Seattle Bike Blog

The city plans to build a continuous bike lane on the waterfront side of Alaskan Way under the latest design, SDOT announced Monday. Rather than permanently detour the bike route across Alaskan Way twice within a couple blocks, the new design includes a detour plan for use only during busy cruise ship loading times in [...]

Bike-friendly city rankings are a bit silly, but there's usually some interesting things we can learn from them. There are so many variables that make places different and might impact a person's experience riding a bike in them that distilling an entire city's bikeability down to a number is impossible. For example, I'm guessing someone [...]

At the urging of Councilmember Dan Strauss and with Mayor Bruce Harrell's support, SDOT is beginning early design work on a potential alternative for the Burke-Gilman Trail Missing Link in Ballard. Though the city has a design fully completed and ready for construction along Shilshole Ave NW, the construction permits are held up in court [...]

Julian Hamilton, 25, pleaded guilty to hitting and killing Michael Colmant in April 2021 and was sentenced to 20 months in prison. Hamilton was driving under the influence after drinking in the park when he crossed to the wrong side of Seward Park Ave S just east of the intersection with Wilson Ave S and [...]

Newly-announced Federal RAISE (Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity") grants will help fund several interesting walking and biking projects around the region, including planning work for an ambitious trail from the Bainbridge Island Ferry Terminal to La Push on the Pacific Coast. The City of Port Angeles led a successful grant application for the [...]

The good news is that the horrific increase in pedestrian deaths Washington State saw in 2021 did not continue to increase in 2022. But that's the end of the good news in this story. Preliminary counts in a recent report from the Governors Highway Safety Association show that an estimated 130 pedestrians were killed in [...]

The Nine to Five is a classic, legendary Seattle event that has been making its return in recent years. It is a wonderful counterpoint to the Fremont Solstice Parade bike ride. Rather than celebrate the long day of sun, the Nine to Five celebrates the short night. Riders will hit the streets from sunset to [...]

We are currently in the midst of the biggest social media shakeup in more than a decade, which got me wondering where exactly my readers were spending their scrolling time these days. I also realized that as Twitter interactivity rates declined and I grew increasingly concerned about that platform's overall direction, I needed to diversify [...]

People in Seattle took 3.7 million trips on shared bikes and scooters in the past year, a massive rebound from the 1.4 million trips per year when pandemic restrictions and many business closures were in place. During the busiest summer months, the daily rides averaged over 15,000 trips per day. Six years into the city's [...]

The Fremont Solstice Parade is perhaps Seattle's happiest day of the year, and that's in no small part thanks to the explosion of brave creativity that is the pre-parade bike ride featuring hundreds of people using their bodies as art canvases. The solstice bike ride is still an unofficial part of the Solstice Parade, but [...]

It's time for the Bike News Roundup! First up, Oregon created a 30-second animation to teach people driving how to safety pass someone on a bike. The fall distance" bit is an interesting way to teach safe passing on a simplified, public information level. It's probably better than saying at least three feet" since people [...]

Speed cameras can reduce speeding and collisions while simultaneously bringing in funds to make permanent physical safety improvements to streets. And they can do all this without involving an armed police officer, sidestepping the issue of biased policing. Or at least, that's how it is supposed to work. Whose Streets? Our Streets! is a BIPOC-focused [...]

The Port of Seattle's Interbay detour ended up lasting less than one day rather than the originally-announced 5-day closure. And the result is a much smoother trail surface. Tree roots poking up from below had made the stretch of the Elliott Bay Trail through the Interbay rail yard very bumpy and jarring. As we reported [...]

Seattle Bike Blog has been cheering on the Pedaling Relief Project since it first started as a disaster relief" effort to help food banks handle the tumultuous period when the COVID-19 pandemic began. With many people suddenly out of a job and social distancing requirements complicating the usual methods for distribution, food banks had to [...]

Transportation is a major challenge for school districts across the country, and Seattle is no exception. Bus driver availability and funding is a major deciding factor setting school walk zones and start times. Organizing student transportation is a huge undertaking, and lacking transportation can be a barrier for school access to some families. House Bill [...]

