Seattle Bike Blog

2020 was a year of adjusting to new realities, and Seattle’s effort to meet its goals for expanding its bike network did not escape the curveballs that were thrown during the year. In response to a fundamental reshuffling of demand … Continue reading →

State law in Washington that dates from the 1990s requires that the Washington Department of Transportation complete a “bicycle transportation and pedestrian walkways plan”. The last version of the plan was created in 2008, and is getting a brand new … Continue reading →

In March of 2019, after Mayor Jenny Durkan overrode the finalized plans that the Seattle Department of Transportation had developed for 35th Ave NE in Wedgwood and removed dedicated space for people to bike on that street, it was SDOT … Continue reading →

Last night, 5 days after SDOT announced that it had installed two speed-display signs on either side of the Aurora bridge, a pedestrian was hit and killed on the Queen Anne side of Aurora Avenue N by someone driving. The … Continue reading →

Governor Jay Inslee has released his proposed two-year budget for July 2021 through June 2023 in advance of the legislative session starting in January. He has touted the budget as the “strongest environmental justice proposal in U.S. history”, and says … Continue reading →

Last week, District 4 Councilmember Alex Pedersen’s office sent an email including highlights from his first year in office. It included a section titled “Transportation and Climate Change”. An excerpt: Seattle is not about to let up on its efforts … Continue reading →

Seattle’s network of Stay Healthy Streets, in place for most of this year on a portion of the city’s neighborhood greenway network, noticeably left out most of Seattle’s urban centers where a large proportion of the rental housing exists. Neighborhoods … Continue reading →

The Seattle Department of Transportation has finalized a traffic signals policy intended primarily to improve mobility for people walking and rolling at intersections. This policy comes out of a process that the agency convened with a group called the Policy … Continue reading →

SDOT has just announced that it will be closing a small segment of Lake Washington Boulevard between Mount Baker Beach and Stan Sayres Boat Launch (at 45th Ave S) starting this Friday December 18 and running through Sunday January 4. … Continue reading →

The city of Seattle just released a new report on our citywide carbon footprint. The info in the report is slightly out-of-date, as it’s a snapshot of how we did in 2018, but is the most comprehensive picture we have … Continue reading →

The recent news that one of the centerpiece transit upgrade projects of the Move Seattle levy, the RapidRide J line- formerly known as Roosevelt BRT- would see its route shortened was another big blow to the transit segment of the … Continue reading →

The Seattle Department of Transportation generated national headlines back in May with an announcement that it would be taking steps to make twenty miles of “Stay Healthy Streets” permanent. This big announcement that a chunk of Seattle’s neighborhood greenway network … Continue reading →

I am very excited to announce that Ryan Packer will be Temporary Editor of Seattle Bike Blog now through the end of February. As readers of The Urbanist know, Ryan is a very thorough reporter with a deep understanding of … Continue reading →

When I first met Deb Salls, it was an office crammed full of desks and staff members in the top floor (maybe attic?) of the iconic yellow Bike Works house in Columbia City. There was hardly an inch of open … Continue reading →

UPDATE: Applications are closed. After more than a decade writing Seattle Bike Blog, it is time for me to take a sabbatical. So I am looking for someone to work part time reporting bicycle and transportation news in the Seattle … Continue reading →

The after-party is live! Watch: It’s on. Seattle’s 11th Annual Cranksgiving community-supporting bike adventure is rolling all week. Find your online scavenger hunt manifest here. You have until 3 p.m. Saturday to complete as many of the tasks as possible. … Continue reading →

Seattle’s 11th Cranksgiving is going to be very different than the previous 10, but the goal is as important as ever. You will have multiple days Thanksgiving week to complete a scavenger hunt by bike that is more creative than … Continue reading →

Our city is very lucky to have Seattle Neighborhood Greenways working to promote equitable, safe and fun streets. The organization’s paid staff and its many volunteers do an enormous amount of work, much of which the general public never sees. … Continue reading →

This video, posted by Real Change, is enraging. Using body cam footage, the newspaper and Black Fuji Studios pieced together key moments that reveal what appears to be an extremely biased March 2019 investigation by officers who responded to a … Continue reading →

Transit is extremely popular in Seattle. More than 80 percent of voters approved Prop 1, which would expand the sales tax to fund bus transit service hours, infrastructure improvements and access programs in Seattle. And considering 9 in 10 registered … Continue reading →

Both Cascade Bicycle Club and the larger MASS Coalition (including Seattle Neighborhood Greenways and Transporation Choices Coalition among others) they are part of have action alerts out right now asking supporters to call on city leaders to limit the huge … Continue reading →

The Seattle Pedaling Relief Project has been organizing volunteer efforts to deliver food and necessities from food banks to community members for months. Now they want to help people get their ballots to the ballot box. If you need assistance … Continue reading →

Celebrate Halloween in the Peace Peloton Saturday. The ride stages at Wallingford Playfield at noon for some food from the excellent Pam’s Kitchen, then leaves at 2 p.m. for a 12-mile ride to Gas Works Park via Discovery Park. The … Continue reading →

Seattle Bike Blog did not do endorsements this year for a number of reasons (mostly that I haven’t had the time it takes to do a full slate of endorsements). Instead, I rounded up endorsements from a handful of transportation-focused … Continue reading →

Your ballot is either in the mail or has already arrived. If you are in King County, you can check your ballot’s status online here. The tracker now indicates whether it has been mailed or has been delivered, which is … Continue reading →

