Category: General

 R.I.P South Park Tree. A long saga is over. The notorious narrow humped passage around the tree in the Duwamish Trail is gone.  The trail is back to its full, not-so-wide width. It is flat and paved where there was a hazardous obstacle.

This cottonwood had been growing into the trail and getting worse for 13 years, by some accounts. Al Jackson, Bill Gobie and others from WSBC really pushed over the past 7 months to get SDOT to eliminate this hazard and restore the trail.  We thank SDOT for  doing it, and getting it paved immediately.

We hope that it will not take this much pushing in the future when there is an obvious hazard encroaching into the bike and pedestrian part of a busy street right-of-way.

We know that after every windstorm the fallen trees blocking  traffic lanes are removed within hours, and dangerous leaning trees are cut down. We also see that sometimes fallen trees just stay in the bike lanes and across trails and sidewalks for days, even on bike thoroughfares like Dexter Ave N this year.

We saw this past winter that the vehicle traffic lane was promptly repaired when the South Park tree roots started humping that pavement, while the trail remained in its dangerous condition. We know that trees are not allowed to sprout and grow in the vehicle traffic lanes anywhere.  And we wonder if this condition would ever be allowed to continue so long in wealthier, whiter neighborhoods than South Park?

We hope that it is starting to sink in that multi-use paths and trails and bike lanes are traffic lanes, too, equally important for the people using them to get to work, school, home, to and from all the places people in cars and trucks are going?

We have re-scheduled our monthly meeting to Tuesday, August 9th, so we can participate in Night Out on the streets on the 2nd.
Same time 6:30 to 8:00 pm
Same place HomeStreet Bank, 41st SW & SW Alaska.

calendar listing

We need a well designed and well built Greenway  parallel to 35th Ave, with safe crossings of “I-35”.  Can you attend?
SDOT public meeting including parallel Greenway planning:
Thursday, Aug. 4, from 7 to 9 p.m.
at Neighborhood House High Point (6400 Sylvan Way SW).

Low stress bike routes along the north-south spines of West Seattle are our top priority for neighborhood bike travel within West Seattle. This meeting is about one of the key routes. Want to give input? A greenway here will connect people to public and parochial elementary schools, libraries, parks, playfields, clinics, and shopping. And it’s on a good commute route. It’s the only one currently funded for West Seattle. Let’s get it right.

Neighborhood Greenways and Vision Zero Want Your Input in West Seattle!

Let’s ride!

Forecast looks great. SummerFest will be our finish celebration. Come join us!

Details here.

Kudos to SDOT Pothole Rangers for response to request on California Way downhill lane. Pavement was sinking, cracked, holding water and potentially ice on route down to Seacrest.

Al J sent request last week. Pothole Rangers started fixing yesterday.

Morgan Scherer and Al Jackson began planning routes for the Disaster Relief Trials 2016. It will be on September 25, during Summer Parkways in West Seattle.

Want to test ride some routes with us? Training games for cargo bikes, bikes with trailers, family bikes to deliver goods, messages, people after an earthquake or other disaster when roads, bridges and fuel supplies are disrupted. Reply here or at westseattlebikeconnections *at* gmail *dot* com.

There will be several classes of rides for the event, from a lighter family bike category for people with kids, on up to a 30 mile cargo bike ride with heavy loads and riding challenges.

Have you ever wanted to do the Seattle to Portland bike ride? Or even wanted to do the 1-day STP? And never trained for it? Here is your big fat chance!

Do it in 2 hours, and end up at a huge finish line party! One week before Cascade’s big STP, so perfect for training for that in case you forgot.

West Seattle Bike Connections will be riding again from SW Seattle Street in the Admiral neighborhood to SW Portland St in Fauntlee Hills, and back north to Summerfest at the West Seattle Junction, for a fabulous finish line party. After an hour or two there, participants can ride home independently, or ride with a leader back to Hamilton Viewpoint.

Family friendly! We have had 3-generation family groups. Easy pace. We will stay together and work together to cross any busy intersections. Led by Don Brubeck and Marge Evans. More co-leaders welcome.

This is a Cascade free daily ride with certified leaders. Helmets required. Save time at the start by registering in advance.

Route with cue sheet:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/14357732

7.5 miles south to SW Portland and back north to Summerfest at the Junction. (10.2 for total round trip to the Hamilton Viewpoint start.) Route is mostly on quieter residential streets along the ridge parallel to California Avenue SW.

Some hills but less than most West Seattle routes. One block you (we) might walk up. About 450 feet of elevation gain over 7.5 miles. 640 feet for the full 10.2 miles.

For children riding their own bikes: parent or guardian please read and conform to Cascade’s policy and call ride leader at least a day in advance. http://www.cascade.org/information-parents.

Bike Everywhere! It was fun to see and meet lots of bike riders going all directions this morning!  All shapes and sizes of riders and rides.  From Fauntleroy and White Center, Alki and Pigeon Point. To SODO, Harbor Island, Kent, Downtown, Pioneer Square, South Lake Union, UW, Queen Anne and Pill Hill.  Going to daycare and school. Going to work as accountants, building managers, landscape architects, environmental enforcemnent workers, transportation engineers, interior designers and architects, bike mechanics, small business owners, shipping company freight expeditors, school district staff, teachers, and bus drivers, volunteers, clerical workers, baristas, fashionistas, …

West Seattle Bike Connections hosted a celebration station where the trails meet under the West Seattle Bridge for the morning commute hours.  Bob Winship led the effort.  Cascade Bicycle Club and F5 sponsor the event. Alki Bike and Board and West Seattle Cyclery joined us to provide quick bike checks and adjustments. Nuun was there with sports drinks. WSBC volunteers baked cookies, brought fruit and other treats, and Starbucks donated coffee. A big thank you to all who made this happen and all who stopped or waved.

If you are just trying this out, know that it keeps getting easier more comfortable the more you ride! And we are here to make it safer, more connected and more comfortable.

More pix on the WSBC Flickr page.

Stop at our commute station!

from 6 to 9 AM at the west end of the Spokane Low Bridge, where the trails meet.

 

 

West Seattle Bike Connections members will be bringing homemade cookies and bars to power your ride. Besides baked goods, we will have coffee, other beverages, bananas, bicycling information and on-the-spot bike checks and simple repairs courtesy of Alki Bike and Board.

We look forward to seeing you!