Just in time for Bike-to-Work month…free bicycle repair! The next opportunity is this Thursday, 5/2, from 6-9pm. Keep reading for more info.
The first Thursday of each month is free bicycle repair at the West Seattle Tool Library, brought to you by the Fixers Collective. Yes…it is free, but expect to help a bit with your own repairs! This is a collaboration of multiple Sustainable West Seattle organizations.
When: 1st Thursday of each month, 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM. This is listed in our events calendar.
On April 17th, a hot tip told me the Tokyo String Quartet was performing at UW Meany Hall that night…it would be their last performance in Seattle since they are on their final tour. Transportation plan: take my bike and Metro to Ballard, then bike the final four miles along the Burke-Gilman Trail to the 7:30 pm performance.
I had an hour and a half to get from Alki to the UW. They don’t let you into the concert if you arrive late. I could probably have biked the whole way but I wanted to arrive dressed up a bit and not too sweaty. I loaded my bike first on Metro Route 50 and then on the Rapid Ride C Line.
I was traveling comfortably on “Rapid” Ride toward my stop at 15th and Leary Way in Ballard when I realized in my hurry to catch the bus I had changed to a fancier bag and left my bike lights at home. How was I to get home in the dark? I have a bright red flasher on my helmet so I was OK from the rear but what about the front white light? I don’t keep one on my bike since they are pricey and easily stolen.
At 7 pm I left Ballard on my bike while I still had daylight and made it to Meany Hall in time. After a brilliant concert with an exquisitely performed Ravel Quartet in F (Second Movement) I had to decide: find a bus to downtown and transfer to the Rapid Ride C on 3rd Avenue, or hazard four miles of the B-G trail in the dark without a front light. The weather was mild so I decided to cautiously bike the trail to the Rapid Ride D which would take me from Ballard to the Alaska Junction.
There is a detour on the B-G trail to the street for several blocks near the University Bridge. The UW is constructing a test section of their upgrade to the trail. Returning from the concert, I stayed on the sidewalk through the detour route and never had to bike on the street. Yeay (!) for Seattle letting cyclists use the sidewalks as long as we are courteous and give right of way to pedestrians. The sidewalks have pretty good lighting. Not so much on the multi-use Burke-Gilman Trail. It is extremely dark in many places. It could really use some low level lighting shining on the path. I think UW plans to install some of this in their upgrade. I used my bell a lot when approaching other bikes to let them know I was there. As overcrowded and dangerous as the B-G Trail can be on Sunday afternoons, on a Wednesday night at 10 pm you pretty much have the trail to yourself. I resisted the temptation to stop at Brouwers Cafe or Hales Brewery; I didn’t want an “RUI” accident while traveling without a front light. At the edge of Fremont, I gave the “Missing Link” a pass and stuck instead to the south sidewalk of Leary Way. This is a much safer route between Ballard and the “U” in my opinion. A big plus is that the sidewalk is fairly well lighted and has nice wide curb ramps at every intersection. The sidewalks could have been wider but that is true just about everywhere in Seattle. Timing was great at the RR stop on the north end of the Ballard Bridge, one minute after I arrived at the stop I was riding it home to West Seatte. At the Alaska Junction I just missed the 50 bus to Alki and it only runs hourly late at night. So to kill an hour I had an overdue dinner and that long awaited brew at the Matador where I watched the 14th inning of Mariners v. Detroit.
I could have carefully biked on the sidewalks from the Alaska Junction to Alki, but then I wouldn’t have had that nice dinner and beer. I could have driven my car to UW and parked in their garage for $10 along with several hundred other concertgoers (there was quite a traffic jam coming out of that garage). But I only had to spend $4.75 for bus fare. And I had a little more adventure on my trip.
When the Link is extended to UW in 2016, It will definitely be faster getting from West Seattle to Meany Hall by public transportation. I might just get season tickets to some of the fantastic Meany Hall Performing Arts Center events.
