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Biking to Bridge the Gap

Emily asked us how to ride her bike safely from West Seattle to work at the VA Hospital. Erin asked how to ride to UW Medical Center. Travis is willing to commute on his new e-bike all the way to Green Lake. We are fielding many inquiries. Bike sales are taking off. With alternate route traffic delays looming, Georgetown and South Park residents are fearful of gridlock, air pollution, and for the safety of their children walking to school. We know that using bikes instead of cars will help free up capacity on the remaining bridges. But we need a few improvements make it safe and efficient for these folks and many more people to bike instead of drive.

West Seattle Bike Connections with Duwamish Valley Safe Streets, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways and Cascade Bicycle Club sent a detailed proposal to the City yesterday, summarized here.

OUR GOAL

Mobility for West Seattle, SODO and the Duwamish Valley.

Keep people and goods moving safely across much lower-capacity bridges over the Duwamish while the West Seattle High-Rise Bridge is closed. Mitigate impacts on our communities. Honor Seattle’s commitments to equitable transportation, our environment, social justice, and economic vitality.

STRATEGIES

Encourage or incentivize as many people as possible to use bikes or transit, or both, instead of driving private vehicles. Accomplish this before the end of COVID-19 restrictions.

1. Improve conditions to make it safe, efficient and comfortable for people to ride bikes and transit.
2. Concentrate on safety and wayfinding for biking and bike/transit connections:

- - On key West Seattle bike routes to the Spokane Street bridge, and from the bridge on East Marginal Way S to Pioneer Square, Downtown, SODO Trail, and SODO light rail station.
  - On bike routes to the 1st Ave S bridge and South Park Bridge, and bike routes within South Park and Georgetown that are impacted by alternate route traffic and may also be needed for biking from West Seattle whenever the Spokane Street Bridge is closed.
  - On routes to and bike parking at the King County Water Taxi dock at Seacrest.

1. Protect Neighborhood Greenway streets near alternate routes from cut-through traffic, to keep them safe for residents and for walking and biking by people of all ages and abilities.
2. Ensure availability of bikeshare bikes. Provide bikeshare discounts and bike/e-bike financing to people with low incomes.
3. Use up to 1% of the bridge repair cost for mitigation measures for bike and pedestrian safety and efficiency.
4. Use advocacy groups like West Seattle Bike Connections, Duwamish Valley Safe Streets, Cascade Bicycle Club and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways to:

- - Identify opportunities to improve safety and wayfinding.
  - Provide route advice, route maps, bike buddy matching, bike trains and educational rides.
  - Connect people to good advice and local bike shops for selecting and maintaining bikes, including e-bikes.

RECOMMENDED WORK FOR STREET SAFETY

PRESERVE these already planned and funded projects on schedule:

EXPEDITE these key Bicycle Master Plan high priority routes:

- Sylvan Way SW / SW Orchard and east to Highland Park
- Highland Park Way SW off street multi-use path
- 1st Ave S Bridge to 1st Ave S safe route north from bridge
- SW Roxbury bike lanes without reducing traffic lanes

QUICKLY IMPLEMENT spot improvements for wayfinding and safe routes:

- On Spokane Street Bridge routes at the Chelan 5-way intersection; on Fauntleroy Way and Admiral Way; on the “Nucor Trail” connection from Delridge to the Alki Trail; at Terminal 18 trail crossings on Harbor Island; on East Marginal Way; and on the connections to the SODO light rail station and SODO Trail.
- On 1^st Avenue South Bridge and South Park Bridge routes at the Duwamish Trail “missing link from the Alki Trail; on Highland Park Way at West Marginal Way; at rough rail crossings on the Duwamish Trail and in Georgetown; and on routes in Georgetown through SODO.

Bike Options without the WS Bridge

This week, we helped Emily find a bike route from Admiral to work at the VA Hospital on Beacon Hill. And Regan, who was looking for a safer way to ride from White Center to South Park and Georgetown. If you are looking for alternative ways to get to an essential job, do an essential errand, or some socially distanced exercise, and deal with closure of the West Seattle Bridge, this would be a great time to try it by bike.

