2020 – What could go right?

Pandemic. Bridge out. It was bad. We are all trying to cope and are grieving our losses, including lives, contacts with loved ones and friends, income, access to education, and more.

But it wasn’t all bad.  Some good things we’ve been working are happening. All of them due to years of work with other people and groups, building relationships, trust and mutual support. Here are five highlights to give us good cheer. Let’s celebrate the end of a miserable year.

Avalon Way SW Protected bike lanes

and intersection safety improvements are completed! We’ve been fully involved with SDOT, local businesses and other stakeholders to make this  key West Seattle bike and transit route safer for people of all ages and abilities to walk, bike and take the bus. Thank you!

Child riding bike uphill on Avalon Way SW in new protected bike lane.
Doug’s young son riding uphill in the new protected bike lane.

East Marginal Way Corridor Improvement Project

Protected bike lanes, intersections with bike signals, and off-street path from S Spokane Street to the Portside Trail are funded and designed for construction in 2021 .  This is a big win. We and our allies at Port of Seattle have been working for this since 2012.  It is a catalyst for increasing the number of people riding bikes to downtown and points east and north.

bike riders mixing with car and semi-truck traffic on East Marginal Way South, Seattle

 

Duwamish Longhouse Pedestrian Safety and Accessibility Project

The Duwamish Tribe’s project was fully funded by City Council, and is in design. Coming soon: sidewalks, crosswalk with traffic signal, and an ADA accessible route to the Duwamish Trail, parking, Ha-ah-Poos Park, and the Duwamish River.
We have been working to support the Tribe’s efforts, successfully building a broad coalition of other community groups. We would like to acknowledge that we are on the unceded traditional land of the first people of Seattle, the Duwamish People past and present. We honor with gratitude the land itself and the Duwamish Tribe. Supporting the Tribe’s Ridge to River vision is one way we can go from words into action.
person crossing 5 lanes of traffic with a flagger at Duwamish Longhouse

Reconnect West Seattle

Many of our “Biking to Bridge the Gap ” measures to get more people on bikes for mobility while the West Seattle bridge are in the plan, thanks to a concerted effort with our allies at Duwamish Valley Safe Streets, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways and Cascade Bicycle Club. Some are completed. We even did one ourselves with friends from Highland Park. We’ll need to advocate for more in 2021

We also helped a lot of Essential Bikers find ways to commute to work.
And,  e-bikes sales explode, defusing the clamor for new regrade projects to level West Seattle’s hills. Paul Dieter wrote this helpful guide.
Seattle fire fighter and medic in parkas on e-bikes at Duwamish east waterway.

Delridge Way SW Multi-Modal Corridor Project

Another top priority project is under construction. Fast, frequent bus service on the RapidRide H to downtown Burien and downtown Seattle is a big win for West Seattle transportation where it’s needed most. The project does not include everything we’d like to see, and actually removes some bike lane, but is adding a protected bike lane south bound for the south half; greenway improvements on 26th SW, SW Andover and SW Croft, a bike-triggered signal at SW Juneau, and safety improvements at SW Andover to the bridge trail under a Neighborhood Street Fund grant that Kathy Dunn proposed.

girl on bike with bike blender to make smoothies at Delridge Day
WSBC bike blender smoothies at Delridge Day

 

 

 

 

Cycle History 2020

Cycle History 2020 is here. Put some variety into your West Seattle outings on wheels, and learn a little local history, too. 

Fourth annual history ride with Southwest Seattle Historical Society and West Seattle Bike Connections!
We can’t do a group ride this year, so we have three self-guided routes to try any time you want to, along with an audio guide and historical photos from SWSHS. 
https://www.loghousemuseum.org/exhibits/cycle-history-neighborhood-grocery-stores/

Bridge Bike Counts 2020

Spokane St Bridge bike counts are down this year for obvious reasons, but climbing back up, as more people try riding across the river for excercise or to get to essential jobs.

With drastically fewer people working downtown, the  daily pattern is really different: more weekend riders; lower morning and evening commute hour peaks; more mid-day riding.

Too bad we don’t have data for neighborhood routes within West Seattle.  Casual observation shows an amazing increase.

Reconnect West Seattle – 10% by bike

 

 

We are happy to see that the City recognizes the role biking can play to mitigate impacts of the West Seattle high-rise bridge closure by creating an aggressive but realistic bike mode share goal. To get acheive the goal of 10% of trips across the bridge at peak hour by bike,  it will be necessary to make biking routes safe, comfortable and efficient.

But…

SDOT’s proposed funding and scope of projects to improve biking is insufficient. It will take fully funding the spot improvements list we provided in April.  While we appreciate the inclusion of many of our suggestions in the Reconnect Seattle Survey, we are disappointed to see that the City intends to implement only a handful of spot improvement projects, spending less than $1M [up to 10 projects at less than $100,000 each.] This is woefully inadequate to attract the numbers of new bikers and sustain their comittment to cycling for the years of the bridge project.

