May 2013 – West Seattle Bike Connections

Buses, bikes and social life

This day would have been so much less if I had driven a car the places I needed to go.

This morning a nice tailwind pushed me most of the way to work under threatening skies. Later on I took the #66 to go to the dentist in the U District with bike on board so I could ride back downtown faster than taking the bus. The driver was getting off for a break at the ferry terminal as I approached. I asked if I could load the bike, and he said, “only if you are an architect”. Turned out he was an old friend and fellow architect now driving for Metro part time and running his own flower business. We had a great time catching up on the last 10 years and his various careers and friends, while he took great care with several disabled passengers who obviously would not be able to drive or bike to their destination. Yaakov also talked about the toll the vibrations from bad paving take on bus drivers, and how we need to fund road improvements.

45 minutes by bus to NE 45th, 30 minutes by bike back to Pioneer Square. Along the way, Silas from Cascade’s Major Taylor Project introduced himself, as he rode on his way to SeaTac. We talked about that great program and our friends at Cascade and routes through West Seattle to the airport.

Then after work riding home, A.J., SDOT traffic engineer, overtook me me and we chatted about East Marginal and the bike counter and the Delridge Greenway construction, and found out we both had personal connections with Pathfinder School. After he peeled off, a young lady on a super carbon road bike told me about her trip from California where she was just riding her racy machine, and her legs gave proof to it. This would never happen off the bike. Then I finished the ride catching up to and talking with Bob Anderton, bike lawyer and neighbor.

It’s not about the bike.

Don

Seattle Bike Master Plan: Have We Been Heard?

The Bike Master Plan Update final draft will be revealed at public open houses in June. Last fall, we organized and participated in workshops, meetings with SDOT planners, group mapping and online comments. Does the plan respond? Lets go find out and let the planners and City Council know what we think!

June 5, 6-7:30 PM Seattle City Hall: some of us can attend and check it out.

June 6, 12-1 PM online session: others can learn and comment

June 12, 6-7:30 PM Columbia Branch Library: our chance to give an organized response after exchanging information and thoughts after the first sessions. We can organize a group ride and transit options to show the West Seattle flag.

Here is a nice little visual glossary of “bike facilities” planning jargon from the draft plan that can be good preparation for these sessions.

East Marginal Way – with SDOT

Notes from May 17 meeting at Seattle Department of Transportation

Attending from SDOT:

Dongho Chang, City Traffic Engineer

Monica DeWald, Traffic Management Division, Pedestrian & Bicycle Program

Christopher Eaves, Traffic Management Division, Port and Freight

Attending from West Seattle Bike Connections:

Sakaru Tsuchiya, civil engineer specialist in pedestrian and bike facilities

Bob Anderton, attorney at Washington Bike Law

Jeff Hallman, VP of West Seattle Bike Connections, industrial design engineer

Don Brubeck, President of West Seattle Bike Connections, architect

Dongho Chang led the meeting, inviting our input. He noted that SDOT’s concern is to improve safety and legibility of the bike route for the benefit of bike riders and car and truck drivers. SDOT has been out observing conditions, doing traffic counts and talking to other stakeholders over the past two weeks since Lance David’s death in the crash at Hanford on May 1. We used a video from Monica’s bike commute from West Seattle to look at specific conditions.

Mayor McGinn has proposed allocating $700,000 in saving from the Spokane Street Viaduct project to immediate short-term improvements to East Marginal Way and WS Bridge Trail bike facilities, and $200,000 to design for ultimate long-term improvements. The engineering design would be enough to have a project ready to be eligible and competitive for construction funding grants.

This funding requires City Council approval.

We need to let City Council members know that we want this to happen!

