South Park Connections

Art Brochet from SDOT briefed the South Park Transportation Committee on developments related to extension of the West Duwamish Trail through the industrial area of South Park at a meeting last Tuesday, 9/17. These street improvements are big deal for this vibrant, but under-served community. They fill in some key gaps we have recommended for the Bike Master Plan.

The West Duwamish trail extension will start at Holden, run southeast along the WA99 right of way, then east on Portland to 8th, with two added blocks south on 8th. Bike lanes along Portland will be separated from traffic by trees and lighting. Portland Ave is a gravel street at the moment, with truck traffic serving industrial businesses, and will be paved. The project is now proposed to extend an additional two blocks south from Portland to Kenyon on 8th, as requested by WSBC in our Bike Master Plan Update comments, with the bike lane on that stretch separated from traffic lanes by parking – a real state-of-the-art bike route! Because the path will be crossed by several entrances to industrial sites, with trucks and forklifts moving across the trail, Art would appreciate our help in designing signage to warn cyclists.

Design for the bike trail part of the project is at nearly 90%, but the road and drainage parts of the project are a bit farther behind. Still, Art expects the project to go to bid in November and construction to begin in May. He shared a draft project planning notice that should be finalized and available to us and others soon. More importantly, he plans to hold an open house on the project to solicit community reaction on November 12th from 5 to 7 pm (date and time to be confirmed), just before a meeting of the South Park Neighborhood Association. At least one business rep is opposed to the trail,  so our support at the meeting would be welcome.

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This report is from Bob Winship, West Seattle Bike Connections.  At the invitation of Dagmar Cronn, President of the South Park Neighborhood Association, Bob and others from WSBC began participating with the South Park neighborhood in working for safe bike routes to places people in South Park want to ride to, including parks, the community center and library, the Duwamish Trail, and West Seattle, where many South Park kids go to middle and high school. If you live or work in South Park and want to participate, please do! Let us know, or contact the SPNA.

East Marginal – Smoother Sailing

Wet and windy this morning, but the paving on East Marginal is feeling a LOT better. New surfacing at the Hanford to Horton intersections and another of the worst sections further north.  One less thing to think about when getting into the north bound bike lane, and just in time for wetter, darker riding.

Thank you SDOT!  These are more of the interim improvements requested by Mayor McGinn and approved by City Council, pushed by Transportation Committee Chair Tom Rasmussen.  Funded by savings from the Spokane Street Viaduct project.

IMG_0303  IMG_0309Some of the curved, buried RR tracks have been removed, and trees in the sidewalk from Spokane to near Horton have been transplanted along side or removed, and the tree pits have been paved. Still to come: moving hydrants and some signs out of the path and grinding down bumps. Puddle drainage. Widening the west side sidewalk to really convert the west side sidewalk to a multi-use path workable for two-way bike traffic?

If you have not tried the downtown commute via West Seattle Bridge Trail, East Marginal and Alaskan Way, this could be a good time to give it a shot. Not perfect (still have Lake Marginal and a big puddle near Spokane), but much improved surface, and there is still light to see and get to know it.  Come January, when the Viaduct is shut down for tunnel drilling, it may be dark and wet and colder, but a bike with lights and rain jacket for 30 minutes will beat being stuck in traffic for an hour or more.

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Here are a couple of “before” shots in the same area, from January of this year:

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video from Bike & Truck Safety Fair

Bike-truck_safety__130906_15a short video  from the Bike & Truck Safety Fair  September 6, at Terminal 25. photo and video by Don Wilson, Port of Seattle Photographer.  Starring West Seattle bike riders, truck drivers and SDOT and Port and Cascade Bicycle Club staff

This could become an annual event.

 

Freight Advisory Board news – 9/17/13

What? Isn’t this a bike blog? Why freight? Because…

1. We live on a peninsula. To get to Seattle we need to go across bridges and on routes that are also, and primarily, major truck routes though the Duwamish manufacturing and industrial center and the Port of Seattle seaport and rail yards.

