Thank you to Brad Loetel for being there where the trails meet under the bridge every dark, wet. and chilly Thursday morning, with hot coffee, breakfast treats, quick mechanical checks and conversation on the morning commute. Fixed two flats for people in the couple of minutes this rider stopped this week.
Support your local bike shop (maybe buy some better winter tires?)
We hear that some bike traffic counts declined in the region in 2015, but not here!
Spokane Street Bridge count went up by 5.8 percent over 2014, despite low, low gas prices and added bus transit capacity.
Some nice dry months, but 2nd wettest December on record and a stormy November, and as dark as ever in January. As you might figure, weekdays are way higher than weekends on this commute route to jobs in SODO and downtown. These are workin’ people’s bikes.
299,506 trips across the bridge in 2015
941 average weekday count
1,719 highest day, May 15. June had highest week and month.
75 for lowest day, Sunday December 27.
SDOT data, our graph.
WSBC is meeting Tuesday, January 5
6:30 to 8:00 pm
at HomeStreet Bank, 41st SW & SW Alaska
Please come if you can. On our agenda:
– Input to SDOT & SBAB on Delridge-Highland Park Greenway and the incomplete Chelan 5-way intersection
– Safe Routes to Schools and the next WS greenways
– rides, advocacy, whatever you want to do in 2016 for enjoyable, safe, efficient riding in West Seattle
It was scheduled to be completed in 2015. Now SDOT says January 2016. Seems a bit optimistic from ground level, and looks like some of it needs reworking to be safe and convenient to use, according to riders who use the route daily. Here are some photos of a ride on Monday this week mid day, and one from a daily commute in the dark. Click any to enlarge. But the best way to find out about it is to go walk or ride and decide for yourself. We invite you to give feedback here or to SDOT directly.
SDOT website for the project is here, including maps and drawings.
The good: lots of new ADA curb ramps on 21st SW at north end. This at SW Genesee, the route to Pathfinder K-8 school, with intersection painted by the community. Speed humps, most old, some new, along this stretch.
The bad and the ugly: The stretch on 21st Ave SW between 22nd Ave SW and Dumar, It’s a busy arterial. Really scary with high speed traffic in the dark and wet and a tiny gravel shoulder east side, and rough gravel 4′ sidewalk on west.
The good: a flashing beacon convenient for pedestrians. Not for bike riders.
hmmm…
The bad: sidewalk only on one side, and only 4 feet wide. Bike riders use this who want to avoid riding in the arterial traffic without bike lanes or shoulder.
The ugly: no temporary safety measures during construction while the sidewalk is torn up,
Approaching SW Dumar.
Does this look “safe for all ages and abilities”?
The grand old speed hump and semi-permanent potholes and cones, at Stanislo Elementary School.
Nice new smooth asphalt on SW Myrtle from 21st to 17th. Except for a half block on north side.
Work has not started on the switchback ramp to link two cul-de-sacs on 17th SW
Crossing 16th SW on SW Webster to go from 17th to 15th, then 2 blocks to Kenyon, then back again to 17th!
Would you do this? Would you let your pre-teen use this route instead of crossing at the light at Holden?
No stop sign, no flashing beacon, no traffic signal = no greenway!
On 15th SW. Work started at curb bulbs at SW Holden.
From 15th & Holden you can see the light at 16th. Will car drivers stop for people on foot or on bikes or in wheelchairs at 15th?
SDOT ignored WSBC and other community input on route choice, especially regarding the zig zag from 17th on Webster to 15th and then two blocks south crossing Holden on 15th to Kenyon, and two blocks west back to 17th. Who in their right mind will go 4 blocks out of the way, crossing busy arterials three times without stoplights or even flashing beacons, to avoid crossing at a light at Holden? Prediction: the lumpy narrow sidewalk on 16th will be the route of choice. Should be changed.
Crossing 16th SW again at Kenyon. Signs and curb ramps. No stop sign or traffic signal, no flashing beacon.
Green stormwater work started by SPU on 17th.
Crossings at the south end of the route between Holden and Roxbury at busy streets are likewise unprotected.
At this point, no curb ramps, no re-aligned stop signs, no traffic calming, no signs.
South end of the route, just short of Roxbury and White Center. No work evident at this end yet.