The last 50 bus of the day that leaves Alaska Junction at 11:48 pm was nearly full. It’s a shorter bus now, but still, I was impressed with the ridership at that late hour, and most riders rode all the way to Alki. Alki lost its late trip from downtown (until 1 pm) when the 56 stopped running off peak in the September service change.
This is why I like to park my bike in the Junction when taking RR to events downtown or at Seattle Center. You never know if you’re going to be home in time for that last trip.
Thanks Kathy for the great story! This is a great example of how anyone can get around Seattle by combining a bike with bus rides.
Metro and Sound Transit have great info for people wanting to use transit with their bikes:
And if anyone wants to practice loading their bikes onto a bus rack, Alki Bike & Board in the Admiral District has a rack that they put out on the sidewalk every day…free to try out!
Metro has been criticized about RapidRide, especially the C line from West Seattle. So why write about it on a “bike” blog?
Well…we just want to talk about general transportation that’s sustainable. We also feel getting around by bike is most efficient and enjoyable. So we’re going to do a comparison today.
(Jeff Hallman is the author of this post)
I left for the bus stop at 7:24am. Keep in mind this is a random Wednesday morning (April 17).
Left for the bus at 7:24am
My closest bus stop is at California Ave & Findlay, just a few blocks for me. I love seeing the mountains in the morning!
Views of the Olympics on the way to the bus!
I got to the bus stop at 7:29. The Orca card reader is nice, and makes loading passengers a little faster.
Short walk to the bus stop for me.
I must have gotten lucky because the bus arrived in about a minute, and I had a seat waiting for me. Nice!
On the bus in ~1 minute!
The bus was standing-room only by the last stop in West Seattle, before getting on the bridge. The upper West Seattle Bridge had a lot of traffic, but nice that the bus has its own lane.
We slogged along toward downtown through tunnel construction, but I’m in no rush and have Wifi to make this post…a real-time update! We arrived at 3rd & Pike at 8:00am. Not bad, but biking would have taken me ~25 minutes to get here. It’s a little over 6 miles to get to 3rd & Pike, and I generally average ~15mph riding speed for a normal commute. This would take me ~1 hour to run (yes, I sometimes run-commute).
Got to 3rd & Pike in ~30 minutes.
No major issues getting through downtown. The bus was about half full after the 3rd & Pike stop. I guess a lot of people either work downtown or are making transfers. Seems that cars avoid 3rd Ave where most buses travel.
My final destination was 15th & Newton in Interbay, just north of the Magnolia Bridge. Distance is right at 9 miles. The bus arrived at 8:16am, so it was ~50 total minutes for my commute by bus. I take the bus maybe once per week, and generally the RapidRide (for me) is 40-60+ minutes (ride time only) depending on traffic issues, so today was typical.
Took ~50 minutes to get to final destination.
My bike ride takes 35-40 minutes (door-to-door), no matter what time of day or what traffic is like. Here’s a recent commute I did showing this (I log all my runs and rides using GPS):
Since it seems a lot of people commuting from West Seattle may work in downtown (based on my observations of how many people get off the bus there), I wonder if they realize it could be more enjoyable by bike. Notice I didn’t say faster, since most people aren’t as fast as me riding a bike. Sitting shoulder-to-shoulder (or standing) on the bus isn’t terribly enjoyable for me, but it is nice sometimes to relax, be warm & dry, and catch up on email, reading, news, etc.
This morning I got lucky and didn’t have to wait for the bus. But some days I wait 10-15+ minutes. And on the return trip I’ll sometimes wait nearly 30 minutes before a RapidRide bus comes along. On my bike I can hop on and go. Riding the bus becomes very inefficient once you factor in the time waiting for the bus.
I am lucky to have showers available to me at work. The time for showering after a bike ride cancels out the time showering at home before going to work and riding the bus. But in all cases, biking saves me time commuting versus taking the bus.
If you’re reading this and would like to commute by bike, please join us or contact us and we can help!
