Seattle Bike Blog

The person driving the garbage truck did not signal or slow down before turning across the 12th Ave bike lane where Christian Salyer was riding June 1, a lawsuit (PDF) filed this week in King County Superior Court alleges. The truck ran over" Salyer and killed him, the suit states. He was 30. Salyer's estate, [...]

The I-90 Trail has reopened in Bellevue, and sewer construction crews will staff the trail with flaggers to help trail users through the area safely without the need for a detour. Users are advised to anticipate delays up to ten minutes long if crews are using the trail to move construction vehicles. The change went [...]

The driver of a silver Toyota Camry who hit a man bicycling southbound on Aurora Ave N near N 97th Street shortly after midnight September 29 is now a killer. Luis Maykoll Medero Sagarra died from his injuries October 17, 18 days after the collision, according to the King County Medical Examiner. He was 30 [...]

You absolute monsters, these are children we're talking about. Washington's statewide Initiative 638, if approved, could require all girls (but not boys) to have their genitals examined before they are are allowed to play youth sports. Children! All so some twisted MAGA adults can abuse the apparatus of the state to bully trans kids. Children! [...]

The Nov. 3 general election is pivotal for the future of bicycling due to current hostility toward bike infrastructure funding at the federal level and gloomy budget forecasts at the state level," writes Washington Bikes on their election endorsements page. So we need to make sure that our senators and representatives understand that safe streets [...]

A person driving an SUV on Bellevue Way SE struck and killed a person on a bike at the intersection with SE 30th Street/113th Ave SE at 6:35 a.m. Thursday (October 15), according to Bellevue Police. First responders attempted life saving measures, but the person died at the scene. Our condolences to their friends and [...]

The 2nd Ave bike lane will be closed through downtown today (October 15) for maintenance work," according to SDOT. Riders passing through downtown can take 4th Ave or the waterfront instead. Pike/Pine and Yesler have quality protected bike lane connections to 4th Ave. Be aware that for many blocks downtown, the hill between these two [...]

Hundreds of people stood with their bikes to prevent work crews from dismantling the protected bike lanes on Bloor Street Tuesday evening. Work crews showed up, but after speaking with protestors who were lining both sides of the work zone decided to leave. To destroy Toronto's complete streets, and to make it illegal to build [...]

A short section of the Sammamish River Trail will be closed tomorrow (October 13) for what is hopefully only a few hours between NE 143th and 145th Streets across the river from Chateau Ste. Michelle. However, the notice from King County Parks says the closure could continue over multiple days. King County is once again [...]

After more than a decade of planning and work, Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance is ready to celebrate the opening of the new Raging River trails near Snoqualmie and North Bend. Join them and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday (October 10) for a day of music, food and, [...]

The new Pinehurst Station has a horrible walkshed with very few destinations or homes within a 5-minute walk of the station entrance. This point has been made well, and there are efforts to allow more housing near the station, including in the golf course. Rather than rehash those points, it's worth looking at how the [...]

Sometime Monday evening (September 28), somebody rolled across the Fremont Bridge and registered the one millionth bike or scooter trip so far this year. The old bike counter display had both a daily count and a thermometer-style counter that filled up over the course of the year. That thermometer maxed out at one million. When [...]

Week Without Driving 2026 runs October 1-8, challenging people to do exactly what it says on the tin: Go an entire week without driving a car. It's an enlightening experience for individuals, but it is especially powerful when decision makers participate. Too many people in charge of transportation and even transit decisions do not know [...]

Like many streets in the north and south ends of Seattle, 1st Ave NE does not have continuous sidewalks. Though it won't be ready before the opening of Pinehurst Station in two days (September 30), SDOT has finished design on a new 12-foot-wide biking and walking trail between NE 130th Street and James Baldwin Elementary [...]

SDOT's bike and scooter share survey closes tomorrow (September 25), so if you have ridden Lime then definitely share your thoughts. Take the survey (afterwards you can enter for a chance to win a $100 gift card of some kind). It shouldn't take much longer than 10 minutes and mostly involves checking boxes about how [...]

People will be able to walk and bike across the Spokane Street Swing Bridge over the Duwamish River this weekend. Signs have been warning about an upcoming bridge closure, but that only affects the general vehicle lanes because crews are working to repair a gate that was damaged in a 2024 collision. The trail next [...]

I was on KUOW talking with Owen Henderson about this year's exploding bike count numbers. Give it a read/listen. Folks who have already read my previous story on the matter probably won't encounter anything super new, but it is always fun to be able to talk about good bike news to a wider audience. Building [...]