Decorate and light up your bikes and come join West Seattle Bike Connections for a fun all ages, all abilities, all faiths, family-friendly ride from Seacrest Marina to Alki Bathhouse to the see Christmas Ships
, and to hear and join the carolers. Seattle Parks will have hot cider and cookies at the bathhouse and a bonfire on the beach to keep us warm.Our VP’s and founding members Jeff Hallman and Theresa Beaulieu are leaving for greener bike paths — Theresa is moving to Tacoma with Jason and Lyanne. Jeff Hallman is moving to Corvallis with Sandi and Nayla. We will miss them, and wish them well.
Now, we need 10 or 12 people to step up and take their places!
Theresa has been our schools activist, starting an after school bike club at Denny Middle School that has become the first Major Taylor Club in a middle school, and doing more now at Kennedy HS. She got grants for Denny and Chief Sealth HS bike wayfinding and parking; started the Denny-Lincoln Classic bike ride; worked tirelessly for a bike corral for White Center businesses, and got us going on social rides. Theresa and Jason show up for our trail cleanups, Bike to Work Day commute station, and vigil rides. Theresa represented Highland Park, White Center and areas nearby in planning for the Bicycle Master Plan Update and the Delridge/Highland Park Greenway.
Jeff is our webmaster extraordinaire, Google Guru, organization development guy, and founder of D.I.Y. Bikes with Stu Hennessey. Jeff got the bike corral at the Junction landed finally. He built a bike blender and generously brought it to make smoothies at Parking Day and Greenlife. Jeff helped lead our West Seattle STP rides and the Denny-Lincoln Classic, did beach cleanup duty with the Alki Beach Creeps, took notes at our meetings, and used his bike mechanic credentials and experience to teach free classes in bike maintenance, all while keeping up his running adventures, starting his own businesses, and becoming a new dad. 
Year-over-year rider increase at the bridge flattened out during the summer. September 2015 was up 3.5% over 2014. The year-to-date so far is up 7.7% over 2014. The graph shows that a lot more people rode through the winter and spring this year. Let’s get the lights and fenders on, and see what we can do in an el Nino fall/winter.
SDOT data, our graph. Go Hawks. and scarves up.
Riding to work – at the Spokane Street Bridge just after an opening for marine traffic.
In West Seattle, we share the road with tugboats! 
35th Ave SW Safety Corridor meeting tonight – good to be there with West Seattle Bike Connections members Theresa Beaulieu, Kathy Dunn, Bill Gobie, Keith Newham, Don Brubeck.
We support the safety improvements planned for 35th, but only if it satisfies Seattle’s “complete streets” policy and ordinance, requiring accomodation for all modes of transportation. We’ve been pushing for this project since 2012, working with Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, Highpoint neighbors, SDOT, and most recently lobbying with Cascade Bicycle Club to support the project.
35th Ave SW is identified in the Seattle Bicycle Master Plan as a city-wide network route for protected bike lanes on 35th, with parallel greenway routes on 34th SW and on 35th/36th SW. The 35th Ave SW Safety Corridor Project now says there will be a “study” of parallel greenways in 2016, a year after actually doing the work on 35th from SW Roxbury to SW Willow. No comittment to actually implementing the greenway. No comittment to even “study” the 36th/37th greenway that could get you north of Graham to WS Junction and points north and west. Not good enough! The work on 35th should not proceed without the parallel greenways!
We expect real action, not studies, not lip service.
So far, how many miles of the citywide (“highest priority for investment”) network included in the bicycle master plan have been designed or built in West Seattle?
a. 10 miles
b. 1 mile
c. 0.1 mile
d. 100 yards
e. none.
If you answered “e. none”, you are correct!
Please join your neighbors at SDOT public meetings this week to support safety improvements on one of Seattle’s most dangerous and crash-prone streets – “I-35”.
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Neighborhood House – Room 207
6400 Sylvan Way SW
Thursday, July 16, 2015
6:00 PM to 7:45 PM
Southwest Branch Seattle Public Library
9010 35th Avenue SW
We want to see SDOT and SPD succeed in reducing speeds, making it safer for pedestrians and bike riders cross at intersections and for drivers to make left turns. We ask for parallel greenway routes on 34th, and 35th/36th to link homes to neighborhood destinations and commute routes, and a signal at 35th & Graham, to end deaths and injuries.
Driving from Roxbury to Fauntleroy on 35th at 35 mph saves less than 60 seconds over driving it a 30 mph. Driving at 30 saves lives.
SDOT will brief the community about plans developed after input from meetings earlier in the year. Your support is needed! If you cannot attend a meeting, please consider sending a message of support to City Council, Mayor Murray, and Jim Curtin at 206-684-8874 or via e-mail at jim.curtin@seattle.gov