And…

Paint and post improvements need to be complemented with programmatic support. The City must act to support people from a range of backgrounds so that people of all ages, abilities, languages, ethnicities, genders and races can equally rely on biking as a safe, affordable and sustainable way of getting around during the bridge closure.

See our latest proposals to the City, 200812 reconnect WS – bike mode shift , made in collaboration with Duwamish Valley Safe Streets, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, Cascade Bicycle Club, and endorsed by 350 Seattle, Transit Riders Union, The Urbanist, Feet First and Lime.

photo of woman riding bike on trail approaching Spokane Street Bridge. Semi truck and high bridge in backrou

 

Reconnect West Seattle

Deadline this Friday, July 31:
Please take the Reconnect West Seattle survey.

Your voice is needed to help get more people on bikes across the bridges safety and efficiently.  Mobility for West Seattle, South Park and Georgetown depends on it.

It’s going to take a lot more than 10 projects at <$100K each, but this is a start, and it’s what we have available to us at the moment, so let’s go for it. Most of the projects came from our input with Duwamish Valley Safe Streets, Cascade Bicycle Club and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.

 


There are also separate neighborhood surveys for the most heavily impacted neighborhoods in the south end of West Seattle, South Park & Georgetown.

 

Hah Ah Poos – Stand with the Duwamish to Rename T-107 Park

We ride on the Duwamish Trail. We live in the city named for Chief Seattle.

We acknowledge that we are on the unceded traditional land of the first people of Seattle, the Duwamish People past and present. We honor with gratitude the land itself and the Duwamish Tribe.

We have been  working to support the Duwamish Tribe’s need for a safe crossing of West Marginal Way from the Duwamish Longhouse & Cultural Center to the trail, park and river.

Here is another opportunity to support the Duwamish Tribe. Their video makes a compelling presentation, If you agree, you can take the Port’s survey , and fill in the Tribe’s name choice for T-107 Park:  Ha Ah Poos Duwamish Village Park

Duwamish River in fog with snowberries in winter
The Duwamish River

This  step is for nominations, to be followed by a public poll on selected nominations in September.

Picture of bike rider on the Duwamish Trail between railroad track and park
The Duwamish Trail at T-107 Park across from the Duwamish Longhouse & Cultural Center

Your voice is needed

Please take the Reconnect West Seattle survey. Your voice is needed to help get more people on bikes across the bridges safety and efficiently. Mobility for West Seattle, South Park and Georgetown depends on it. It’s going to take a lot more than 10 projects at <$100K each, but this is a start, and it’s what we have available to us at the moment, so let’s go for it. Most of the projects came from our input with Duwamish Valley Safe Streets, Cascade Bicycle Club and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LM7MWN8
There are also separate neighborhood surveys for WS south end neighborhoods, SP & GT. Valuable input if you live in those neighborhoods.

 

WSBC July 7 meeting 6:30 pm

Agenda this month will focus on biking to help provide mobility during the West Seattle Bridge closure. We have invited guests from Seattle SDOT, SDON and the community task force.   See our proposals to SDOT

6:30 to 8:00 pm Zoom meeting.  Please join us!
To receive log in information,  email us at westseattlebikeconnections@gmail.com with your name and neighborhood.

Big Dig on Highland Park Way

While waiting for SDOT to get back to us on our April 28 (!) action requests for biking to the bridges, we did some of it ourselves, with folks from Highland Park Action Committee and the West Duwamish Greenbelt Trails Group.

Black Lives Matter

 
We need to turn our feelings of outrage about the unjust killing of George Floyd into love and action for racial justice in everything we do.

 

We share the outrage that has filled streets in Seattle and across the world over George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police. We grieve for his family, for Breonna Taylor’s, and for the families of hundreds of others who are killed by police each year (1,000 Americans are killed by police yearly — these deaths fall disproportionately on Black men).

We are also heartbroken and enraged by the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a young man out for his regular run in his South Georgia neighborhood.

The awful truth is that in America, including here in Seattle, running while Black, biking while Black, walking while Black, driving while Black, even just being in parks and other public space while Black can trigger police intervention, hate-based harassment, and worse. This atmosphere of terror for people of color, Indigenous people, and especially Black people, cannot continue.

Our vision is rooted in safe, comfortable, accessible streets; in the belief that the ability to get around safely, to the daily necessities of life, is a basic human right. This includes the right to not be murdered by police or civilian racists and the right to assemble in public spaces to demand justice (“Whose streets? Our streets!” “Black Lives Matter!” “Say his name! George Floyd!”) — without being corralled, tear-gassed, pepper-sprayed, beaten, or shot with rubber bullets and flash grenades.

Our commitment now is to continue to advance community-led solutions for street and public space improvements; to implement our racial equity action plan at every level of our organization; and to build solidarity with Black people, Indigenous people, and all people of color in the fight to dismantle white supremacy and racism. There is a long way to go and difficult self-reflection to undertake, but we are committed to doing our part to advance racial justice in Seattle so that everyone can exist, enjoy, protest, and travel safely on our streets.