Please join us at Home Street Bank, 4022 SW Alaska St
Lots on the agenda, with Bike Month coming up; grant applications; projects at schools; Greenways; intersections; bike corrals; Alki Summer Streets and summer events to plan. Open meeting. You are invited.
See the Calendar for map, details
Meeting agenda and notes can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qj4O-vYmK_tZi9g5Mv5yme4bwQK7834afbf4zILBoNU/edit?usp=sharing
We mea
n bikes are good for business!
Talking bike parking at the Junction with business owners and Kyle Rowe from SDOT tonight.
We talked to a middle school student and a high school student who expressed the interest in riding but have bikes that need attention, we told them about Stu and the DYI bikes. We also talked to Cascade Middle School teacher who is interested in getting a bike rodeo day or session in their PE program. It was a great day with great food and fun entertainment.
This morning, City Council Transportation Committee Chair Tom Rasmussen opened a workshop with about 25 people invited by SDOT to brainstorm design input for the redesign of our #1 priority intersection: the 5-way at Chelan, Delridge, Spokane and West Marginal Way SW.
Thank you Council Member Rasmussen for securing funding for design of this challenging project, and SDOT and SvR for getting this diverse group together!
This intersection, and East Marginal Way S are currently the “deal breakers” that prevent willing but wary individuals and families from riding the final 20 minutes to downtown from West Seattle, or making the connection between the Duwamish Trail and the Alki Trail. Changing this will make a huge change for using bikes in West Seattle.
All the ideas we have brought up before were considered, and some really ambitious and creative long term solutions were proposed. Short term and long term solutions will be planned, with initial design proposals back for stakeholder review in about 6 months.
Short term changes could happen fairly soon. The ultimate project will take years for full development, because, as Council Member Rasmussen noted, every mode of transportation uses this spot, including pedestrians, bike riders, cars, buses, freight trucks, fire engines, trains and ships. Well, maybe not airplanes, but most everything else.
The group included representatives from SvR Design, Port of Seattle, shipping companies, Seattle Fire Department, METRO Transit, Heffron transportation consultants, North Delridge Community Association, Seattle Bike Advisory Board, Feet First, UW, Cascade Bicycle Club, and West Seattle Bike Connections, and SDOT’s traffic, bike/ped, signalization, and freight mobility groups. SDOT staff include a number who live in West Seattle and bike through this intersection regularly.
Don Brubeck and Bob Winship represented WSBC
Here is a story from Full Life Care and their ElderFriends program that might stretch our vision of what it means to make our streets work for people of all ages and abilities…
“We’re both free spirits,” says Jodee Thelen, a long-time ElderFriends volunteer. “We communicate with nature and music and we both love riding bikes.”
Jodee’s kindred spirit is Constance Griffin, “Sparrow” to her friends. The last surviving sibling of a large family, she now lives alone. Sparrow had her first ElderFriend in 2006, when she was seeking new friends and an expanded support system. Connecting with ElderFriends’ friendly visitors helps her ward off loneliness. She says, “Life is so much better since I’ve known ElderFriends.” She’s also enjoyed holiday visits as part of ElderFriends’ holiday meal deliveries.
Last Thanksgiving, Jodee Thelen delivered a meal to Sparrow, and they discovered that they shared a spirit of adventure, and love of nature and music. Shortly after the meal, they formalized their ElderFriends relationship and have continued to build their friendship throughout the year. “We hit it off from the start,” says Sparrow. “And our friendship gives me hope because I have something to look forward to. I know she’s there; I have someone who thinks about me.”
Their outings are eclectic, comprising a vast array of activities. In recent months, they attended the ElderFriends BBQ at Magnuson Park, and they also enjoyed the Seattle Symphony Day of Music, where they heard “a fabulous Native American flute player. I just closed my eyes and I was in the forest,” Sparrow recalls.
“We both love the outdoors,” Jodee says, “And Sparrow was even part of a small group that pedaled bikes to Alaska over six weeks. She was in her fifties then; that really inspires me.”
Jodee is currently inspired to help Sparrow acquire a new, lightweight bicycle so that she can get around her neighborhood more easily and independently. Or sometimes, with a friend at her side.
