Category: Biking

2014 West Seattle STP Ride!

DSC03412 DSC03420 DSC03435 DSC03455 DSC03461 DSC03463 DSC03521About 30 of us rode the 2014 (second annual) West Seattle STP  today! Beautiful day for it.  We made it from SW Seattle St to SW Portland St in an hour at a very social pace, with a few of us walking and pushing up a couple of the climbs, and were at Summer Fest at the West Seattle Junction by lunch time. A highlight was a three-generation family including two grandparents, two parents and child riding together.

Thank you Stu Hennessey / West Seattle Spokespeople for leading!  And to Cascade Bicycle Club for sponsoring a little ride that makes fun of your big one. And Al, Eric, Michael and Don for intersection marshalling and sweeping. Someday, when the Greenway routes and intersection improvements envisioned in the Bike Master Plan are built, people like all those on this ride will feel comfortable going this route on their own without ride leaders. Please join us in working for that and for fun rides!

More pix on our West Seattle Bike Connections Flickr group.

Bike corral for West Seattle!

Thank you to DSC01701City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen and SDOT!

The West Seattle Junction is gaining a new amenity for our community. A “bike corral” for on-street bike parking will be coming soon to California Avenue SW at SW Alaska St in the heart of the West Seattle Junction. More customers will have convenient parking without congesting the sidewalks or taking away any car parking or loading zones.

Bikes are good for local business districts.  When we travel by bike, we shop and dine locally, instead of at malls and big boxes.  That is why Junction merchants and West Seattle Bike Connections have been working for this one for the past 18 months.

As Chair of the Transportation Committee, City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen helped navigate the many layers of SDOT to avoid another year of delay. According to Rasmussen’s staff member Anthony Auriemma, SDOT shared the following with the Councilmember:

”We will be issuing a work order to install the bike corral at the location agreed upon by the WS Junction Association and WS Bike Connections on the SE corner on California Ave SW at SW Alaska St.

  • This location is currently no parking anytime, so there is no impact to on-street parking.
  • The corral would prevent right turns on red at this all-way walk so it is a safety improvement.
[right on red is already illegal here]
  • This location is in the heart of the business district.

“The adjacent property is currently under construction and the developer had requested that we delay installation until after the building was completed.  We initially agreed, however, in light of the demand for on-street parking and bicycle parking we are moving forward with the installation. We will be working to develop a policy for temp removals due to construction.

I don’t know the specific date of the installation, but my understanding is that the work order is underway.”

This project has the support of the West Seattle Junction Association, the Junction Neighborhood Association (JuNO), West Seattle Bike Connections and West Seattle Transportation Coalition.   Of at least 25 bike corrals installed by SDOT since 2012, this will be the first in West Seattle.

Tuesday, July 1 – WSBC Monthly Meeting

6:30 to 8:00 pm
HomeStreet Bank, 41st Ave SW & SW Alaska St, Seattle WA 98116

Open meeting. You are invited to join us for planning activities and events, including the West Seattle mini-STP, meetings with SDOT on Fauntleroy Way SW, bike corral projects, funding to implement the Bicycle Master Plan in West Seattle, SODO and South Park, and more.

Thank you, HomeStreet Bank, West Seattle Junction!

One bike corral for West Seattle – now!

onstreetbikeparking

 

 

 

 

 

 

BIKE CORRAL COUNT
2012      SEA     8    WS  0
2013      SEA    16   WS  0
2014      SEA    30   WS  0?   (projected.  25 now)

Bikes are good for local business districts.  When we travel by bike, we shop and dine locally, instead of at malls and big boxes.  Bike corrals are good for business. That’s why Seattle is installing bike corrals in local business districts.
Except in West Seattle.

Our West Seattle businesses deserve better treatment!

With the support of the West Seattle Junction Association merchants, we have been working for 18 months to get SDOT to install one bike corral at the busiest block in the Junction. The Junction Neighborhood Association and the West Seattle Transit Coalition have joined us in this effort.  All we are asking for is one bike corral in West Seattle. The only timeline we have from SDOT is sometime in 2015. We are asking our elected representatives for help!

The city’s bike corrals are funded by Bridging the Gap levy, so all of us who rent or own property in Seattle are paying for them. The California Junction has over 600 “free” car parking spaces, paid for by the businesses, built into their overhead cost, and indirectly paid for by all their customers, including all who arrive by foot, bike and bus. We are asking for some benefit for the costs we pay.

Bike corrals park 8 to 12 customers in the same space that parks one or two customers arriving by car. Instead of congesting the sidewalks with bikes, they efficiently use the curb lane. The location we are requesting is not a car parking space. Bike corrals will help increase parking in a neighborhood that is rapidly getting more dense with apartments that have limited car parking.

Delivering More Bike Parking for Seattle

 

2014 West Seattle STP ride!

9:45 am Sunday, July 13 meet at Hamilton Viewpoint Park and ride from Seattle to Portland in 2 hours instead of two days! (SW Seattle Street in the North Admiral neighborhood to SW Portland Street in Fauntlee Hills) then back to West Seattle Summerfest at the California Junction.  Final details are in our Calendar listing.

REASONS TO RIDE WITH US ON STP WEEKEND:

1. Didn’t make the 14,000 rider cutoff for Cascade Bicycle Club’s Seattle to Portland ride.
2. Can’t imagine why anyone would want to ride a bike 200 miles in one or two days.
3. Have never left the peninsula and see no reason to start now. “We have everything in West Seattle”.
4. Don’t really know anyone in Portland.
5. Portland think they all that, but they ain’t.IMG_9031 IMG_9059
6. Like to sleep in own bed instead of on a baseball field in Chehalis.