2. We need jobs. These manufacturing areas and the port are the drivers of our economy. Lots of us are riding to jobs directly connected to the port, freight transfer, world trade and manufacturing that depends on freight. We all need to consume goods brought by ship, rail and truck. The deep water seaport on Elliott Bay remains the primary reason that Seattle exists as a city.

3. We have hills. Bikes and trucks both need relatively gentle grades. The street that angle across the hills or run on the flats. We have to share those grades and co-exist.

At today’s meeting:

  1. Video shown from the Bike & Truck Safety Fair, and thanks to all who participated!  Could become annual. Photos and video will be shared soon.
  2. Freight Advisory Board comments on the Waterfront EIS. Trucking companies have the same concerns as bike riders: will we be able to get through it smoothly without delay after the tunnel and waterfront are done?
  3. WSDOT freight plan. Barbara Ivanov from WSDOT presented the state’s freight plan for highways, marine and rail. Focus on bottlenecks. All slow speed bottlenecks on WA freeways are in central Puget Sound (surprise!) esp I-5 though Seattle and I-405 in Renton. For non-freeway highways, northbound 99 south of 1st Ave bridge is a poster child bottleneck, with posted speed limit of 40 and actual average speed of 22.  Basically, that speed make bikes competitive for freight hauling.  Well, at least it shows that if we can more people out of cars that are slowing down trucks and onto bikes traveling safely beside trucks, we can help improve freight mobility and our economy. Why are our highways and bridges in such bad shape?  Legislators pass funding for new projects but not for preservation of existing highways and bridges, and the gas tax is declining, and WA does not have an income tax or use general funds for state highways.  (Local streets are funded by property tax, NOT by gas tax).
  4. SDOT ITS initiative:  information technology to manage traffic flow and make it more efficient. SDOT has completed a study but not funded implementation of ways to use LOTS of expensive information technology to get real time feedback on traffic conditions to signals, readerboard signs,  online traffic flow maps and more from social media, etc.  Sounds fine for signals and road signs. Sound really scary for all the cool ways people could use their smart phones in their vehicles instead of actually paying attention to the road around them. This needs some attention and severe editing.  Another option to spending 10’s of millions on IT: Spend hundreds of thousands on bike routes and just ride. It does not take any more IT than the weather report.
  5. SDOT/Port of Seattle Industrial Areas Action Project:  Tony Mazella reported on this project for the Duwamish and the Ballard (Interbay) Manufacturing and Industrial Centers (MICs). It will identify improvement projects within and between these areas and from them to highways, intermodal yards, shipping terminals. Draft in spring 2014. Stakeholder outreach now. These routes coincide with bike routes in many cases.
  6. SDOT Freight Master Plan:  Work beginning soon. Same team as for Bike Master Plan, which is encouraging for integration of the two. Sara Zora presented.  As with the BMP, the street network definition is a key element. For City policy, the Freight, Bike, Transit and Pedestrian Master Plans are Modal Plans. They, along with  Operations Plan and SubArea Plan, flow from the Transportation Strategic Plan.The Transportation Strategic Plan and the Climate Action Plan flow from the Comprehensive Plan.
  7. SDOT Capital Projects:  Art Brochet reported on their current list of large projects, and offered to give the FAB briefings on projects of interest at 30% design stage for design input and near bid stage for construction detours and other mitigation during construction.  Lots of these involve arterials and bridges of interest for bike transportation, too.

SODO Arena EIS – this affects bike connections from West Seattle

Arena Draft EIS came out to no fanfare in August. The proponents’ preferred SODO scheme vacates public streets, and impacts our bike routes from West Seattle to downtown and Beacon Hill, to say nothing of freight traffic and shipping, bus routes and car traffic.  Comments due by September 30.