One of Seattle's most unique bike routes threads a path through the middle of the Interbay rail yard, at times squeezed just a few feet and a chain link fence away from rail lines. In terms of width, condition and amenities, this section of the Elliott Bay Trail is far from Seattle's best bike route. [...]

In our car-dominated American society, using a bicycle as transportation is a very positive thing to do both on a society-wide level and especially on a personal level. Obviously, as someone who rides a bike as my primary mode of transportation and writes a daily bike blog, I love bikes and view them as great […]

Vehicle safety ratings in the United States don’t in any way factor in safety for people those vehicles hit. In fact, some of the methods used to score high in these ratings results in vehicle designs that make it harder for drivers to see other road users and avoid collisions from happening in the first […]

Do you have 3–6 hours of available time each month for the next two years and want to learn more about how transportation stuff actually gets done (or not) in Seattle? Well then, you should apply for one of the city’s advisory boards. Yes, you. Members do NOT need to have special training or professional […]

Josh Feit is a longtime reporter, a co-founder of PubliCola News and now a writer for Sound Transit. But on Thursday, he’ll showcase a different kind of writing: urban design poetry. Head to Good Weather Bicycle & Cafe in Capitol Hill’s Chophouse Row at 7 p.m. Thursday to hear Feit read from his new poetry […]

Construction on the first segment of the Beacon Hill bike lane (now called the Beacon Ave S & 15th Ave S Safety Project) is still scheduled to begin a year from now, and the project team has advanced design to the major 30% design milestone. This is the point where major designs elements are established, […]

Lucas Salm-Rojo, a junior at Ballard High School, wrote an excellent op-ed for the Seattle Times this week arguing that Seattle Public Schools is making it harder for students to bike to school because not every school has adequate — or any — bike parking. And the problem is particularly apparent at at schools serving […]

The other day my kid and I were biking the same route we bike every day on the way to preschool when something amazing happened: Part of the route had brand new bike lanes. We knew bike lanes were coming at some point, but it was still a wonderful surprise the day it happened. For […]

In response to the surge of letters they received from people concerned about Seattle’s plan to permanently route the waterfront bike path across Alaskan Way and back again near the Pier 66 cruise terminal, the Port of Seattle said it supports a trail on the west side of Alaskan Way so long as it can […]

Bike Everywhere Day is Friday, and people and organizations will be hosting Celebration Stations all over the place to cheer on anyone riding a bike and maybe give out some coffee, snacks or swag. If you work a 9 to 5 job, I highly suggest getting an early start so you can visit some stations […]

It’s time for the Bike News Roundup! Or rather, we are long overdue for a Bike News Roundup. I got out of the groove on organizing the interesting bike and transportation related stories I read back in 2021 when, well, reading the news wasn’t very fun. I was working on my book, and the Bike […]

The dust from car tires is killing coho salmon, significantly reducing local populations of the vital fish species. This isn’t exactly news, but Q13 recently ran a story about one test for a roadway stormwater treatment concept using compost and sand that is worth a watch. The effort is specifically targeting a chemical in tires […]

Velo Bike Shop is closing after a remarkable and influential 55-year run. Founded in 1968, Velo helped supply the city’s bicycling boom in the 1970s. The shop continued to be an important source of bikes and service for decades on Capitol Hill before moving into the Via6 building when it opened in the Belltown/Denny Triangle […]

All new or upgraded traffic signals in Seattle will feature “No Turn On Red” restrictions by default while also retrofitting dozens of existing signals with the signs. So even though a turn on red ban did not make it through the Washington legislature this year, Seattle is not waiting for the state. In fact, perhaps […]

There are a half dozen trees growing out of the metal grate in the buffer space protecting the 4th Avenue bike lane downtown across the street from Westlake Park. I noticed them while biking home Wednesday evening, and I had to stop. They are the same kind of tree as whatever is growing on the […]

Imagine a street in your neighborhood that is difficult to cross on foot, scary to bike on and/or where buses are constantly getting stuck in car traffic. I know, this was not a difficult imagination exercise. Streets like this are everywhere in Washington State. But when people try to get their city, county or—worst of […]