The City Council's Transportation Committee advanced a package of three bills (121296, 121297, 121298) that would codify traffic safety work into the city code in a number of ways, but perhaps the most eye-catching change (121296 Amendement 16) would give the city Traffic Engineer authority to make traffic safety decisions without seeking a certificate of [...]

When looking at the Fremont Bridge bike counter data one month ago, wildfire smoke degrading Seattle's air quality had diminished bike trips enough that I wrote that the 2026 counts could still fall behind the previous record set in 2019 since at the time the August counts were lagging behind 2019. I was wrong. Seattle's [...]

Erik Josberger was on a light rail train crossing I-90 when he saw someone driving a white sedan in the biking and walking path going even faster than the train. As someone who has been biking in the area for a long time, it was a terrifying thing to see. He took out his phone [...]

Stand in the hiking boots prints of history Saturday to celebrate the 55th Anniversary of the community-led hike-in that helped create the Burke-Gilman Trail. The day of music, kids activities, food and games starts at 9 a.m. and goes until 3 at Matthews Beach Park. There is also a mini hike-in" for kids with prizes. [...]

Cascade Bicycle Club's newest event, the Lake Union Family Ride, is a 7-mile loop with kids' activities along the way. The September 13 ride starts at Gas Works Park with a midway stop at Lake Union Park where kids can take a break from the saddle to eat lunch and build a boat at the [...]

Both SDOT and Seattle Parks are working to fix annoying and potentially dangerous bumps on the city's trail network this month. The Ship Canal, Burke-Gilman and Duwamish Trails are all slated to get some love. SDOT crews already patched a stretch of the Ship Canal Trail near Fisherman's Terminal. I rode it yesterday, and it [...]

The pair of newly renovated waterfront parks north of downtown are spectacular. Funded by Melinda French Gates and MacKenzie Scott, the Diller-Von Furstenberg Family Foundation and Expedia through the Downtown Seattle Association-powered Elliott Bay Connection organization, the remake of Myrtle Edwards and Centennial Parks turned a lovely waterfront park into one of the best in [...]

Sean Duffy, the corrupt B-list reality TV personality cosplaying as Trump's Transportation Secretary, is trying to put language in the transportation reauthorization bill that would restrict bike lanes on the misleadingly-named National Highway System." This system includes a lot of regular city streets (map), including streets like Eastlake Ave where a federally-funded project is currently [...]

Our family went bike camping on Lopez Island Sunday to Wednesday, and it was amazing as always. Word definitely seems to have gotten out, and even on a Sunday the number of people biking off the ferry was amazing. A teen was going on a bike camping trip with friends to celebrate his 18th birthday, [...]

A very bumpy section of the Ship Canal Trail along W Emerson St near Fisherman's Terminal is getting fixed. Luckily, there's a fairly easy detour on the north side of the street, though it does require crossing at the 19th Ave W signal. Expect the detour starting tomorrow (August 27) through August 31. More details [...]

In 86 dense pages of the state's draft Freight System Plan, there are zero mentions of walking or biking and, therefore, few specifics on how the state's freight system will work toward the state's goal of eliminating serious or fatal collisions involving people on foot or bike. WSDOT is collecting feedback on the draft plan [...]

In one of the biggest overhauls of Seattle's approach to making streets safer, Mayor Katie Wilson signed five executive orders (PDF) to speed up delivery of safety fixes and expand the city's safe streets strategies. The mayor announced and signed the orders in front of Cleveland High School flanked by Councilmembers Eddie Lin and Alexis [...]

If you saw a bunch of signs warning about a Spokane Street Swing Bridge closure this weekend, that is only for motor vehicles. The biking and walking path will remain open and usable. Unlike many previous closures, this one actually has nothing to do with the bridge's unreliable swing mechanism. Instead it is to fix [...]

If biking and swimming are your thing, then the Seattle Bike Disco has a ride for you. The evening time group ride is hopping from swimming spot to swimming spot Friday night, and you're invited. Put on a swimsuit and bike to Occidental Square by 7 p.m. Friday (August 21).

Proposed ordinances would rewrite sections of Seattle's code to give the City Traffic Engineer more direct authority and responsibility to make safe streets changes. They would also grant emergency authority" to the Traffic Engineer to expedite safety fixes in locations with imminent risks," presumably including locations where a serious or fatal collision has occurred. City [...]

I saw the eclipse in Iceland! Well, OK, saw" might not be the most accurate description. It was very cloudy and rainy. But it got really dark, which was cool. Then Bjork did a DJ set wearing a dress made out of balloons. Our trip took us to Glasgow, then to Edinburgh for the Fringe [...]

