Month: September 2013

10/1 at Beveridge Place – Let’s Celebrate

WEST SEATTLE BIKE CONNECTIONS – YEAR ONE

Let’s celebrate!  Pot luck at Beveridge Place Pub,

Tuesday 10/1 6:30 to 8:00 pm   or til they kick us out. Suggested, not required: A to M: salad, vegetable or bread, N to Z: protein, pizza or dessert; buy your beverages from Beveridge Place.  Thriftway is near, at Morgan.

In our first year, we developed connections with each other. We changed bike planning and action in West Seattle!

We developed relationships among bike riders from all over the peninsula. Our ranks include hard core commuters like Bill Gobie, who also does 1,000K randonneur rides. Moms like Jodi Connolly, who races cyclocross with her husband and kids, and serves on the Seattle Bike Advisory Board. And retired people like Kathy Dunn, who gets all over West Seattle and beyond using bike, bus and a little folding trailer, and never races but volunteers like crazy for her community. We found out how many would like to ride more places, but do not think it is safe yet.

Here’s a first annual report:  WSBC Year One

We developed relationships with other groups and agencies. These include West Seattle Greenways, West Seattle Spokespeople, Sustainable West Seattle, Seattle Department of Transportation staff and leadership, Mayor McGinn, Council Members Rasmussen, O’Brien and Bagshaw, the Port of Seattle, the Freight Advisory Board, the Bike Advisory Board, our local bike shops, some of West Seattle and South Park’s neighborhood and business associations, Cascade Bicycle Club, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, Seattle Bike Blog, newspaper and TV reporters, and last but by no means least, the West Seattle Blog.

What will we do in year two?  What would you like to do? Come talk.

 

Bike Biz – Garden Cycles

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I met West Seattleite Steve Richmond, owner of Garden Cycles, on the Alki Trail this morning. He was headed to a landscape restoration job with his trailer full of tools. We crossed paths again this evening pedaling home from our work places. Using bikes for work fits his philosophy and methods. Not all of the employees travel by bike, but they have three trailer outfits, and offer incentives for “green commutes”.  If you want to remove invasive plants and stabilize and restore slopes with native planting, that’s their specialty.   Un-driving video featuring Steve here.   Don Brubeck

South Park Connections

Art Brochet from SDOT briefed the South Park Transportation Committee on developments related to extension of the West Duwamish Trail through the industrial area of South Park at a meeting last Tuesday, 9/17. These street improvements are big deal for this vibrant, but under-served community. They fill in some key gaps we have recommended for the Bike Master Plan.

The West Duwamish trail extension will start at Holden, run southeast along the WA99 right of way, then east on Portland to 8th, with two added blocks south on 8th. Bike lanes along Portland will be separated from traffic by trees and lighting. Portland Ave is a gravel street at the moment, with truck traffic serving industrial businesses, and will be paved. The project is now proposed to extend an additional two blocks south from Portland to Kenyon on 8th, as requested by WSBC in our Bike Master Plan Update comments, with the bike lane on that stretch separated from traffic lanes by parking – a real state-of-the-art bike route! Because the path will be crossed by several entrances to industrial sites, with trucks and forklifts moving across the trail, Art would appreciate our help in designing signage to warn cyclists.

Design for the bike trail part of the project is at nearly 90%, but the road and drainage parts of the project are a bit farther behind. Still, Art expects the project to go to bid in November and construction to begin in May. He shared a draft project planning notice that should be finalized and available to us and others soon. More importantly, he plans to hold an open house on the project to solicit community reaction on November 12th from 5 to 7 pm (date and time to be confirmed), just before a meeting of the South Park Neighborhood Association. At least one business rep is opposed to the trail,  so our support at the meeting would be welcome.

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This report is from Bob Winship, West Seattle Bike Connections.  At the invitation of Dagmar Cronn, President of the South Park Neighborhood Association, Bob and others from WSBC began participating with the South Park neighborhood in working for safe bike routes to places people in South Park want to ride to, including parks, the community center and library, the Duwamish Trail, and West Seattle, where many South Park kids go to middle and high school. If you live or work in South Park and want to participate, please do! Let us know, or contact the SPNA.

