No, those aren’t bike lanes on Lake Washington Blvd
Photo from Braeden Van Deynze via Bluesky.People traveling on Lake Washington Boulevard may notice new white lines near the sides of the road and think that the city finally painted bike lanes on the historic park boulevard. Unfortunately, that isn't the case.
The new lines, called fog lines," are intended to narrow the visual width of the two lanes on the street, which along with other traffic calming elements like speed humps, stop signs and improved crosswalks, should help slow car traffic. The problem is that the Mayor Bruce Harrell has cancelled those other planned traffic calming elements, and without them these fog lines are pitifully inadequate at best and possibly confusing at worst. It really is the least the city could do.
Everyone reading this post knows that these are not bike lanes, but what about all the people who don't read Seattle Bike Blog? It makes sense that the city would paint bike lanes here since it is such a heavily-biked street and has been its entire existence, and these sure look a lot like bike lanes. It's not a stretch for someone biking to think they need to ride inside the new lane" or for someone driving to think that people biking in front of them should be riding there. It's only a matter of time before a road rager yells at someone to Get in the bike lane!" if it hasn't happened already.
However, there is not enough space on Lake Washington Boulevard for safe bike lanes and two general traffic lanes. If there were, the city would have painted them a long time ago. Worse, the edge of the road is of inconsistent condition, and about half the space beyond the line is a gutter with a seam between it and the road surface that people biking should avoid. It is dangerous for people biking to squeeze all the way to the edge of the road because there is not enough room for someone in a car or truck to pass safely within the same lane, and people hugging the side of the road can easily end up without any wiggle room to avoid road debris, cracks, blackberry vines or a close pass.
The new lines change nothing about how people should bike on Lake Washington Boulevard. The safest option in lieu of proper bicycle infrastructure is still to practice vehicular cycling" best practices. Always give yourself buffer space on both sides so you have room to deal with the unexpected. You have a right to take the lane" like any other vehicle when there is not enough space for someone to safely pass you within that lane. Ride within the lane far enough from the road edge to avoid debris and other issues while constantly checking behind you to make sure people driving are being patient and waiting for a safe opportunity to move into the adjacent lane to pass as the law requires them to do (some of them will instead choose to risk a head-on collision rather than be patient, and you'll have to be prepared to avoid them when they cut back toward you at the last second).
Of course, this is all stressful, and it doesn't work well for anybody. Especially as a parent who is teaching their 7-year-old how to get around on bike, it feels absurd to try to explain to her how she should navigate streets like these on her little green bike with a giraffe bell. This is why Seattle Bike Blog and so many others have been advocating hard for a permanent and protected space for biking and walking on Lake Washington Boulevard.
In a way, maybe it will turn out to be a good thing that Mayor Harrell cancelled the speed humps on Lake Washington Boulevard, because it provides an opportunity for a reset on the whole issue of how to actually make this park boulevard safer for everyone. The speed humps were already an inadequate response. The city's standards for a neighborhood greenway as outlined in the 2024 Seattle Transportation Plan clearly state that such a treatment (a shared street with low speeds and speed humps) is only appropriate if vehicle speeds are lower than 20 mph and traffic volumes are 1,000 vehicles per day or below. A traffic study (PDF) found that the 85th percentile speed on Lake Washington Boulevard is 35 mph, and the road carried upwards of 3,200 vehicles per day in 2023 (a figure that is likely higher now as traffic patterns return to to pre-pandemic levels when the street carried 8,400 vehicles per day in places).
From the 2024 Seattle Transportation Plan's Bicycle section (PDF).The plan also clearly states that for streets with more than 6,000 vehicles per day, a protected bike lane or separated path are the only all-ages-and-abilities options. You don't need to ask the authors of the transportation plan about it, though, because regular people seems to understand this as well. Of the 3,048 people who responded to a city survey about what to do with Lake Washington Boulevard back in 2022, 76% of them supported adding dedicated space for biking, significantly higher than the 55% that supported adding speed humps.
There is an easy and low-cost way to provide permanent and protected biking space on the street while still maintaining car access: Put a barrier of some kind down the middle of the street, then use half the street as a biking and walking path and the other half for one-way general traffic. Every parking lot and driveway will still be accessible by car, and the south end would finally have a spectacular biking and walking route to rival the northend's Burke-Gilman Trail. The only trade-off is that some people will have to drive a few extra blocks to get where they are going. Oh, and that one person the city clocked going 74 mph won't be able to do that anymore.
Lake Washington Boulevard has always been a park, and has never been an arterial roadway. Redesigning it to protect park users and enhance this very special lakeside public space will preserve the street's intended purpose.