Category: Uncategorized

Spokane Street Bridge is open for bikes

The West Seattle Bridge is suddenly closed to all traffic, and the Spokane Street Bridge is restricted to emergency first responders, transit, freight, bike and pedestrian traffic. If you are looking for alternative ways to get to an essential job or do an essential errand or some socially distanced exercise, this would be a great time to try it by bike. Traffic is quiet most everywhere.  The low bridge has a nice wide ped/bike path fully separated from the heavy truck traffic and connects to several good bike routes.

  • We have routes mapped with turn-by-turn directions on our Resources page.
  • Seattle Bike Blog just did this great video interview with WSBC year-round bike commuter Anthony Palmieri, with aerial flyover views of the major bike routes.
  • If you would like a custom route map, or a bike buddy for a socially distanced but in-person test ride, just send us a message here or shoot us an email at westseattlebikeconnections@gmail.com.  We’ll get you connected to a volunteer who can assist.
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Governor Inslee has ordered everyone to stay at home for a period, unless traveling for an essential job or a defined essential errand.  However, he also recommended getting out for bike riding and walking as a way to maintain health. We urge you to recognize that this applies to you personally, not just others. Follow King County Health Department protocols; choose uncrowded routes and times of day; only ride solo or with those in your household.

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Photo courtesy of SDOT

NSF project designs open for comments

Three wins for West Seattle and one for Georgetown-South Park in the City’s Neighborhood Street Fund grants.

You can now see the 10% design concepts illustrated, and can submit comments of support or criticism to SDOT by January 31.

The “Delridge Neighborhood Greenway Safe Connections” project for SW Andover from 26th to Delridge, and on to the bridge trail, includes what we asked for and a little more. It will help make riding on the 26th Ave Greenway a viable alternative to Delridge. Installing a guardrail on the path leading to the West Seattle Bridge Trail will further separate people walking and biking from traffic at a narrow point in the trail.

Projects on SW Barton at Delridge Way and at 25th SW will make it a lot more safe to cross that busy street near Westwood Village and on a walking/biking route to White Center.

The South Park and Georgetown Safe Connections project will improve visibility and safety for riding bikes on busy truck routes at East Marginal Way S and 16th Ave S. That’s on the route to/from Georgetown using the 14th Ave (South Park) Bridge. We’ve submitted comments that the project really should include a marked bike mixing zone for north/eastbound 16th Ave too, not just for south/west bound East Marginal Way.  More comments would help send that message. This is an important West Seattle bike connection to south Seattle.

Screenshot 2020-01-20 10.02.41

Hauling half a ton of food by bike

All I can say is “WOW”! The first annual West Seattle Cranksgiving was a huge success in our book!

In the last 7 years that I have been here, this is definitely the largest food drive in the shortest amount of time. And such variety, culturally diverse food, food for the kids Backpack program, diapers & wipes for the Baby Corner and fresh produce.

Judy Yazzolino, West Seattle Food Bank development director, quoted in West Seattle Blog story.

On our first Cranksgiving, ~35 bike riders delivered 1,195 pounds of supplies to the West Seattle Food Bank.  We formed small teams, grabbed shopping lists, then spread out to 11 markets in West Seattle and White Center on a damp, cool morning, riding north to the Alaska Junction and south into White Center. Most of us made our first shopping trips into the small ethnic markets of White Center – and vowed to return.

Special kudos to Alki Velo Club, who came out in force, and to our three young riders from High Point. Thanks to WSBC leader Paul Dieter for organizing this event. Awesome work, all!

At our post-ride meetup at Zeek’s, we committed to do it again in 2020.  Come ride with us next year!

Cranksgiving rides are a national grass roots movement. Tom Fucoloro, editor of Seattle Bike Blog, brought Cranksgiving to Seattle 10 years ago, and inspired us to try one on the peninsula. The citywide ride was a week later, with a record 190 riders bringing more than a ton of food to the Rainier Valley Food Bank.  If you do the math, you will see proof that West Seattle riders work harder 😀

Big bike riding gains in 2019

+7.7% more bike trips this year through November on the Spokane Street Bridge compared to same time in 2018.  2018 ended at 8.6% above 2017.

Seattle Bike Blog has a post about the awesome increases at the Fremont Bridge. The 24/7 bike counters in Fremont, West Seattle and on Second Avenue downtown confirm the trend is citywide.

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Ridership would surely be even higher if we were not contending this year with

  • the Avalon Way paving project;
  • riding through the middle of a large homeless encampment on an isolated stretch of trail (now cleared);
  • the messy and confusing Alaskan Way viaduct demo work;
  • lack of progress on bike master plan implementation.

On the plus side this year:

  • good weather in January and November (offset by ice and snow in February) and a summer without smoke;
  • traffic congestion, including crowded buses slowed by Viaduct demo impacts;
  • increasing popularity of e-bikes.
  • What  else?
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Dec 3 meet at Ounces

On Tuesday, 12/3 6:30 pm to 8:00 or so
Instead of a regular meeting, we’re meeting at Ounces taproom on Delridge north of Andover for a year-end social gathering. If you’ve never been to one of our meetings, we’d love to have you join us for food from Beanfish food truck, beer or soft drink, and good conversation. Kid friendly, everybody welcome.

 

Stand with the Duwamish Tribe

Especially today, Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we would like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional land of the first people of Seattle, the Duwamish People past and present. We honor with gratitude the land itself and the Duwamish Tribe.