Tim Eyman continues to be very bad at writing initiatives, wasting an enormous amount of people’s time and energy arguing over a statewide initiative that wasn’t even constitutional. The official description for I-976 that appeared on ballots in 2019 said … Continue reading →

Ballots are in the mail. And ejecting that complete monster from the White House is not the only thing on the ballot. For one, you’ll have a chance to help give local transit a fighting chance in the very difficult … Continue reading →

Details from Maimoona Rahim at Cascade Bicycle Club: After a short break, the Washington State Bicycle and Pedestrian Count is back! It’s happening this fall on October 20, 21 and 22 at a street or trail near you. To sign … Continue reading →

Heads up! Work is underway to complete the Bell St bike lane and install new signals between 5th and 6th Avenues. This means the street will be closed 24/7 for up to three weeks, according to SDOT: The Bell St … Continue reading →

My dearest Seattle Bike Blog readers, I have been putting off this post for a couple weeks now, but I can’t avoid it any longer. The rigors of parenting during a pandemic have reached a point where I cannot keep … Continue reading →

The number of people biking as their primary mode to work hit a new high water mark in 2019, crossing the 17,000 mark for the first time in the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. The survey results confirm that before … Continue reading →

A Seattle Police officer was caught on video intentionally rolling their police bicycle over the head and neck of a man lying face down in the street last night as people protested the lack of charges against the officers who … Continue reading →

Sound Transit has closed a short trail connection between NE 116th St and the 1st Ave NE I-5 overpass to N 117th St. This trail will never reopen. Instead, the agency will construct a new trail under the light rail … Continue reading →

The Fremont Bridge is Seattle’s busiest bike route pinch point. Routes from all over the region converge here to cross the Ship Canal, which is why the bridge’s bike counter registers the highest number of trips in the city. A … Continue reading →

For a four-year period, the short stretch of NE 65th Street between NE Ravenna Blvd and 39th Ave NE killed one person and seriously injured at least one other person every year. But a hard-fought safety project installed in spring … Continue reading →

After years of talking, the first shared electric scooters are hitting Seattle streets today as Lime rolls out 500 of its popular Lime-S scooters. Lime has been serving Seattle for years with its pedal bikes and e-bikes. The company now … Continue reading →

Cascade Bicycle Club and IZIP electric bikes partnered to create a pretty great-looking map of popular bike routes to and through West Seattle to help more people visualize how they can shift more trips to bike. The illustrated map is … Continue reading →

Work on Lynnwood Link will close the Scribner Creek Trail for two years and will require intermittent closures of the Interurban Trail, Sound Transit says. The Scribner Creek Trail is basically a path along the southwest edge of the Lynnwood … Continue reading →

Rainier Ave S has long held a terrible title: The most dangerous street in Seattle. It saw more crashes per mile than the city’s other deadly streets, including Lake City Way and Aurora, despite carrying far fewer trips. “During a … Continue reading →

Seattle’s car-light Keep Moving Streets have been a success, so the city has extended them another month. Created in partnership between SDOT and Seattle Parks, the city’s four Keep Moving Streets are typically on arterial streets near parks or along … Continue reading →

The 520 Bridge will be closed 11 p.m. September 11 until 5 a.m. September 14 for a series of major construction projects. These closures include the trail over the lake. The trail under the bridge on the Montlake side connecting … Continue reading →

Mmmmm… Junebaby is so good. And Saturday’s Peace Peloton starts at the NE Seattle restaurant in the early evening, then rides to Beer Star in White Center. Dr. Rayburn Lewis will be speaking this week, a former Cascade Bicycle Club … Continue reading →

Crews are gearing up to build a protected bike lane on 4th Ave between Pine and Madison Streets downtown. This is the start of the second north-south bike corridor downtown and a key piece of the Basic Bike Network vision, … Continue reading →

New pbl revisions on Yesler pic.twitter.com/nADh4npo2N — Dongho Chang (@dongho_chang) August 30, 2020 SDOT has installed protected bike lanes on Yesler Way between 14th and 12th Avenues, part of a project to further protect and separate the bike lanes from … Continue reading →

A collective letter from neighborhood and regional bike and safe streets advocacy groups calls on SDOT to invest at least 1% of the West Seattle Bridge replacement budget on improving bike connections. The city’s mode shift plan for helping people … Continue reading →

Banning electric scooters on sidewalks seems to make sense at first. Sidewalks are for walking, right? That seemed to be the guiding principle behind Seattle’s decision to mostly leave the existing ban on riding electric scooters on sidewalks in place … Continue reading →

Seattle is finally maybe going to give shared scooters a try. The City Council Utilities and Transportation Committee voted last week to approve two ordinances that would allow SDOT to launch a scooter permit program (Council bills 119867 and 119868). … Continue reading →

The Peace Peloton rides again Saturday, and this time riders will create a mural along the way. The ride meets from 10 a.m. to noon at Café Soleil at 34th and Union in Madrona, where folks will work to get … Continue reading →

Tonight (August 19) at 6 p.m., log in to hear Phyllis Porter talk about “her adventures and growth as a bicycle rider and activist including her passion for safe streets for all.” Porter has been a strong advocate and friend … Continue reading →

Do you need to get your bike rolling again? Do you want to put your bike tools and skills to work helping your community? Then Seattle Bike Repair Mutual Aid is for you. The concept of the project is very … Continue reading →