At first glance, it is predictably and sadly lacking in evaluation of the traffic impact for pedestrians, bikes, cars, trucks, buses, and trains. They  have no b-ball team right now, so this will be easy for the proponents to slip by the citizens of Seattle unless we read it critically and comment or appeal it. If you are interested in a group response, please comment here or send a message. Land use and environmental attorneys wanted!  We need serious analysis and mitigation proposals.

http://buildingconnections.seattle.gov/2013/08/15/seattle-arena-draft-environmental-impact-statement-available/

First public hearing is already past.

Second and final one:  September 19 at 6:00 p.m. Fidalgo Room Seattle Center

Saturday 9/14 – Bikes & Horses

Fiestas Patrias,  South Park

We’ll be there on behalf of Cascade Bicycle Club to do helmet fitting and give helmets to kids who don’t have one, and for bike information. Parade at 11 a.m. We’ll be at the fiesta after the parade, at Sea-Mar Plaza, 9634 Des Moines Memorial Parkway, 1:00 to ~5:00.
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Come volunteer with us, or ride with the Mayor from Seattle Center to the Parade and horse show, then come visit the fiesta. If you want to volunteer, comment or send a message.

 

This Friday 6:30-8:30 am: Bike & Truck Safety Fair

Share the road safely! Join the Port of Seattle and  partners for an opportunity to learn about truck blind spots and the challenges bicyclists and truck drivers face each day as they share Seattle’s busy roads.

Come for bagels, fruit and coffee. Stay to ride along in a semi on a short course to see what truck drivers can and can’t see. 15 minutes at the Bike & Truck Safety Fair may give you a new perspective, and an opportunity to meet SDOT, WSDOT and Port of Seattle representatives.

When: Friday, September 6, 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.
Where: Terminal 25, 3225 East Marginal Way, south entry, just north of Spokane Street, where the truck drivers park

Bike_Truck-Fair_Flyer_final_2-1We are partners of this Port of Seattle sponsored event. if you would like to volunteer an hour, we could use one or two more.

 

9/3 WSBC monthly meeting

First Tuesday of the month is our West Seattle Bike Connections meeting. At West Seattle’s newest bike shop this month: West Seattle Cyclery  4508 California Ave SW,  near the Alaska Junction, conveniently located across from the Beer Junction.

6:30 PM to 8:00 PM

Anyone is welcome to attend…we are all-inclusive!

Agenda includes  planning and recruiting for

  • Bikes & Trucks Safety Fair this coming Friday 9/6
  • Fiestas Patrias festival in South Park 9/14 – helmet fitting and giveaways
  • Parking Day space at the Alaska Junction 9/20
  • Commercial area bike parking project
  • East Marginal improvements
  • Bike Biz
  • South Park bike route improvements
  • SDOT spot improvement projects
  • Terminal 18/Fishing Pier planters on bike route
  • lots more – we need you!

East Marginal Way – interim improvements

The West Seattle Blog reported this week on interim improvements for East Marginal Way S from S Spokane St to S Atlantic Street (at the Coast Guard’s Pier 46).

In addition to the improvements listed by SDOT, we have asked for
– removal of fire hydrants that are right in the middle of the path. These violate SDOT, SPU and ADA standards.
– widening of the path/sidewalk to make it safe and usable for high volume 2-way bike and low volume pedestrian traffic, with safe room for passing.
– improvements to sightlines at some of the terminal driveways where fencing, signs or other obstruction interfere with views.

It will be a tough sell to get the bike commuters currently using the northbound bike lane to switch to the sidewalk on the west side unless it is really improved to be a safe, smooth bike path with room to pass safely.

trees in "tree pits" and hydrant obstructions
trees in “tree pits” and hydrant obstructions

trees in "tree pits" and hydrant obstructions
trees in “tree pits” and hydrant obstructions
trees in "tree pits" and hydrant obstructions
trees in “tree pits” and hydrant obstructions
sign could be raised up to avoid obscuring sight triangle at drive.
sign could be raised up to avoid obscuring sight triangle at drive.
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