Our requests for short-term improvements:

Patch the pavement in bike lanes and at crossings.
Sweep the streets on a frequent basis, due to deteriorated pavement.
Build a safe crossing at Horton or Hanford, efficient for bikes, predictable for drivers.
Fill the large puddles and provide drainage.
Improve the sidewalk on west side to make it a safe, usable pedestrian/bike path. Move fire hydrants, trees between Spokane and Horton, utility poles and signs out of the sidewalk on the west side.
At S Atlantic St/Alaskan Way transition to Portside Trail at Terminal 46:
1. adjust the aiming of the traffic light video sensor to better detect northbound bikes in bike lane;
2. add signage or pavement graphic to show northbound bikes where to stop;
3. change southbound signal to be normally green instead of normally red for southbound ped/bike traffic, with vehicle sensors to change it to red southbound and green east-west or northbound left when needed.
Request Port of Seattle to improve sightlines at terminal entries and exits by making fencing transparent or revising it for better sight triangles at curb cuts.
Promote the improved multi-use path on Spokane St east of East Marginal Way to 6^th Ave as option to get into SODO or other destinations to NE.

This funding requires City Council approval.

We need to let City Council members know that we want this to happen!

Long-term:

Physical barrier separating bike from vehicle lanes on East Marginal Way from Spokane to Atlantic, connecting WS Bridge Trail to Portside Trail to Central Waterfront.
Safe crossing at Horton or Hanford for bike traffic to SODO. Bike detectors, flashing beacons and right-on-red restriction if crossing is on north side of intersection.

We discussed pros and cons of location of separated cycle-track or multi-use path.

One-way cycle tracks each side are good for fast riding without bike/pedestrian conflicts, but probably take too much right-of-way width and have challenges with intersections at Hinds, Horton and Hanford. Deletion of center turn lane is probably not an option due to queuing needs for trucks at terminal entries.

A wider two-way multi-use path on the west side from Spokane to Hanford, crossing over to a two-way cycle track on the east side from Hanford to Atlantic would avoid conflict with Port terminal entries. However, it still requires a lane crossover in heavy traffic at Atlantic to get back to Portside trail on the west, so that would still be discouraging for many potential users.

A two-way cycle track or wide multi-use path on east would be more “legible” and direct, and avoid the need for crossing East Marginal and making one or two lane cross-overs when going northbound. However, this requires more driveways to cross and has pedestrian conflicts.

Dongho said that the majority opinion so far from various stakeholders is that a separated route all on the west side would be best. We noted that if that approach is taken, there will still be a need for a safe crossing into SODO and east to Fourth Ave S for some bike riders at Hanford or Horton, and safety on west side will require considerably more width, much better sightlines at terminal entries, and consideration of bike/pedestrian conflicts.

For short-term fixes, Monica noted that the poor soil and pavement conditions mean that any paving patching or overlays are almost immediately destroyed by truck traffic. The long-term plan is to completely repave this road as a heavy truck haul route with much more robust paving, In the meantime, patches and street sweeping can help some. Monica noted that filling for drainage fixes have not worked at the puddles. There is nowhere for the water to go. It just moves the puddles, then the patch deteriorates and it moves back.

Dongho said that they are now looking at a short term multi-use path on the east that would widen the sidewalk by taking planting area and bike lane area, raising it up with ashalt paving and a curb. This would provide the width needed for two-way bike and pedestrian traffic and get bikes up away from the puddles. This could be accomplished within the proposed funding and not require lengthy land negotiations with the Port or BNSF. This is not yet decided. SDOT is exploring options and inviting suggestions.

This funding requires City Council approval.

Please let City Council members know that you want this to happen!

Bike to Work Day – Friday May 17

WEST SEATTLE BIKE CONNECTIONS for the first time hosts the F5 Bike to Work Day station at the west end of the West Seattle low level bridge where the Bridge Trail, Duwamish Trail, and Alki Trail converge.

Stop a minute for a home made cookie from our volunteers, coffee donated by Starbucks, a souvenir from Cascade Bicycle Club, a limited number of WSBC spokecards and Washington Bike Law spokecards, commuting information and friendly conversation. Enter the drawing for Fabulous Prizes! Join Cascade Bicycle Club at a discount.

Alki Bike and Board mechanics will be back again this year offering air for your tires, a quick check of your bike, and maybe a free tube if you are lucky! Say hi to Stu!