Need a route? See our Resources page for mapped routes. Print or download for visual and audible turn-by-turn cues. If you don’t see what you need, email us. We’ll send you a custom route map, and connect you with a volunteer buddy for a (socially distanced) test ride if you like. westseattlebikeconnections (at) gmail (dot) com

The Spokane Street Bridge (the “low bridge”) has a nice wide pedestrian and bike path fully separated from the heavy truck traffic. It connects to several good bike routes to SODO, Pioneer Square, Downtown, Beacon Hill and beyond. The Duwamish Trail gets you to the First Avenue South Bridge and Georgetown, or into South Park. The South Park Bridge also takes you to Georgetown.

April 7 2020 Virtual Meeting

In response to COVID-19 mandates, our open meeting at Neighborhood House is canceled. We will substitute a closed video conference meeting. Invitation with login information was sent yesterday to our Google Group. Next regular meeting is scheduled for May 5. We’ll wait and see.

Be well.

Bike Shops are Essential

Bike shops are essential businesses, as you know whenever you have maintenance or repairs you can’t handle on your own, and need that bike to get to where you need to go. The Governor says so. We are lucky to have four shops in West Seattle and White Center, all open for business. Let’s help them stay open. It would be good to call first to make an appointment and check protocols. Here are phone numbers with currently posted hours:

Aaron’s Bicycle Repair, 9614 16th SW, White Center, 206-938-9785, Tue-Fri 11-2, 3-7; Sat, 11-7.

Alki Bike & Board, 2606 California Ave SW, Admiral District, 206-938-3322, Sun-Thu 12-6, Fri 10-6, Sat 11-6.

Cycle Therapy, 2532 Alki Ave SW, Alki Beach. 206-566-6616, Wed-Fri 10-7, Sat 10-6, Sun 11-4.

Westside Bicycles, 3418 Harbor Ave SW near Spokane/Avalon, 206-432-9982. Tue-Fri 10-7, Sat 10-6, Sun 12-5.

They can order just the right part or tool, too, for doing it yourself.

Spokane Street Bridge is open for bikes

The West Seattle Bridge is suddenly closed to all traffic, and the Spokane Street Bridge is restricted to emergency first responders, transit, freight, bike and pedestrian traffic. If you are looking for alternative ways to get to an essential job or do an essential errand or some socially distanced exercise, this would be a great time to try it by bike. Traffic is quiet most everywhere. The low bridge has a nice wide ped/bike path fully separated from the heavy truck traffic and connects to several good bike routes.

We have routes mapped with turn-by-turn directions on our Resources page.
Seattle Bike Blog just did this great video interview with WSBC year-round bike commuter Anthony Palmieri, with aerial flyover views of the major bike routes.
If you would like a custom route map, or a bike buddy for a socially distanced but in-person test ride, just send us a message here or shoot us an email at westseattlebikeconnections@gmail.com. We’ll get you connected to a volunteer who can assist.

Governor Inslee has ordered everyone to stay at home for a period, unless traveling for an essential job or a defined essential errand. However, he also recommended getting out for bike riding and walking as a way to maintain health. We urge you to recognize that this applies to you personally, not just others. Follow King County Health Department protocols; choose uncrowded routes and times of day; only ride solo or with those in your household.

Photo courtesy of SDOT

WSBC Meeting March 3

Taylor Knowles, SDOT’s Outreach person for the East Marginal Way Corridor Project, will present the 60% design for discussion. Please join us!

Tuesday, March 3

6:30 to 8:00 pm

Neighborhood House

6400 Sylvan Way SW (at SW Morgan, in High Point)

We are really excited to see progress on this catalyst project. It is West Seattle’s main bike route to downtown, and the Port of Seattle’s most important “last mile” freight route. This design milestone is a great opportunity for input to dial in the design so it will really work for bike riders and truck drivers.

We and our allies at Northwest Seaport, BNSF, and SODO industries all want a safe route with clear and robust separation of vehicle and bike traffic. The result should be bike riding that is predicable for truck drivers and comfortable for bike riders of all abilities.