Reprinted from Full Life Times Winter 2013-2014, with permission from Sparrow, Jodie and FullLifeCare.
News from Dawn Schellenberg at SDOT: “To help measure how well neighborhood greenways are preforming, three permanent bike counters are being installed on greenways this month. Ultimately we hope to have 10. One will be located on 26th Ave SW Between SW Oregon St and SW Alaska St. It will be small metal controller box with a sign that says Neighborhood Greenway Bike Counter (see attached) placed on the sidewalk near the curb. Two small tube sensors will stretch from the box across the street. It is not as fancy as the Spokane counter and will not display counts. However, we will put the data online and update it once a month—probably starting in February. I’ll have a link from our NGW home page.”
We had a great turnout for the the Highland Park/Delridge Greenway SDOT outreach meeting last month. The North Delridge greenways on 21st and 22nd are actually being built and used! We have greenways all over the map of West Seattle in the Bike Master Plan update. One reason for this: the concerted action of the Seattle Neighborhood Greenways coalition. We are part of it, along with West Seattle Greenways and West Seattle Spokespeople. Our WS groups have zero budget, fueled by volunteer hours. But Seattle Neighborhood Greenways pays two people modest salaries to support groups like ours by doing the legwork that most of us with day jobs cannot do.
We are much more effective by being a part of the Seattle Neighborhood Greenways coalition of neighborhood groups that advocates for our needs and connects us to City Hall. Among many other things, working as a coalition we have dramatically increased funding and standards for neighborhood greenways and safe crossings.
In 2014, our coalition will focus on updates of the Pedestrian Master Plan, the Right-of-Way Improvement Manual, School Road Safety Plans, intersection improvements, tactical urbanism, Safe Routes to Parks, mini-grants for local groups, and a greenways “report card”!
Will you make a tax-deductible investment to power your movement to even greater successes in 2014? We have a $25,000 match that will double your gift, but only until January 1st. Please take advantage of this opportunity and donate today! http://seattlegreenways.org/get-involved/donate/
Thank you!
SDOT and the Mayor have sent the recommended Bike Master Plan Update to City Council for review and approval. It is subject to change by Council.
The Council’s Transportation Committee will be taking public input this Wednesday, December 11, 5:30 to 8:00. See Events.
We’ve given lots of input from West Seattle during the development of the plan. It shows in the final product. Our “report card” is attached. We give it a grade of Excellent. If you agree, this may be the best final opportunity to give it support before the full Council votes on it. 1301208 SBMP West Sea report
Here’s the takeaway from last night’s West Seattle Transportation Coalition meeting, thanks to Tom Rasmussen, our City Council Member from West Seattle, and Chair of the Council’s Transportation Committee:
Contact all of your friends, co-workers and relatives who live in Duvall, Cottage Lake, Redmond, Kirkland, Mercer Island, Medina, Bellevue, Sammamish, Newcastle, Auburn, Covington and East Hill.
Urge them to tell their State Senators Litzow, Hill, Fain and Tom and to pass a Transportation budget bill that includes the funding that the House bill includes for bus, bike and pedestrian transportation. We can’t all just drive cars everywhere all the time. If we did, the highways would come to a standstill. We need buses and safe bike and walking routes to work and school.
Time is of the essence.
The Governor may call a 2-day special session of the legislature next week only if the votes are there to pass a transportation bill. The House passed a bill that includes funding we desperately need just to maintain bus service as it is, and to fund safe routes to school, and specific improvements to East Marginal Way, and other critical bike and pedestrian safety improvements in West Seattle that our local representatives worked hard to include.
The fate of the bill in the Senate is in the hands of four east side suburban Senators:
Steve Litzow R-41st (Mercer Island-Bellevue-Newcastle),
Andy Hill R-45th (Finn Hill, Cottage Lake, parts of Redmond, Kirkland, Duvall, Sammamish)
Joe Fain R-47th (Auburn-Covington-East Hill),
Rodney Tom D-48th (Redmond-Kirkland-Bellevue).
