West Seattle Bike Connections is putting the “Multi-Modal” back into the Delridge Multi-modal + Transit Corridor Project
Doug is a scientist and lover of beer. He lives in Delridge, and he wants a safe and comfortable way to ride with his wife and child to White Center. Doug was a pro bike racer, but he is not comfortable riding with his family on Delridge Way.
Charmaine is a musician and square dance caller. She lives in White Center and wants to be able to bike with her husband and child to Delridge’s library, parks and community center.
Right now, neither of them has good options, so they organized a ride with other West Seattle Bike Connections members, Gordon Padelford from Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, Cascade Bicycle Club’s Kelsey Mesher, and three SDOT outreach and project management people to look into improvements.
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West Seattle Bike Connections’ top priority for 2018 is the Delridge RapidRide H multi-modal corridor project. This is the opportunity to make the street safe for people walking and biking, including getting to and from the new RapidRide stops. This is one of the Move Seattle Levy projects that WSBC members worked hard to pass, because of the positive impact it can have for the traditionally underserved neighborhoods of the Delridge Corridor. Delridge is the flattest, most direct route through the valley (the “dell” between the ridges), from the south end at White Center to the north end at the West Seattle Bridge and the Alki and Duwamish Trails.
With help from Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, we reached agreements from SDOT staff on some key requests we made for Delridge, and for spot improvements to the alternate northbound greenway bike route that SDOT has proposed. These are reflected in SDOT’s revised “Option 3″ for the corridor.
Any program cuts due to the Move Seattle Levy “reset” must not be at the cost of safety for the most vulnerable users of the road: people walking and biking to bus stops or other destinations on Delridge.
This year, we are building relationships with community groups. In April, four of our members did a helmet giveaway and fitting at Boren STEM K-8 school, using a Small Sparks grant that Joe and Marlowe Laubach got through the PTSA. WSBC members who are school parents led Bike to School activities. We have worked on Safe Routes to Schools projects that residents, teachers and Delridge Neighborhood Development Association initiated . We moved our monthly meetings to Neighborhood House in High Point, more convenient to the Delridge corridor. We’ve got a Parking Day activity scheduled for 9/21/18 at Boren STEM K-8. We led a Cycle History bike ride focusing on Delridge with Southwest Seattle Historical Society. Several of us have given support to a resident who was seriously injured in a crash with a car driver while riding at Orchard and Delridge. We are looking for more opportunities to work with and hear from community groups and individual residents.
There is lots more work to do. It will take concentrated effort to build community support in time to have an impact on the RapidRide project. But we have members who are willing. Would you like to join in? Send an email to westseattlebikeconnections@gmail.com.
