Month: January 2019

We joined Cascade Bicycle Club and Westside Bikes in a bike commute station this morning, where the trails meet just east of the Spokane Street Bridge. Treats, coffee, swag and mechanical advice, along with lots of good conversations.

Seattle City Councilmembers Lorena Gonzalez and Theresa Mosqueda were among the many riders who stopped.  We appreciate their leading by example!

This was to encourage of all the people who are giving winter bike commuting a try. You are all doing an amazing job of helping West Seattle and the region deal with the SR99 viaduct to tunnel transition!  Numbers are way way up on the Spokane Street Bridge bike counter, exceeding the counts on lots of nice summer days.  Keep on doing it!

Thank you to Dave Urbina from Cascade, and Brad Loetel and Mitch from Westside Bikes.  Our volunteers included Stephanie Payne, Joe Laubach, Paul Dieter (who brought cookies from Valerie), Tamara Schmautz, Bob Winship, Don Brubeck, and Bryan Fiedorczyk. Bryan took the last shift because he is furloughed from his federal job 🙁 . Just in time, Bryan, looks like you’ll be back to work soon, and adding to the count of bike trips across the bridge.

We have reported on this scary story:  People on foot are crossing 5 lanes with a 40 mph posted speed limit on a major truck route, without a crosswalk, to get to the Duwamish Longhouse from Herring House Park and parking lots, and from the Duwamish Trail. There is just a rough dirt path on the west side of the road. The Duwamish Tribe has applied to SDOT’s Neighborhood Street Fund for a sidewalk and signalized crosswalk to keep people safe and make it ADA accessible.

Right now, 300 applications are in the “prioritization” phase leading to selection of just one or two projects in each Council district.  Along with other community groups, we are supporting the Duwamish Tribe. The Duwamish people generously offer hospitality to all at their Longhouse on West Marginal Way for all kinds of events and programs. But 10 years after its opening, the City has not provided a sidewalk or safe crossing of West Marginal Way.

Please attend a community prioritization meeting or vote online for the Duwamish Longhouse Pedestrian Safety & Accessibility Project, App ID 2019-134

Saturday, February 2, 10:30 am – 12:30 pm, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, 4408 Delridge Way SW

Monday, February 4, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm, South Park Hall, 1253 S Cloverdale St

Here is the Duwamish Tribe’s statement with their application:

The Duwamish Longhouse is the cultural center for indigenous People in the Coast-Salish region – a home to our spiritual practices and lifeways, as well as ceremonies and community gatherings. We invite you in with open and raised arms. Come and learn about our culture and living history.

However, the Duwamish Longhouse on West Marginal Way SW at SW Alaska Street has limited parking and no transit service. Many people coming to events park across the street, at Herring’s House Park and T-107 Park (T!ula’ltu). For large events, the Tribe has arranged to use the bus barn lot north of Herring’s House Park and the Parks Department lot at SW Idaho St on the west side of West Marginal Way SW. Other people come by bike using the Duwamish Trail from West Seattle or South Park. The approach from these locations is not safe, comfortable, or ADA accessible.  The street has five lanes, with heavy truck traffic, a posted speed limit of 40 mph, and actual speeds often exceeding 50 mph. There is only a dirt path on the west side for walking. Some community events use both the Longhouse and the park. The park is a listed National Register archeological site of great importance to the Tribe.

Adding a sidewalk on the west side of the street from SW Alaska to SW Idaho Street and a marked crosswalk with warning signs and pedestrian-activated signal or flashing beacons would make a significant safety and accessibility improvement for people arriving by car, bike or on foot to the Longhouse.

Submitted by: Jolene Hass, Treasurer/Grants Administrator, The Duwamish Tribe

The Duwamish people have been here for thousands of years. They are still here, 166 years after Chief Seattle welcomed the first Euro-Americans, who proceeded to take Duwamish lands and waters. It is time for the whole community to recognize and give back the hospitality the Duwamish Tribe offers freely to all of us.

There are other good applications, too, although some would actually be funded by other projects, or are too expensive for NSF grants.  We’d like to also recommend these, submitted by members of West Seattle Bicycle Connections:

We are getting the news out out that riding a bike can be viable Viadoom option. Our second SurviveRealign99 ride attracted another couple dozen people for a test run to Downtown, lower QA and South Lake Union.

We had a great turnout last Saturday, so we’re doing it again this Sunday, January 13.

The Alaska Way Viaduct is coming down! Traffic is entering the period of maximum gridlock. How will we get out of West Seattle to go downtown?   Ride our bikes!

This ride is a chance to try out bike commute routes in a friendly group, on a Sunday morning with more daylight and less traffic than on weekdays.

Meet in front of Starbucks in the West Seattle Junction on California SW at SW Alaska. Arrive by 9:15 for check in, safety briefing. Rolling at 9:30 am.

For more information and (free) pre-registration, see https://cascade.org/node/46547

Here are counts of actual bike trips at key locations in Seattle where SDOT has permanent full time bike counters.  Fremont Bridge, Spokane Street Bridge, and Second Avenue protected bike lanes near University Street.  Contrary to recent news reports, you can see that the numbers have been fairly even over the last few years at the bridges, and went way up on Second Avenue after the second phase was completed.

The SDOT bike counters count real people actually using bikes, for all kinds of purposes. The Second Avenue data is interesting.  It shows what happened very quickly when the City actually made a big change on just one downtown street to prioritize safety, and permitted dockless bike share, too.

The erroneous news stories reporting that bike riding went down by some big percentage in 2017 in Seattle were based on a small sample of people answering a US Census American Community Survey question on what their single primary mode of commuting was. They did not actually count any bike riders on the streets. They just sampled a few people, and their question missed all those who use a bike for just part of their commute, or part of the time.

The numbers are from SDOT. We added up the monthly data for each year. The graphs are ours, as are any errors.

We adjusted 2018 data for the Spokane Street Bridge to account for 6 days lost in June to emergency bridge closure, 3.5 days in November due to copper cable theft, and 9 days in December due to another copper cable theft. Adjustment was made by interpolation from nearest weekday and weekend days to those events. Counts even without those 18.5 days were higher than 2017 by 3.5%. This counter is still out. A temporary hose counter in place.  Of course, due to the federal government shutdown, the US Census Bureau is not working either.