People took more bike and scooter trips across the Fremont Bridge in July than in any month ever in the city's history, and it wasn't even close. The 153,238 trips was near 11,000 trips more than the previous high-water mark set in August 2019, and total counts for 2026 through July are up more than [...]

The 2-Line will connect two big open streets parties Saturday, so clear your schedule and plan for a day of biking and dancing in the streets. The annual Move Redmond Open Streets Festival goes from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the lineup includes a performance by the bicycle-inspired troupe Heap. Eastside Urbanism will also [...]

I'm in Glasgow and stumbled upon what the Riverside Museum claims to be possibly the oldest bicycle in the world, an invention of Gavin Dalzell. If nothing else, they seem quite certain it is the oldest surviving bicycle. They didn't let me ride it and were unmoved by my insistence that I am a genuine [...]

SDOT is standing by its reworked design for a new downhill protected bike lane on Highland Park Way SW. But the biggest improvement should be to the safety of people inside cars. The project is planned for construction as soon as February 2027," according to the project webpage. Highland Park Way is a long, steep [...]

The 51-year-old woman who died Tuesday after colliding with a gate on the 1st Avenue South Bridge has been identified as Janine Cross. Our condolences to her friends and family. Janine was riding a Letric XPLite northbound in the biking and walking path of the bridge shortly before noon when she struck the bridge gate," [...]

Summer on Lake Washington Boulevard keeps getting better. Not only are there Bicycle Weekends every non-SeaFair weekend, but a coalition of community groups are getting together to host the first Lake WA Blvd Bash, a free festival of music and food in the middle of the historic car-free route. From noon to 7 p.m. August [...]

Though one cannot expect a policy out of the Trump Administration to be based in reality, it is still important to push against their firehose of awful ideas. The corrupt former mid-level reality TV personality cosplaying as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy recently posted that USDOT would be directing funding away from DEI bike lanes," whatever [...]

What if there were something like a ski lift that you could use to carry your bike to the top of Seattle's hills? There is! And with this new durable, glossy and high-quality sticker from the Seattle Bike Blog shop, you can turn your boring old ORCA card into a bicycle lift pass to the [...]

Jonny Nelson from Chicago biked around Seattle recently, and good grief it seems like he had a stinking great time. It's always interesting to see your own city through the eyes of someone who doesn't know much about the city. Despite encountering the Burke-Gilman Trail Missing Link very early in his adventure, he still had [...]

Registered voters with up-to-date addresses should have received their 2026 primary ballots in the mail (or should receive one very soon). Below you will find a roundup of which candidates have earned endorsements from three respected organizations that care about bicycling and safe streets: The Transit Riders Union (TRU), the Urbanist (URB) and Washington Bikes [...]

King County Parks has launched a new public awareness campaign to emphasize that while Class 1 and 2 e-bikes and electric foot scooters are allowed on county shared use trails, motorcycles (gas or electric), mopeds, ATVs and Class 3 e-bikes are not allowed. Basically, if it has a gas motor of any kind or an [...]

A few weeks ago, I walked the route of Councilmember Dan Strauss's proposed trail along Leary Avenue NW and NW Market Street with a group of dedicated walking and biking advocates from Ballard-Fremont Green Streets and Cascade Bicycle Club. We had a printout of the recently-released 60% design to reference as well as a measuring [...]

A 14-year-old boy died Tuesday while riding an electric motorcycle in the I-5 Colonnade mountain bike park, Capitol Hill Seattle reported. Our condolences to his friends and family. UPDATE 7/10: The King County Medical Examiner has identified the child as Cnar Doan. A memorial is growing on a landing near the bottom of the Howe [...]

Another half decade of Missing Link court battling may have been completely wasted after the Washington State Court of Appeals delivered a devastating blow to the city's 2021 attempt to bypass environmental review by building a skinnier trail to connect the Burke-Gilman Trail from 11th Ave NW to the Ballard Locks. The court smacked down [...]

The Seattle Streets Alliance has published an action alert urging Seattle to take three actions to improve street safety, two specific interventions and one systemic change. Supporters can sign on to the ideas and send letters to city leaders. Daylight every intersection SDOT touches The group is calling for SDOT to daylight every intersection they [...]

Lime set a huge new ridership record the day of the U.S. World Cup match against Australia by carrying 84K trips on its bikes and scooters. If Lime were a roadway, it would be tied with the 1st Avenue South Bridge for the third-busiest highway in Seattle behind only I-5 (195K main deck plus 40K [...]

A bombshell investigation in the New York Times goes deep into the ways that taller hoods and wider A-pillars in American SUV and pickup trucks both block drivers' ability to see people walking and inflict more deadly injuries when collisions occur. After significant statistical analysis, the authors conclude that at least 3,000 people killed between [...]