki Summer Streets – the rain held off and the kids kept coming! Along with some SPD officers on bikes and Segways, and adult on a crutch scooter. Lots of West Seattleites out playing in the street using all kinds of locomotion without gas motors. Everything from dogs pulling skateboards to big long cargo bike to tall bikes and bare feet.
Thanks to Jay, Theresa, Bob Wi., Madi, Al J, Kathy, Don for a successful car-free event, including hauling to/from, and to all the parents and kids!
Super hero rider makes it through the course with flying colors!
SPD Parking Officer doing tight tight turns with extreme focus and concentration, showing how it’s done
and, getting his Certificate of Achievement!
Al J adjusted every one’s helmet to really fit before riding this challenging and dangerous course, and gave the parents tips
Visitors from afar! Davey Oil and family riding from Capitol Hill on the way to Vashon Island, getting some well deserved attention for that new electric assist cargo bike from Davey’s own G & O Family Cyclery in Greenwood.
Madi helped kids decorate their bikes for the Alki Beach Creeps’ bike parade, and created our rodeo poster
One of our best costumed riders
Later on, at Skid Row, a tall bike starting a run in the skid contest. Some amazing rain-assisted skids!
Don and Jay ask, how geeky can you get? But we did not have to find a car parking space at the beach!
Bring the young kids and their bikes! Balance bikes, too. West Seattle Bike Connections will be at Summer Streets again on Alki Avenue, probably somewhere near the bathhouse,
The bike rodeo is a fun skills and safety course for kids, with prizes for all, and bike decorating for the bike parade that Alki Beach Creeps will lead.
668 riders from 6 to 9 am at our Commute Station, up 10% from last year!
Sadly, no unicyles this year, but there were tandems to help confuse the counters. Cookies lasted exactly till the last rider at 9,
Thank you to all of you who rode today, and to all of our cookie bakers, to Alki Starbucks for coffee, Nuun for drinks, Cascade Bicycle Club for Bike Month, and once again to Alki Bike and Board and DIY Bikes for mechanical checks and adjustments, to our volunteers Bob Winship, Theresa and Jason Bealieu, Kathy Dunn, Jody Connolly, Sakaru Tuschiya, Jay Guettler, Al Jackson, Don Brubeck for hauling and hosting, and last but not least, to Council Member Tom Rasmussen, with a WSBC sticker on his helmet, heading for a group ride from the Fremont Bridge.
It was a car and bus parking lot this morning on the high bridge due to a minor collision. Bikes and trucks had to wait for the Alaska Marine Lines train barge to go through, but that was just 5 minutes enjoying the beautiful morning and a little socializing and phone checking. 1,752 bikes counted yesterday, 2nd highest ever. Can we break 2,000 for Bike to Work Day?
WS Blog reports lots of hand wringing over the bridge traffic jams at West Seattle Transportation Coalition’s meeting last night. Can we convince enough people that there is a viable alternative that does not cost hundreds of millions of dollars for one new overpass, or billions for new light rail transit? If 3,000 of us commuted by bike over the low bridge instead of in vehicles over the high bridge, traffic would flow easier, our taxes would be lower, the air would be less polluted, and we would be healthier and happier.
