Strategies for Community Healing! We need community healing.
Please consider making this session a part of your day tomorrow, to honor the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and all people working for racial equality and social justice in America, particulary in our area of focus: safe streets. Register here.
“The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.” -MLK, Jr. Strength to Love.
“A lot of people are waiting for Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi to come back — but they are gone. We are it. It is up to us. It is up to you.” – Marian Wright Edelman.
This is a pivotal moment for Whose Streets? Our Streets! — and our safe streets movement. Key folks you may recognize — Seattle Neighborhood Greenways board member Phyllis Porter, Duwamish Valley Safe Streets leader Peaches Thomas, SNG staff member KL Shannon, and longtime SNG volunteer Yes Segura will be featured in this panel.
Who’s Streets – Our Streets will be giving a first peek at their community recommendations for how our streets can be safe, thriving places without the use of armed police.
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.
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!
Doug’s young son riding uphill in the new protected bike lane.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 thePort’s survey , and fill in the Tribe’s name choice for T-107 Park: Ha Ah Poos Duwamish Village Park
The Duwamish River
This step is for nominations, to be followed by a public poll on selected nominations in September.
The Duwamish Trail at T-107 Park across from the Duwamish Longhouse & Cultural Center
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.
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.