If they hear from enough of their own constituents that we need the transit, bike and pedestrian funding that the House passed, they will have the political cover to buck their leadership.
Our Senator Sharon Nelson and Representatives Joe Fitzgibbon and Eileen Cody, are already fully supportive. They and Tom Rasmsusen are our champions on this. It is good to thank them, but we already have their votes. Please contact your friends in those four districts by phone, email, FB or ham radio! Only their own constituents can really influence them.
Don Brubeck and Kathy Dunn attended, representing West Seattle Bike Connections
A packed house greeted the Seattle Board of Parks Commissioners for the 10/1/13 public hearing on a draft update of the Bike Policies for Seattle Parks. Present policy limits most bike use to paved roads and paths designed for shared use (at least 60 inches wide). The draft update would allow for some mountain bike trails, including single-track.
Public comments to the Commissioners can go to rachel.acosta@seattle.gov by email through November 12.
With a few exceptions focused on pedestrian safety on trails, Parks Commissioners were receptive. The proposal would allow soft surface bike trails built to current standards, expanding recreational bike use in parks. This update was triggered by the proposals for the Beacon Bike Park in the Cheasty greenbelt. There are no specific trail proposals right now being reviewed. No changes are proposed at Lincoln or Schmitz Parks.
The existing policy was written in 1995. It views bikes only as recreation. Its concerns were for erosion on steep slopes, degradation of wetlands and streams, and disturbance of wildlife and people walking in the parks, Valid then. Now there are established standards for mountain bike trail building. Now there is demand for both recreational and transportation use of bikes. Volunteer trail builders and users now have a track record of “giving the greenbelts some love”, by removing invasives and actually improving conditions for native flora and fauna.
My testimony for West Seattle Bike Connections was in support of proposed policy changes, but suggesting they go farther to embrace connectivity with Greenways and other routes. Bikes as transportation as well as recreation. We will submit written comments, so if you have suggestions, bring ‘em on.
In West Seattle, there are easy possibilities, like using the path along the west side of Riverview Playfield as a Greenway destination and connection. Same at Hiawatha Park. There are also more ambitious and valuable possibilities to provide safe alternatives to our high-speed, poor-sightline, steep curving arterials up through the Duwamish greenbelt, to connect to the Duwamish Trail, South Park and Georgetown. See WSBC member Craig Rankin’s mapped routes here: http://goo.gl/maps/vkDa5 including the yellow line from Highland Park Way up to South Seattle Community College.
People testified about the frustration of burning fossil fuel and spending hours driving to bike trails on the east side for an hour or so of riding with kids. Other noted the high value of this kind of recreational use for exercise, fighting childhood obesity, and positive activity for kids and adults, especially teens and pre-teen boys, “who need something stupid to do”, one dad said.
The hearing on the update was preceded by a presentation on Greenways. Bob Edmiston, a Parks Commissioner and Greenways advocate, with Sam Woods from SDOT and David Graves from Seatttle Parks. They showed the Streetfilms video on Portland greenways and reported on Seattle’s progress and plans. Commissioners debated whether or not greenway routes should be shown through parks in the Bike Master Plan Update, or left un-mapped until neighborhood outreach can occur later on. But no one spoke against using parks as routes as well as destinations. Nevertheless, it is not in current policies, so not likely to be implemented or even considered by Parks staff.
Seattle Neighborhood Greenways was well represented, including Exec Director Cathy Tuttle and members from several neighborhood greenway groups. Jodi Connelly, our West Seattle rep on the Seattle Bike Advisory Board member, spoke, as did Brock Howell from Cascade Bicycle Club. Testimony urged parks to develop more partnerships with SDOT, with routes into parks, bike parking, and good safe places in parks for teaching kids to ride bikes.
Commissioner Brice Maryman, a landscape architect from South Seattle was an outspoken supporter of bike use in parks, including getting lines on the BMP Update map now, so they will be considered high priority for funding later.
David Greaves from Parks noted that Greenways are presently a partnership between SDOT and SPU, for green stormwater treatments. He mentioned that the green stormwater treatment is still at the experimental stage, and that the treatments for the Delridge Greenways won’t go in until 2015.
Don Brubeck