If you can’t make the meeting, here’s a link to the project website. One more click takes you to a survey for online input.

Semi-truck tractor with a bike in a rack on the front of the truck. — Some people commute by bike on East Marginal Way to work driving a truck.

NSF project designs open for comments

Three wins for West Seattle and one for Georgetown-South Park in the City’s Neighborhood Street Fund grants.

You can now see the 10% design concepts illustrated, and can submit comments of support or criticism to SDOT by January 31.

The “Delridge Neighborhood Greenway Safe Connections” project for SW Andover from 26th to Delridge, and on to the bridge trail, includes what we asked for and a little more. It will help make riding on the 26th Ave Greenway a viable alternative to Delridge. Installing a guardrail on the path leading to the West Seattle Bridge Trail will further separate people walking and biking from traffic at a narrow point in the trail.

Projects on SW Barton at Delridge Way and at 25th SW will make it a lot more safe to cross that busy street near Westwood Village and on a walking/biking route to White Center.

The South Park and Georgetown Safe Connections project will improve visibility and safety for riding bikes on busy truck routes at East Marginal Way S and 16th Ave S. That’s on the route to/from Georgetown using the 14th Ave (South Park) Bridge. We’ve submitted comments that the project really should include a marked bike mixing zone for north/eastbound 16th Ave too, not just for south/west bound East Marginal Way. More comments would help send that message. This is an important West Seattle bike connection to south Seattle.

Hauling half a ton of food by bike

All I can say is “WOW”! The first annual West Seattle Cranksgiving was a huge success in our book!

In the last 7 years that I have been here, this is definitely the largest food drive in the shortest amount of time. And such variety, culturally diverse food, food for the kids Backpack program, diapers & wipes for the Baby Corner and fresh produce.

Judy Yazzolino, West Seattle Food Bank development director, quoted in West Seattle Blog story.

On our first Cranksgiving, ~35 bike riders delivered 1,195 pounds of supplies to the West Seattle Food Bank. We formed small teams, grabbed shopping lists, then spread out to 11 markets in West Seattle and White Center on a damp, cool morning, riding north to the Alaska Junction and south into White Center. Most of us made our first shopping trips into the small ethnic markets of White Center – and vowed to return.

Special kudos to Alki Velo Club, who came out in force, and to our three young riders from High Point. Thanks to WSBC leader Paul Dieter for organizing this event. Awesome work, all!

At our post-ride meetup at Zeek’s, we committed to do it again in 2020. Come ride with us next year!

Cranksgiving rides are a national grass roots movement. Tom Fucoloro, editor of Seattle Bike Blog, brought Cranksgiving to Seattle 10 years ago, and inspired us to try one on the peninsula. The citywide ride was a week later, with a record 190 riders bringing more than a ton of food to the Rainier Valley Food Bank. If you do the math, you will see proof that West Seattle riders work harder 😀

Big bike riding gains in 2019

+7.7% more bike trips this year through November on the Spokane Street Bridge compared to same time in 2018. 2018 ended at 8.6% above 2017.

Seattle Bike Blog has a post about the awesome increases at the Fremont Bridge. The 24/7 bike counters in Fremont, West Seattle and on Second Avenue downtown confirm the trend is citywide.

Ridership would surely be even higher if we were not contending this year with

the Avalon Way paving project;
riding through the middle of a large homeless encampment on an isolated stretch of trail (now cleared);
the messy and confusing Alaskan Way viaduct demo work;
lack of progress on bike master plan implementation.

On the plus side this year:

good weather in January and November (offset by ice and snow in February) and a summer without smoke;
traffic congestion, including crowded buses slowed by Viaduct demo impacts;
increasing popularity of e-bikes.
What else?

Dec 3 meet at Ounces

On Tuesday, 12/3 6:30 pm to 8:00 or so
Instead of a regular meeting, we’re meeting at Ounces taproom on Delridge north of Andover for a year-end social gathering. If you’ve never been to one of our meetings, we’d love to have you join us for food from Beanfish food truck, beer or soft drink, and good conversation. Kid friendly, everybody welcome.