Seattle Bike Blog

Biking around the city this morning was amazing. Sure, the weather helped a lot, with clear skies and a jaw-dropping sunrise fueling my ride to join the SE Seattle Bike Train. No matter how many times I experience it, the … Continue reading →

Biking on city streets can be more fun and less intimidating when you are with a group. And riding with a group can be a great way to become familiar with a route and learn some tips before trying it … Continue reading →

Waterfront bike routes, including the path under the Viaduct along Alaskan Way downtown, will remain open during the upcoming SR 99 closure, SDOT confirmed today. We have received a lot of questions in the past week from folks wondering is … Continue reading →

The Bellevue City Council unanimously endorsed Vision Zero in 2015, and now they are putting together an action plan to help eliminate deaths and serious injuries on city streets by 2030. City staff have put together an online survey to … Continue reading →

Following a Seattle Times story critical of the company’s limited service area, JUMP has expanded to include all of Southeast and West Seattle. Though the Times story headline says that JUMP has been charging people $25 for parking outside the … Continue reading →

As we reported previously, King County is trying to come up with a better name for the Eastside Rail Corridor, and they have narrowed it down to four finalists: The E, The Eastrail, The 425 and the Eastway. You can … Continue reading →

The final counts are in, and 2018 is officially a new high water mark for biking in Seattle. Looking at the real-time bike counter data from around town, biking was up significantly in Fremont and across the lower West Seattle … Continue reading →

People in Seattle have taken more than 2,050,000 trips on Lime bikes since the company launched in summer 2017, according their annual report. That’s a pace of about 1.5 million trips per year for just one of the companies serving … Continue reading →

It’s time for the Bike News Roundup! Here’s some stuff floating around the web recently that caught our eye. First up, a Seattle transportation wishlist in holiday song form by Laura Goodfellow: Pacific Northwest News With John/Thomas corridor work underway, … Continue reading →

Seattle and Bellevue both turned heads nationally with protected bike lanes that opened this year, making People For Bikes’ list of “America’s 10 Best New Bikeways of 2018.” Seattle’s entry, the fantastic 2nd Ave bike lane extension in Belltown, made … Continue reading →

Mayor Jenny Durkan has nominated Washington DC’s Sam Zimbabwe to be the next Director of SDOT, emphasizing his experience in project delivery and multimodal urban planning during a Tuesday press conference. If the City Council confirms him quickly, Zimbabwe could … Continue reading →

Lime’s bikes and scooters now show up as a transit option in Google Maps in a select number of cities. The app takes into account both the time to walk to the nearest bike and the bike ride to give … Continue reading →

In yet another partial court defeat, the Ballard Missing Link of the Burke-Gilman Trail has once again been thrown into question this week after King County Superior Court Judge Samuel Chung sided with the city on two out of three … Continue reading →

The trail on the 520 Bridge is amazing, except for one annoying and possibly dangerous detail: The metal plates that cover the floating bridge’s expansion gaps are jarringly bumpy. It’s a frustrating detail in what is otherwise a wonderful experience … Continue reading →

Just hours before the November meeting of the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board, Co-Chair Casey Gifford received a call from the Mayor’s Office informing her she was headed to her last meeting on the volunteer board. The decision stunned Board members … Continue reading →

Is it the Period of Maximum Constraint or the Seattle Squeeze or the Jenny Jam? Doesn’t really matter what you call it (well, Mayor Jenny Durkan would really like you to call it the Seattle Squeeze), you should be figuring … Continue reading →

Did you see or stop to help a man injured while biking on Harvard Ave E at E Allison St Friday morning around 9 a.m.? Ariel and his wife Roï are trying to get in touch with the people who … Continue reading →

The Ballard Missing Link of the Burke-Gilman Trail has (hopefully) one last legal hurdle to clear. Opponents have appealed the trail’s massive environmental study even after the Seattle Hearing Examiner said it was sufficient. Now the case is in the … Continue reading →

Perhaps tired of handing the top honors to a barely-deserving Washington State year after year, the League of American Bicyclists changed its annual state-by-state rankings into a set of 50 individual report cards that track each state’s progress. And by … Continue reading →

Under Mayor Jenny Durkan, Seattle has nearly stopped building bike lanes. With the need to build more than ten miles of protected bike lanes in order to reach the Move Seattle Levy’s bike lane goals, SDOT says it will have … Continue reading →

Whoever bikes across the Fremont Bridge as number 1,582 today will tip the 2018 bike counter into seven digits, clobbering all previous records by a wide margin. Bike trips across the iconic bridge, which forms a pinch point for many … Continue reading →

Remember the $10,000 of bicycle safety funds Councilmember Rob Johnson and Mayor Jenny Durkan spent on a confidential mediation effort to see if there was any way for bike lane opponents and supporters to agree on a plan for the … Continue reading →

It may be the most exciting opportunity for biking and walking (and some transit) in the whole region, but the name “Eastside Rail Corridor” sure sounds boring. It describes what the corridor used to be rather than what it could … Continue reading →

Few bike improvements in the city could have a bigger impact than a safe, comfortable and fully connected bike route from the Pike Place Market to Broadway. And due to the grade of First and Capitol Hills as well as … Continue reading →

Seattle’s Cranksgiving 2018 hit a new record Saturday, with 150 riders donating an astounding 1,713 pounds of food to Rainier Valley Food Bank. For the ninth year, Seattle Bike Blog hosted this food drive scavenger hunt by bike on RVFB’s … Continue reading →