7. It’s free.

8. Would’ve gone last year but already paid the big-STP registration fee so had to do it.

White Center Bike Corral – Outreach Meeting

We had six members at the outreach meeting with about the same number of merchants from the 9600 block of 16th Ave SW in White Center just south of Roxbury where Proletariat Pizza and Cafe Delia would like to have a bike corral for customers. Parking for a dozen customers arriving by bike instead of two arriving by car, and a welcome sign of a vibrant and friendly business district.

Good discussion. Ambiguous process.

Thank you to Fatima at Luso Food and Wine for being such a gracious and generous host, opening this evening especially for this meeting. Visit soon for some special Portuguese food and wine!

Theresa Beaulieu of WSBC has successfully obtained grant funding for the rack. Costs to be fronted by the grant recipients, then reimbursed by the County. Approval of merchants first, but no clear definition of how much approval, and no real association to speak for them. Concerns of merchants: loss of car parking. Facts revealed: zero enforcement of 2 hr parking time limit by King County Sheriff has led to all-day car parking by park ‘n ride non-customers and by some shop owners and employees. No wonder there is a perceived parking problem! Most shop owners want enforcement but have no hope of that after years of asking. Some do not yet see that people on bikes are parking on this block to spend money at their businesses, not for recreation. Some do not yet realize that use of bikes for transportation leads people to shop locally in places like White Center instead of skipping past them to auto-friendly malls.

Next: door-to-door outreach to merchants who did not respond to the invitation to this meeting. Request to County for clarity on how much process and approval is enough before just two of many dozens of parking spaces can be dedicated to bike parking for customers instead of car parking, saving the narrow sidewalks for walking and wheelchairs and strollers.

Painfully slow and difficult cultural change from car addiction. Vy Nguyen, staff member from White Center Community Development Association who has been the interface with King County and the business community for this, just lost her job at WCCDA, due to funding cuts, but was with us tonight anyway donating her time. She wants to see this through for the community.  Thank you so much to Vy and all who have put so much effort into this!
DSC02620 DSC02623 DSC02626

Stuck Bridge – Unstuck

Spokane Street Bridge is fixed now. Was stuck this afternoon not quite closed after a ship traffic opening from ~ 5 pm to ~ 7. Some riders called for bail out rides. Others rode to 1st Ave Bridge. Others rode back downtown (toward work! ) and took the King County Water Taxi. Thank you to the crew for loading so many bikes!!!
I guess we can stop gloating now for escaping last week’s carmaggedon on our bikes, and just be thankful we have the bridge back.
Got any good adventure stories?  DSC02634

Help Support a Bike Corral in White Center!

Bike corrals are great for business!
Bike corrals are great for business!

On Tuesday, June 17th*, 6pm at Luso Food and Wine (9614 16th Ave SW) we are meeting with local residents and business owners along 16th Ave to discuss the need for a bike corral in White Center.   We’d like to encourage more families and cyclists to ride into the neighborhood.

The community has been approved money from a grant by King County to have two parking places turned into a bike corral to accommodate bike parking on 16th Avenue.  This is our chance to inform the business owners that we really do want to ride our bikes more and would frequent the area by bike if there was a bike corral.

If you are a cyclist, someone who thinks about using your bike for more errands, a family that thinks about riding to White Center with your family, or you are a family that rides please come join us in support.  White Center is a great place to visit and is becoming better every year.

Let’s bring better bicycle parking to White Center!


* Luso will be open on Tuesday for this meeting even though they are typically closed that day.

Sat June 7 – Alki Trail Widening Project

This Saturday 9 to 11 along Spokane St east of Harbor Ave/Avalon Way – come with work gloves, long sleeves and clippers. We will trim the blackberries back. Refreshments after at Marination Ma Kai. IMG_8921

School Road Safety

West Seattle Blog reported on the School Road Safety Meeting last night at the Southwest Library. Besides their reporter, only  four citizens attended. Three are members of West Seattle Bike Connections: Jay Guettler,  Theresa Beaulieu, and  Craig Rankin.  Theresa and Craig are parents actively involved with safe routes to Denny MS and the K-5 STEM program at Boren.

from Theresa’s notes:

I would like to see more parents, teachers and community members/groups involved. These improvements around schools are going to be great opportunity for change around our culture and how kids get to school. If schools are safe to get to via walking or biking and it is challenging to drive close to schools, then more parents will feel it is safe to allow their kids to ride a bike, scooter, skateboard or walk to school.

One thing that resonated with me that the West Seattle Blog did not cover is that the posted signs and cameras that are going up around schools are for 20 mph, and actually have a leeway before a ticket is issued, even though studies show that at 20 miles per hour, 9 out of 10 pedestrians who are hit by a car will survive,  but the death rate increases dramatically at greater speed.  That study only counts deaths, not major  injuries. 1 fatality for every 10 collisions is too high. All of us at the meeting agreed the cameras should be set to 15, NOT 20 mph, Note was taken.

Two more opportunities to learn and give input:

Tuesday, May 27 at 6 PM to 7:30 PM Northeast Branch Seattle Public Library, 6801 35th Ave NE
Thursday, May 29 at 6 PM to 7:30 PM Garfield Community Center, 2323 E Cherry St