Seattle Neighborhood Greenways

The Delridge Greenways let us ride from the Alki Trail to White Center on safe, quiet, beautiful streets.  We have more Greenway routes waiting to be built!  Seattle Neighborhood Greenways connects groups like ours, coordinating and supporting our efforts for bike routes that work for all ages and abilities, with equity.

Please consider a gift to Seattle Neighborhood Greenways on May 6, Give Big DayDSC01296

May 1 Policy Ride and Bike Happy Hour

We rode today from Occidental Plaza to the Schooner Exact with Cascade Bicycle Club on a Policy Ride and Bike Happy Hour! And some of us going to DIY Bikes wheel truing workshop.

Thank you to Dongho Chang, Seattle Chief Traffic Engineer for riding with us,

and Brock Howell, Emily Kathrein, Robin Randels, Thomas Goldstein, and Jeff Aken from Cascade for doing this, and to Bob Anderton, David Geoffrion, Bob Winship, Kathy Dunn, Lars Halstrom, and others from WSBC, AJ Verdugo from WS,  and Michael Hirschenhorn from Queen Anne and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways for participating.  We enjoyed meeting new people from West Seattle and beyond. Don BrubeckDSC01465 DSC01475 DSC01488

May is Bike Month!

Bike month starts tomorrow! Let’s do it! How about riding with someone who has not tried it before? How about a workplace team in Cascade’s commute challenge, or helping with a bike train to school?

Lots of events including May 1 Policy Ride to Bike Happy Hour at Schooner Exact, May 1 DIY free wheel truing workshop at West Seattle Tool Library, May 6 Bike to Work Breakfast, May 10 Bike to Mariners Game Day, May 7 Bike to School Day, May 16 Bike to Work Day (we’ll have a station at WS Bridge), and May 18 Alki “Summer” Streets (we’ll have a bike rodeo).  See calendar

DSC01435

No bus? Ride with us!

Until the Washington State legislature, King County or Seattle government figure out what to do to provide the bus service we need, some of us can ride bikes to get places and free up seats on the buses that are still running, and free up space on the roads for those who must drive. Bicycle transportation increases roadway bandwidth without increasing roadway width. Kind of like energy conservation by increasing efficiency — getting more out of the existing capacity.

We are here to help that happen, and to make it safe, attractive and convenient for as many people as possible.DSC01296 Here’s a great north-south route in West Seattle: 21st Ave SW on Puget Ridge and Pigeon Point, connecting us to White Center at the south via Myrtle/16th, and connecting to West Duwamish Trail, Alki Trail and the low level bridge to SODO and downtown at the north, via Andover/22nd. No traffic jams, low traffic, peaceful and easy grades. Croft Place here connects to the 26th Ave SW Greenway.

Do you buy stuff on Amazon?

If you buy stuff on Amazon, they have a great program where they’ll donate 0.5% of eligible purchases to the charity of your choice, if they participate in the Amazon Smile program.  And guess what?  Our parent organization, Sustainable West Seattle, is listed!

Use Amazon Smile and they'll donate 0.5% to Sustainable West Seattle!
Use Amazon Smile and they’ll donate 0.5% to Sustainable West Seattle!

So how does it work?

  1. Visit http://smile.amazon.com.
  2. Under your account menu, there is a link that lets you change your charity.
  3. Search for Sustainable West Seattle.
  4. Click the Select button to activate it as your charity.

That’s it!  There’s no cost to you or to Sustainable West Seattle to participate.

If you don’t like the idea of Amazon donating to SWS and reaping the tax-deduction benefit, then you can donate directly using the PayPal button we setup on the right-hand side of our website (or use the button below).
[paypal-donation purpose=”Donation to Sustainable West Seattle via West Seattle Bike Connections” reference=”West Seattle Bike Connections”]

So how does this relate to biking and West Seattle Bike Connections?  Sustainable West Seattle is our fiscal sponsor, so any funds we can get to them come back to us so we can help promote our mission!  Things like business cards, stickers, or other informational material isn’t free.

Thanks for helping us out!

Hope Springs Eternal – Ride to the Mariners’ Game

When Al is not driving kids around West Seattle in a big yellow bus, you might find him riding his bike to a Mariner’s game. About 20 games a season by bike. Why ride? It’s fast, easy, fun and free. Nice bike cage at Safeco Field’s T-Mobile Park’s garage for 150 bikes, right by the staffed booth. Quick getaway after the game. Here’s his ride at the “road opener” celebration this week, and the big glove sculpture all set for cool spring evening games.

bike & trailer at Safeco Feild parking garageKnitted ball glove

 

 

 

Here are the Mariners’ directions on getting to the ballpark by bike, walking, water taxi, …

WSBC meeting Tuesday 4/1 @ 6:30

Please join us  at Home Street Bank,  4022 SW Alaska St
Lots on the agenda, with Bike Month coming up; grant applications; projects at schools; Greenways; intersections; bike corrals; Alki Summer Streets and summer events to plan. Open meeting.  You are invited.

See the Calendar for map, details

Meeting agenda and notes can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qj4O-vYmK_tZi9g5Mv5yme4bwQK7834afbf4zILBoNU/edit?usp=sharing

 

Riding in the Rain

IMG_0826 IMG_8148 - Version 2IMG_7453

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve been riding in the rain!
In the city.. and in the country.  You can haul your own ark if you are worried about flooding.

Lots of ways to do it comfortably and arrive dry in our mild, moist, maritime climate. Cascade posted some good tips a while back. What are your tips?

Some of ours:

For safety: lights and light colors in daytime, more lights and reflectivity at night.

For comfort riding around town: Venting rain gear, WP mitts if it’s cold, no gloves if it’s warm; consider a rain cape if a jacket is too sweaty, or if it’s warm just wear quick-drying clothes. Waterproof work boots or dress boots or sandals can be easier than bike-specific shoes and booties. Finding the rain gear that works for you allows riding in normal clothes without the need to change when you get where you are going, if you adjust your layers, venting and pace to avoid overheating.

For less maintenance: Consider wider, sturdier tires to take water-filled potholes; disk or drum brakes; long fenders; single speed or internal gears.

Tweed Ride Report

We ride in the rain! It dampened our tweed outfits, but not our spirits! A few intrepid West Seattle Bike Connections members dressed up and rode to Bike Expo at Pier 91, all arriving warm, dry and looking good.  We enjoyed the amazing German bike acrobats, the food, the new bikes, the classic bikes, the presentations by Greenways advocates and by Willie Weir,  all the latest gear, and meeting bike riding friends from all over the city. Lots more emphasis on making bikes a practical way to get around, with bikes and carrying devices for hauling kids and groceries year round.  But plenty to keep weekend club riders and racers happy, too.

IMG_5182 IMG_7090 DSC00663