Author: admin

One that you cause? Report from Al J, who earlier in the day was fitting helmets and leading middle school kids on a ride, helping them learn to ride safely on the streets:

Around 4:30 Saturday (5/31) afternoon while riding to the Mariners game I was traveling eastbound on the bike trail along Spokane, as I approached the turn onto E. Marginal Way (to head north) I looked through the chain-link fencing to see a group of cyclists heading towards me and yelled a heads-up to announce my presence. Which I’m guessing they didn’t hear.

Making the left turn (probably a bit too fast in hind-sight) I see they are riding 4 abreast leaving me very little room to get by. My speed and the lack of room forced me into the (approx.) 6’ x 6’ concrete support column for the overhead bridge traffic.

Hitting the concrete with my right forearm and shoulder I immediately bounced off and fell to the ground onto my left forearm, shoulder and knee and then ended in an up-right sitting position to find the force of one of the collisions had knocked the wind out of me. As I sat there grunting and trying to catch my breath I hear a female voice off to my right asking “Are you alright?” and I look to see one the women from the group (2 men and 2 women) had stopped to check on me. As far as I could tell, the 3 other riders had continued as they were not in my field of vision.

Almost immediately I heard a male voice yell “Come on Rachael, G** damn-it, lets go!”, which prompted her to ride off leaving me there alone.

After catching my breath and doing a self and bike assessment I decided that the uber-sore shoulder is probably all muscular pain and continued on to the game. (Die-hard baseball fan here!)

While at the game I did stiffen up considerable however was able to score 4 ibuprofen from a woman sitting behind me which, in combination with the M’s exciting 3-2 win over Detroit I had enough grit to ride back to west Seattle and even climb California Way and make it home.

Rachael, if you’re or anybody in your party is reading this, other than being pretty damn sore and slightly scraped-up, I think I’m okay however tomorrow morning will give a better assessment of that. And I will be contacting the SPD tomorrow and letting them know of this so they have it on record.

Fortunately my injuries are not worse, or even anywhere near those sustained by John Macy, but if they were who knows how long I would have sat there until someone came along to help.

In closing all I have to say is…Come on people, make smart(er) decisions and do the right thing!!!!!

Joe and his family are what we are all about. Here’s Joe’s introduction to our group:

My family lives in Highpoint. I got back into riding about a year ago when I discovered how much fun it is to ride with my daughter on the back of my bike. We’ve done a lot of family rides and we just started bike commuting this month. I work for a transportation company on Harbor Island and my wife works on East Marginal so it works out quite well. Our daughter is in daycare also on East Marginal so it’s been a family bike commute for the past couple weeks!

I actually do the commute to her office each day because I’m carrying the kiddo. So we ride from West Seattle to her office on East Marginal, drop off the child, and then I turn around and go back to Harbor Island.

The bike commute along East Marginal south from Harbor Island is rough. [ed. note: this is the “other” East Marginal Way S, south of S Spokane St.] Bikes have to be very careful. The first danger area is the concrete plant. Trucks are constantly coming and going in the morning. Then there are exposed railroad tracks all over the place. If you don’t take them at close to 90 degrees you’re going down for sure. The next hazard is watching for trucks at each cross-street. You practically have to come to a stop and look behind you to make sure no trucks are getting off East Marginal and turning right into you. The only good news is you don’t have to actually ride on the street (which would be suicide.) There is either a sidewalk or gravel path or frontage road all the way from Harbor Island to my wife’s office (Federal Center South) on East Marginal. I suspect those gravel/dirt paths get pretty muddy in the rain. Even several days after rain the puddles in the “path” still have water. The frontage roads are in terrible condition – beat to heck by trucks.

If any area is begging for improved biking infrastructure it is East Marginal Way south of Harbor Island. That would be money well spent. There are lots of employees in Federal Center South coming from West Seattle. In the meantime, it is bikable. But you have to be very careful and I’d only recommend it for a moderately experienced cyclist.

I’ve gotten to know Jeff and Stu through DIY Bikes and I’m really enjoying learning some great bike repair and maintenance skills at the DIY workshops.

This Sunday, May 18 from 11 to 4, rain or shine: 

Bring the young kids and their bikes!  Balance bikes, too.  West Seattle Bike Connections will be at Summer Streets again on Alki Avenue, probably somewhere near the bathhouse,

The bike rodeo is a fun skills and safety course for kids, with prizes for all, and bike decorating for the bike parade that Alki Beach Creeps will lead.

Alki Summer Streets info

Friday, May 16 is Bike to Work Day.  West Seattle Bike Connections is hosting West Seattle’s only full Commute Station. Alki Bike and Board and DIY Bikes will be there for bike quick checks and advice ,  from 6 to 9 AM under the High Bridge, west of the Spokane Street low bridge where the Alki, East Marginal and West Duwamish trails meet. 

Please join us for bicycling information, simple repairs, coffee, home made cookies and other goodies.  Enter a drawing for prizes from Cascade Bicycle Club, and help us beat last year’s record number of cycling commuters!  Bring some cookies, or just ride for the cookies. No requirement to continue on to work!