His name is Lance David

Thank you for a huge demonstration of community support tonight for Lance David, and for safe streets. Scores of people from all over West Seattle and the rest of the city rode with us. Mayor McGinn. Council Member Tom Rasmussen. SDOT Traffic Engineer Donho Chang. Port of Seattle Government Affairs Director Mike Merritt. Madi Carlson her two kids rode the long pink bike from Ballard. Millie Magner from Magnolia. Cathy Tuttle from Wallingford. Jerry Retzlaff from Wedgewood. Barbara Gordon from Eastlake. Robin Randels from Cascade Bicycle Club. Friends from Beacon Hill. Jake Vanderplas organized and moderated this event, with support and guidance from Cathy Tuttle of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways. Dongho Chang and I spoke at the start of the ride at Seacrest Park. Jodi Connolly spoke from the heart at the crash site about Lance David in a way that will keep his name with us forever. His name is Lance David.

my words from tonight (and I hope Jodi will share hers, for those who could not be there):

We are here to pay our respects to the memory and family of Lance David.

I will never forget coming across that crash scene, 45 minutes after it happened. His body was under a blanket out in the street, behind crime scene tape. No one was standing or kneeling with him. It seemed so lonely and disrespectful.

So we are here, to pay respect.

We are here to pay respect for Lance David as his co-workers did last Friday, and his riding buddies did on Sunday.

We respect him as a son, as our brother. We respect him as a husband, as a father of two children, working to support them. We respect him as a responsible, experienced cyclist.

Lance David demonstrated commitment to his family and his work. He demonstrated commitment to leading a healthy life. He demonstrated commitment to our community and our environment by choosing to commute by bike from Federal Way to downtown as often as he could.

So we are here to demonstrate.

We are here to demonstrate that we care about Lance David and his family.

We are here to demonstrate the need for safe streets for our children to walk and ride on, for their health and for our community.

We are here to demonstrate the need for safe routes to work for our children’s moms and dads, so they can make it home safely every day.

David Lance worked in the freight shipping industry, just like the truck drivers here. It is not “us” against “them”. It is all “us”. We all want to share the road safely. The port truck drivers do watch out for us and treat us courteously, but these intersections are not designed or maintained to allow us to safely co-exist. We need a safe crossing and a separated cycle track. We need decent pavement so we can focus on traffic, not on potholes and gravel.

We have good people at the SDOT, at the Port, in City Council, and in our Mayor, who care about this. But this City and State are not allocating the resources needed to make walking and biking safe in our lifetimes. So we want our elected officials and fellow citizens to demonstrate the same level of commitment that Lance David did.

We are putting our lives on the line to make bike transportation safe and efficient and enjoyable, to build a better community for all of us, including truck drivers and car drivers and people who can neither ride or drive themselves. We will make this route safer, or die trying.

Don Brubeck, President, West Seattle Bike Connections

Lance David Memorial Ride – May 7th

On Wednesday, May 1st, the first hours of Bike to Work Month witnessed tragedy. Lance David, a 54 year old cyclist, friend, father, and husband, was killed in a collision with a truck on East Marginal Way.

Please join us and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways for a short memorial bike ride starting on Tuesday, May 7th at 5:30pm, where we’ll have a chance to gather as a community in memory of Lance and all the others who have tragically lost their lives on the streets of our city.

Where: Meet at the Seacrest Park (1660 Harbor Ave SW)

When: Tuesday, May 7th, 5:30 PM

Why: Along with Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, we want to ensure our community supports safe, healthy, livable streets. This segment of the daily commute for many people going to and from West Seattle by bike can be hazardous.

We want to learn from this tragedy and make the commute better for West Seattle, and make streets safer all over Seattle. We want streets that allow predictable safe behavior and allow us to look out for each other.

Lance David worked in freight & shipping, just like the truck driver involved in the collision. His job depended on the port and its modes of transportation. Shipping company employees depend on safe routes to ride to work. It is not “us” against “them”. It is all “us”…we are one community.

Route: The ride will be a relaxed, flat 3.2 miles, entirely on separated bike paths (the Alki bike path and West Seattle Bridge path) from the meeting location to the site of Wednesday’s crash.

Safety will be our foremost concern on this ride. The path has blind curves and a couple of tricky intersections. Bike commuters will be coming west at a good clip as we travel east. They are not expecting to meet a crowd. Seattle Police Bike Patrol officers will escort us, but each rider will need to pay attention to the path and other users. We will yield to pedestrians, and stop at red lights unless a police officer is waiving us through.