To turn our words into action, we are actively supporting the Duwamish Tribe’s  for a signalized, ADA accessibile crossing of West Marginal Way SW at the Duwamish Longhouse. Please call or email City Council members this week asking:

Please add funding to the 2020 budget for the Duwamish Tribe’s Safety & Accessibility Project to create a safe and ADA-accessible crossing of West Marginal Way SW from the Longhouse to the Duwamish Trail and the Duwamish River parks and parking.

Lisa.Herbold@seattle.gov, Lorena.Gonzalez@seattle.gov, Mike.OBrien@seattle.gov, Teresa.Mosqueda@seattle.gov,
bruce.harrell@seattle.gov, sally.bagshaw@seattle.gov, kshama.sawant@seattle.gov, debora.juarez@seattle.gov, abel.pacheco@seattle.gov

You can also show your support by attending the City Council budget hearing on October 22 at 5:30 pm at Seattle City Hall, and standing with the Duwamish Tribe to make this request.

Time to vote!

2019 Ballots are coming. Your vote will count.

WSBC endorses NO on I-976

I-976 is the Eyman-sponsored initiative to reduce vehicle license fees. It would gut funding for transit and road projects.

City Council District 1

WSBC does not endorse individual candidates. We encourage everyone to look at the records and positions of candidates, paying attention to who is endorsing and funding their campaigns.

For City Council District 1 (West Seattle and South Park), here are some endorsements relevant to bike, pedestrian safety and other transportation issues:

Low Bridge Counts High

Bike Counts on the Spokane Street Bridge: +5.8% more bike trips this year through September, compared to same time in 2018.  2018 ended at 8.6% above 2017.

Seattle Bike Blog has a post today about the awesome increases at the Fremont Bridge. Counts from West Seattle confirm the trend.

Ridership would surely be even higher if we were not contending this year with

  • the Avalon Way paving project;
  • riding through the middle of a large homeless encampment on an isolated stretch of trail (now cleared);
  • the messy and confusing Alaskan Way viaduct demo work;
  • lack of progress on bike master plan implementation.

On the plus side this year:

  • good weather in January (offset by ice and snow in February) and a summer without smoke;
  • traffic congestion, including crowded buses slowed by Viaduct demo impacts;
  • increasing popularity of e-bikes.
  • What  else?

26th SW Greenway? or Speedway?

Is it the 26th Ave SW Neighborhood Greenway?
Or the Delridge Alternate Speedway?
This is a two-way residential street. It was West Seattle’s first neighborhood greenway, intended to be low speed with low volumes, safe for walking and biking, with features to discourage cars from using it instead of the parallel arterial. Not working!
This photo, on a typical morning this week, shows car drivers trying to pass a solid backup of other drivers, endangering oncoming bike riders and everyone else. The residents of the area are fed up, whether walking, riding or driving in their neighborhood.
 
We’ve been asking SDOT for a traffic diverter at 26th SW & SW Genesee to discourage the northbound cut-through traffic to Andover. So far, unsuccessfully.
 
If you agree, please send SDOT and our elected officials this message:
Cut-through traffic is out of control on 26th Avenue SW.  It’s not safe to walk across the street, bike, or back a car out of a driveway. This street is no longer working as a low speed, low volume Neighborhood Greenway.  Instead, it is has become a speedway for drivers avoiding Delridge Way traffic.  We need a traffic diverter at 26th SW & SW Genesee to keep northbound car drivers from cutting through on 26th SW to SW Andover. 
Please include this diverter as part of the RapidRide H Multimodal Corridor project’s 26th Ave SW Greenway improvements.
DelridgeTransit@seattle.gov
Lisa.Herbold@seattle.gov
Lorena.González@seattle.gov
Mike.OBrien@seattle.gov
Jenny.Durkan@seattle.gov
Sam.Zimbabwe@seattle.gov
Monica.DeWald@seattle.gov
Screen Shot 2019-10-04 at 9.41.59 AM
A diverter preventing northbound vehicle traffic, except emergency vehicles, on the 58th Ave NW Greenway at 15th Ave NW. 

 

Mayor Durkan budgets for street safety

The Mayor’s draft 2020 budget is out, and it recognizes the importance of funding for bike and pedestrian safety projects and transit service.  It’s good news.  Advocacy with the MASS coalition is having an effect. But let’s not declare “mission accomplished” just yet.

It’s a step forward — to where we were in 2016.

This does not get us all the way back to where the Bicycle Master Plan implementation plan was in 2017, much less to the 2018 draft that the Mayor never accepted, that would have helped under-served areas of south and southwest Seattle catch up.

Deleted on the 2019 implementaton plan map were previously included routes on S Orcas, Beacon Ave S, SW Roxbury, Sylvan Way SW/SW Orchard, Fauntleroy SW, East Marginal Way south of S Spokane, and a segment on the new West Seattle greenways at the hardest part, at the Morgan Junction. The map still shows “Existing Bike Facilities (Excluding Sharrows)” where there are only painted stripe climbing lanes. An example is Sylvan Way SW/ SW Orchard, where an uphill-only lane appears, disappears, appears and disappears again on a key east-west route from South Delridge to High Point.

At this rate of progress, Seattle will not reach its goal to build out the Bicycle Master Plan’s “Citywide” network by 2030 and the rest of the network by 2035. Transit service is improving, but Pedestrian Master Plan progress is bogged down. It is not just a coincidence that Seattle isn’t hitting it’s Climate Action Plan targets either.

Our “corrected” map is here:BMP_Imp_Plan_2019_S sector map