East Marginal – Smoother Sailing

Wet and windy this morning, but the paving on East Marginal is feeling a LOT better. New surfacing at the Hanford to Horton intersections and another of the worst sections further north.  One less thing to think about when getting into the north bound bike lane, and just in time for wetter, darker riding.

Thank you SDOT!  These are more of the interim improvements requested by Mayor McGinn and approved by City Council, pushed by Transportation Committee Chair Tom Rasmussen.  Funded by savings from the Spokane Street Viaduct project.

IMG_0303  IMG_0309Some of the curved, buried RR tracks have been removed, and trees in the sidewalk from Spokane to near Horton have been transplanted along side or removed, and the tree pits have been paved. Still to come: moving hydrants and some signs out of the path and grinding down bumps. Puddle drainage. Widening the west side sidewalk to really convert the west side sidewalk to a multi-use path workable for two-way bike traffic?

If you have not tried the downtown commute via West Seattle Bridge Trail, East Marginal and Alaskan Way, this could be a good time to give it a shot. Not perfect (still have Lake Marginal and a big puddle near Spokane), but much improved surface, and there is still light to see and get to know it.  Come January, when the Viaduct is shut down for tunnel drilling, it may be dark and wet and colder, but a bike with lights and rain jacket for 30 minutes will beat being stuck in traffic for an hour or more.

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Here are a couple of “before” shots in the same area, from January of this year:

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video from Bike & Truck Safety Fair

Bike-truck_safety__130906_15a short video  from the Bike & Truck Safety Fair  September 6, at Terminal 25. photo and video by Don Wilson, Port of Seattle Photographer.  Starring West Seattle bike riders, truck drivers and SDOT and Port and Cascade Bicycle Club staff

This could become an annual event.

 

Freight Advisory Board news – 9/17/13

What? Isn’t this a bike blog? Why freight? Because…

1. We live on a peninsula. To get to Seattle we need to go across bridges and on routes that are also, and primarily, major truck routes though the Duwamish manufacturing and industrial center and the Port of Seattle seaport and rail yards.

2. We need jobs. These manufacturing areas and the port are the drivers of our economy. Lots of us are riding to jobs directly connected to the port, freight transfer, world trade and manufacturing that depends on freight. We all need to consume goods brought by ship, rail and truck. The deep water seaport on Elliott Bay remains the primary reason that Seattle exists as a city.

3. We have hills. Bikes and trucks both need relatively gentle grades. The street that angle across the hills or run on the flats. We have to share those grades and co-exist.

At today’s meeting:

  1. Video shown from the Bike & Truck Safety Fair, and thanks to all who participated!  Could become annual. Photos and video will be shared soon.
  2. Freight Advisory Board comments on the Waterfront EIS. Trucking companies have the same concerns as bike riders: will we be able to get through it smoothly without delay after the tunnel and waterfront are done?
  3. WSDOT freight plan. Barbara Ivanov from WSDOT presented the state’s freight plan for highways, marine and rail. Focus on bottlenecks. All slow speed bottlenecks on WA freeways are in central Puget Sound (surprise!) esp I-5 though Seattle and I-405 in Renton. For non-freeway highways, northbound 99 south of 1st Ave bridge is a poster child bottleneck, with posted speed limit of 40 and actual average speed of 22.  Basically, that speed make bikes competitive for freight hauling.  Well, at least it shows that if we can more people out of cars that are slowing down trucks and onto bikes traveling safely beside trucks, we can help improve freight mobility and our economy. Why are our highways and bridges in such bad shape?  Legislators pass funding for new projects but not for preservation of existing highways and bridges, and the gas tax is declining, and WA does not have an income tax or use general funds for state highways.  (Local streets are funded by property tax, NOT by gas tax).
  4. SDOT ITS initiative:  information technology to manage traffic flow and make it more efficient. SDOT has completed a study but not funded implementation of ways to use LOTS of expensive information technology to get real time feedback on traffic conditions to signals, readerboard signs,  online traffic flow maps and more from social media, etc.  Sounds fine for signals and road signs. Sound really scary for all the cool ways people could use their smart phones in their vehicles instead of actually paying attention to the road around them. This needs some attention and severe editing.  Another option to spending 10’s of millions on IT: Spend hundreds of thousands on bike routes and just ride. It does not take any more IT than the weather report.
  5. SDOT/Port of Seattle Industrial Areas Action Project:  Tony Mazella reported on this project for the Duwamish and the Ballard (Interbay) Manufacturing and Industrial Centers (MICs). It will identify improvement projects within and between these areas and from them to highways, intermodal yards, shipping terminals. Draft in spring 2014. Stakeholder outreach now. These routes coincide with bike routes in many cases.
  6. SDOT Freight Master Plan:  Work beginning soon. Same team as for Bike Master Plan, which is encouraging for integration of the two. Sara Zora presented.  As with the BMP, the street network definition is a key element. For City policy, the Freight, Bike, Transit and Pedestrian Master Plans are Modal Plans. They, along with  Operations Plan and SubArea Plan, flow from the Transportation Strategic Plan.The Transportation Strategic Plan and the Climate Action Plan flow from the Comprehensive Plan.
  7. SDOT Capital Projects:  Art Brochet reported on their current list of large projects, and offered to give the FAB briefings on projects of interest at 30% design stage for design input and near bid stage for construction detours and other mitigation during construction.  Lots of these involve arterials and bridges of interest for bike transportation, too.

SODO Arena EIS – this affects bike connections from West Seattle

Arena Draft EIS came out to no fanfare in August. The proponents’ preferred SODO scheme vacates public streets, and impacts our bike routes from West Seattle to downtown and Beacon Hill, to say nothing of freight traffic and shipping, bus routes and car traffic.  Comments due by September 30.

At first glance, it is predictably and sadly lacking in evaluation of the traffic impact for pedestrians, bikes, cars, trucks, buses, and trains. They  have no b-ball team right now, so this will be easy for the proponents to slip by the citizens of Seattle unless we read it critically and comment or appeal it. If you are interested in a group response, please comment here or send a message. Land use and environmental attorneys wanted!  We need serious analysis and mitigation proposals.

http://buildingconnections.seattle.gov/2013/08/15/seattle-arena-draft-environmental-impact-statement-available/

First public hearing is already past.

Second and final one:  September 19 at 6:00 p.m. Fidalgo Room Seattle Center

Saturday 9/14 – Bikes & Horses

Fiestas Patrias,  South Park

We’ll be there on behalf of Cascade Bicycle Club to do helmet fitting and give helmets to kids who don’t have one, and for bike information. Parade at 11 a.m. We’ll be at the fiesta after the parade, at Sea-Mar Plaza, 9634 Des Moines Memorial Parkway, 1:00 to ~5:00.
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Come volunteer with us, or ride with the Mayor from Seattle Center to the Parade and horse show, then come visit the fiesta. If you want to volunteer, comment or send a message.

 

This Friday 6:30-8:30 am: Bike & Truck Safety Fair

Share the road safely! Join the Port of Seattle and  partners for an opportunity to learn about truck blind spots and the challenges bicyclists and truck drivers face each day as they share Seattle’s busy roads.

Come for bagels, fruit and coffee. Stay to ride along in a semi on a short course to see what truck drivers can and can’t see. 15 minutes at the Bike & Truck Safety Fair may give you a new perspective, and an opportunity to meet SDOT, WSDOT and Port of Seattle representatives.

When: Friday, September 6, 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.
Where: Terminal 25, 3225 East Marginal Way, south entry, just north of Spokane Street, where the truck drivers park

Bike_Truck-Fair_Flyer_final_2-1We are partners of this Port of Seattle sponsored event. if you would like to volunteer an hour, we could use one or two more.