After months of delays getting the new bike share permit in place and through environmental review, Uber’s JUMP launched in Seattle this morning. They join Lime, which has had a temporary monopoly on bike share in town since early summer … Continue reading →

There may be no bike project north of downtown Seattle more important than Eastlake Ave. Connecting to the University Bridge today and the 520 Trail in the future, Eastlake is an already well-used bike route with huge promise for growth. … Continue reading →

Every year, about 20 people die in traffic collisions in Seattle. Another 150 people are seriously injured, often resulting in life-changing health issues. And for every one of these victims and survivors, there is a community of loved ones whose … Continue reading →

Attention folks who bike across the lower West Seattle Bridge: SDOT just announced a closure from 7 to 9 p.m. tonight (Tuesday). As with the previous closure, there will be a shuttle to help folks walking and biking get across, … Continue reading →

A huge fire destroyed lumber warehouses owned by Gascoigne Lumber Company and Northwest Millworks Saturday night, but luckily there are no reports of injuries at this time. We hope it stays that way. Regular users of the Ship Canal Trail should … Continue reading →

In an attempt to balance the City Council’s 2019-20 budget, Councilmember Sally Bagshaw has eyed nearly $2.7 million in red light camera funds that currently go to the School Safety Traffic and Pedestrian Improvement Fund (see the budget green sheet … Continue reading →

Buried in the election results this week was a somewhat disappointing result over on Bainbridge Island. The city’s modest SAFE Mobility Levy lost, with the ongoing result sitting at 45–55 as of Thursday morning. The levy would have raised $15 … Continue reading →

It’s time for the Bike News Roundup! Here’s a look at some stuff going around lately that caught our eye. First up, it may not be a carbon tax, but Seattle’s Jen Strongin was recently featured in a Lime promo video … Continue reading →

A food drive scavenger hunt by bike, Cranksgiving riders bike to a secret list of unique food sellers around Seattle buying food to donate to Rainier Valley Food Bank. For the ninth year, Seattle’s Cranksgiving is hosted by Seattle Bike … Continue reading →

Sunset is at 4:45 today. 4:45! That means the typical evening commute will happen in the dark and twilight hours for the next several months. So lets talk about bike lights. Longtime readers may remember previous posts about bike lights … Continue reading →

Barring a court order, construction on the Ballard Missing Link of the Burke-Gilman Trail is scheduled to begin this winter. So while an appeal is still working its way through the courts, the city is moving forward with a construction … Continue reading →

As you may have noticed, Seattle Bike Blog does not have a voter’s guide this year. This is partly due to the limited number of local races and partly due to having a baby at home who occupies a lot … Continue reading →

“… but Seattle isn’t Amsterdam.” You’ve probably heard this argument at some point as an excuse for why your town shouldn’t even try to build quality bike infrastructure. But half a century ago, death in traffic was rampant in the … Continue reading →

Bellevue wants to know what you think of their demonstration bike lanes on 108th Ave NE, so take their online survey and let them know. The city opened the new bike lanes this summer as a practical test of the … Continue reading →

Editor’s Note: Seattle Bike Blog reported yesterday on newly-released 2017 American Communities Survey data that estimates that the number of people biking to work is declining in Seattle. In response, the folks at Seattle Neighborhood Greenways wrote this guest post looking … Continue reading →

The latest Census survey does not look great for bike commuting, at least as the primary mode that people use to get to work on an everyday basis. The data is especially harsh for women biking to work, a count … Continue reading →

Streets are not just for transportation, they are also places where city life happens. But Mayor Jenny Durkan’s proposed budget apparently doesn’t see them that way, because it eliminates the city’s modest open streets and pavement-to-parks budgets. But the budget … Continue reading →

Dr. Adonia Lugo is returning to Seattle Saturday to talk about her book Bicycle/Race: Transportation, Culture, & Resistance. Lugo lived in Seattle for a spell a few years back while working on her anthropology dissertation on bicycle culture. Before that, … Continue reading →

Park(ing) Day is one of my favorite holidays. For one day, people imagine better ways we could use just a tiny percentage of all the precious city space typically reserved for storing cars. The idea started in 2005 in San … Continue reading →

SDOT and Mayor Jenny Durkan’s Office (UPDATE 9/20: and Councilmember Rob Johnson’s Office) has convened a confidential mediation session between a handful of people who support and oppose bike lanes at part of the city’s under-construction 35th Ave NE repaving … Continue reading →

I thought we had already established this a few years ago during public outreach for Roosevelt RapidRide, but SDOT has tried again to find an alternative to building bike lanes on Eastlake Ave. And, just like before, the results are … Continue reading →

It’s time for the Bike News Roundup! Here’s a look at some stuff floating around the web that caught my eye. First up, one of the only ways to get me to post a promotional video is to include lots … Continue reading →

An 18-year-old who was hospitalized this week after a crash near the University Bridge may be the first victim of a bike share vandal who cut the brake lines on his Lime e-bike. The teen is in stable condition, reports … Continue reading →

Seattle’s Bicycle Master Plan identifies 474 miles of new or upgraded bike routes to be constructed by 2034. But Cascade Bicycle Club launched a campaign this week called Connect Seattle to encourage the city to follow through on a handful … Continue reading →

King County will celebrate the opening of the newest section of the Eastside Rail Trail in Renton Saturday. The four-mile segment connects Gene Coulon Park to Newcastle Beach Park. Details from King County: Dear Friend of the ERC, Join King … Continue reading →