April 16, 2013 EAST MARGINAL WAY Peter Hahn, SDOT Director, updated the board on issues concerning freight movement. Some of them also concern bike movement. One is East Marginal Way, which he and Christine Wolf, Port of Seattle Seaport Transportation Director, described as the #1 priority for improvement. The “poster child”. The Port wants haul routes redone to support heavier truck loads to make ship-to-rail transfers efficient and competitive with the ports in Long Beach and elsewhere. East Marginal Way is the next big step, along with the current flyover ramp at Altantic and the upcoming underpass at SR99 on the truck haul route to the Argo rail yard. The Sonics Arena project Memorandum of Understanding commits $40M to freight mobility, which could be spent on East Marginal Way. What does it mean for bike transportation in West Seattle? Improvements to East Marginal, along with the 5way intersection at Chelan, are the keys to the city. Improving that road will make it safe and easy for thousands more to commute by bike instead of car to downtown. This will get cars out of the way of bikes and buses. Use of currently illegal 98 ton super-chassis rigs increases safety risks for all road users. If we can work with the Port and SDOT and WSDOT to get a cycle track on East Marginal as part of this rebuild, it will be a win for everyone in our community, including truckers, shippers, bus riders, car drivers and all of us who depend on a thriving Port of Seattle and international trade for our livelihood.
CARMAGGEDON, THE SEQUEL When the tunnel boring machine is going under SR99 this September or October, the highway will be closed to traffic, just in case it should collapse. We can help mitigate this problem if we can get more people onto bikes to ride downtown or to the water taxi. Let’s help show people what we can do to reduce traffic congestion!
SDOT is about to start an Industrial Area Freight Access Project study that is part of development of the Freight Master Plan. The FMP will follow the Bike Master Plan currently under way, and the completed Pedestrian Master Plan.
WE COVER THE WATERFRONT Steve Pearce and Mike Johnson of SDOT presented the mid-way design concept for the Central Waterfront. This gets plenty of coverage elsewhere, so I’ll just mention that the preferred bike route alternative, for safety and separation of pedestrians and bike riders, is a two-way cycle track on the west side of Alaskan Way, separated from both the pedestrian promenade and the vehicle lanes.
Preferred by all stakeholders including the freight board members at this meeting. Pier service entries will be mid block driveways, for right-turn-in and right-turn-out only, as most are now. This has the advantage of narrower curb cuts and slower speeds than straight-in crossings at intersections, and works better with the pier layouts, but has the disadvantage of poor visibility for truck drivers on their right side.
The cycle track will have curves, markings and raised paving at crossings to alert riders to watch for pedestrians and vehicles, and will be designed with attention to sightlines for vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists. This option seemed like it would serve the widest range of riders and be least likely to be taken over by wandering tourists. I say this after navigating dozens of dogs, skaters, runners, strollers and oblivious ice-cream cone consumers in the separated bike path instead of the pedestrian walkway on the Alki Trail this afternoon.
They are prioritizing transit. Pedestrians come first. Personal automobiles (i.e. cars) are last. Bikes are up there with pedestrians, as they should be. Public transit is too. These are all sustainable methods of transportation. Cars simply are not, but they have their place and are certainly preferable forms of transportation in certain (but few) conditions.
Everyone is a pedestrian at some point in their trip. So it makes total sense to have infrastructure that is safe and easy for people to get around. That typically means sacrificing some space…like parking for cars.
So why are bicycles prioritized? Well…why shouldn’t they be? They take up much less space than a car (see image below). They don’t destroy the roads like cars do (because they don’t weigh 2+ tons). You don’t need to buy gas to power them. They don’t cause traffic congestion. Sometimes bikes are faster than cars.
So yes, West Seattle Bike Connections fully supports Seattle DOT to implement a transportation hierarchy that benefits all road users and gets us closer to carbon-neutrality.
What do you support? Join us if you want to see safer infrastructure in place in the future, for us and our children. We can all peacefully co-exist on the roads, but we need your help!
