Bike count on Spokane St Bridge in June was up 13% over June 2014, and up 12.4% for the year to date over same period last year.
It is also obvious from daily data that a lot of people skipped work on Fridays! Or took 1st Ave Bridge home, or car or bus. Click link at top right of our home page to see.
SDOT data, our graph.
Save the date: Sunday July 12, 9:30 am
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? Or remembered to sign up in time? Here is your big fat chance! Do it in 2 hours easy, and end up at a huge finish line party!
We’ll 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, led by experienced Cascade Ride Leader Marge Evans. Family friendly, 7 miles (10 if you go back to the Hamilton Viewpoint start.)
Up to date details will be in the Calendar here, and on Events on our Facebook page.
We received this welcome message today from Emily Ehlers at SDOT!
Thank you again for participating in last year’s design workshop to help improve the West Seattle five-way intersection (Chelan, Delridge, W Marginal, Spokane, POS T5 access road). We generated a lot of great ideas and enthusiasm. Your hard work has paid off! This summer, SDOT will be completing the short-term recommendations developed at the workshop. Safety improvements include pavement markings to increase bicycle predictability, bicycle ramps to minimize potential conflicts, and a crossing beacon to increase the visibility of people crossing the street. See the graphic below for additional details.
workshop with SDOT and SvR
BNSF workers installing new train crossing signal on the “porkchop island” where we wait to cross going eastbound – the second time it was wiped out by an errant driver in one year at this confusing intersection.
From our bike rodeo May 30 at KEXP’s Hood-to-Hood Block Party at the Junction. Young riders gained confidence and riding skills, while having fun and earning prizes. It was a Friday school and work day, without advance mention in KEXP’
s announcements, so most of our participants were 2 to 4 years old, on balance bikes provided by West Seattle Cyclery. with a flurry of olde kids after school. SPD bike patrol officers showed everybody how to ride it, and got the grownups into it, too.
Thanks for the invitation and support from Susan Melrose of the West Seattle Junction Association and Brad Loetel at West Seattle Cyclery. Clarrisa Allen and Ed Ewing at Cascade Bicycle Club supplemented our rodeo props and literature, and WSBC volunteers Kathy Dunn, Bob Winship, Jeff Hallman, and Don Brubeck were the bike rider wranglers and crew.
The Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the proposed basketball/hockey arena in SODO has been published. We commented – major impacts to traffic that would affect travel by bike from West Seattle, and use of bikes to get to the Arena were not really considered in the draft EIS. SDOT/DPD responses to our comment letter are attached. Links to the entire FEIS are online at DPD’s website here. 
The comment letters and responses are in Appendix F.
Please take a look and fill out SDOT surveys for East Marginal Way S and Delridge if you use these corridors. Change is coming, and this is a way to have a little influence. East Marginal is “multimodal” because it is a vital artery for freight and bike traffic. Delridge is a “multimodal corridor” because it has lots of car and bus, some truck, and potentially more bike and future rail traffic. Delridge has some parallel “greenway” options for riding a bike. East Marginal does not.
We counted 707 happy, healthy people on bikes at our Cascade Bike to Work Day Commute Station this morning between 6:00 and 9:00 am. West Seattle Bike Connections hosted, with DIY Bikes, NUUN, and Mountaineers Club Books. Good going, West Seattle!
Bike to Work Day is this Friday, May 15. Stop by our Commute Station under the West Seattle Bridge, open 6:00 to 9:00 am.
Bike mechanics from DIY Bikes. Home made cookies, fresh fruit, hot coffee, Cascade swag, other treats, and information about the Chelan 5-way intersections proposals.
If you can be there at 8:15, join a group ride to the BTW Day rally at Union Station.
If you go up Second Ave, you can stop at Washington Bike Law’s commute station at Cherry Street for fun and games.
Seattle Neighborhood Greenways (including us, for West Seattle and South Park) has a new request for the Move Seattle levy: fund safe streets in the “walk zones” around Concord, Roxhill, West Seattle and Highland Park Elementary Schools, and other Seattle schools which have >75% of students eligible for free lunch.
This will help students arrive at school safe, healthy and ready to learn. It will help parents who don’t have cars or who work jobs that don’t allow them to drive kids to school. It will help everyone else who lives in, drives, rides a bike or walks through these neighborhoods, If you agree, let the Mayor and SDOT know!
SDOT Director Scott Kubly E-mail: scott.kubly@seattle.gov
Read more in Intersections
One of our top priorities is missing in action from the Move Seattle levy package: The Fauntleroy Boulevard Project. It’s in the Seattle Bicycle Master Plan. It’s already almost 100% designed. If not in this levy, chances are that it won’t be built before 2025, after piecemeal construction of the whole rapidly developing triangle area east of the West Seattle Junction.
Call to Action:
· Write to the Mayor and SDOT Director Scott Kubly.
o Mayor Murray Contact Form
o SDOT Director Scott Kubly E-mail: scott.kubly@seattle.gov
· Contact the Mayor and SDOT via social media.
o Mayor Murray Twitter: @MayorEdMurray
o SDOT Twitter: @seattledot
o Mayor Murray Facebook
o SDOT Facebook
· Take the SDOT Move Seattle Online Survey.
o Make sure to talk about the Fauntleroy Way SW Boulevard Project when the survey asks: “Are there other transportation investments you feel should be a top priority for funding through this levy?”
Fauntleroy Way SW serves many purposes; it is a key entrance to West Seattle, a designated freight and bicycle route, and is home to numerous retail businesses and new residential developments, with many more on the way in the next few years. However, the portion of Fauntleroy Way from 35th Ave SW to SW Alaska St has poorly defined sidewalks, significant distances between marked pedestrian crossings, no dedicated space for bike riders, and minimal landscaping. Through several extensive community processes, the residents and business owners in the area have expressed the need for improvements to make this stretch of Fauntleroy Way SW safer for pedestrians and bikes, and highlight its role as a main entrance to West Seattle.
The Fauntleroy Way SW Boulevard Project would include a raised median, 6-foot wide sidewalks, protected bike lanes, street lighting and other safety improvements between 35th Ave SW and SW Alaska St. Discussions of improvements to Fauntleroy Way began in 1999, when the West Seattle Junction Hub Neighborhood Plan identified streetscape improvements in this area, and continued through the multi-year West Seattle Triangle planning process. The streetscape plan was formally adopted by SDOT and the Seattle Department of Planning and Development in 2012. In addition, the 2014 Bike Master Plan designated Fauntleroy Way SW for a protected bike lane.
