Seattle Bike Blog

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 […]

We don’t often post Federal action alerts here, but this very boring-sounding Federal policy change could have big implications for understanding our nation’s traffic safety crisis. So it’s worth taking a moment to submit a comment. Salud America sounded the … Continue reading →

The secret is out: Cascade Bicycle Club will be naming me the 2023 recipient of their Doug Walker Award as a person who “has improved lives through bicycling.” Folks with tickets to the sold out Bike Everywhere Breakfast May 4 … Continue reading →

Had an amazing time biking to Seward Park and back today, and from what I can tell half of Seattle had the same idea. The photo above is Lake Washington Boulevard. And no, it’s not Bicycle Weekend yet. Just a … Continue reading →

Link light rail trains will only be running through the downtown transit tunnel every 32 minutes during a period starting now and lasting an estimated two weeks, Sound Transit announced Thursday evening. Mike Lindblom at the Seattle Times reported that … Continue reading →

OK, don’t get me wrong. The electric-assisted, weather-protected cargo bike is without a doubt the workhorse for our car-free family. We put thousands of miles on that thing every year, hauling everything from lumber to groceries to camping gear. And, … Continue reading →

Seattle Parks announced a scaled-back schedule for Bicycle Weekends on Lake Washington Boulevard (known since 1968 as Bicycle Sunday). The route and number of weekends are the same, but the timeframes have been cut back significantly. The department also removed … Continue reading →

The Washington State legislature has officially passed the 2023-25 budget, which includes significant increases in traffic safety funding as well as new e-bike incentives. Washington Bikes celebrated the budget news, calling the investments in biking and walking “unprecedented.” The appropriations … Continue reading →

A single mother of four was killed, the person responsible fled, and nobody even bothered to tell her children. This happened in our city, Seattle, and everyone needs to stop what they’re doing and acknowledge it. The story of what … Continue reading →

OK, this is amazing. As a GeoGuessr fan, this game is right up my alley. Or perhaps I should say that this game is parked right in my bike lane. Sanders Lauture created a program last year that allows people … Continue reading →

Seattle’s recent Vision Zero review noted that 80% of people killed while walking on Seattle streets are killed on streets with multiple lanes in the same direction. So why are we on the verge of opening a brand new streets … Continue reading →

As you may have noticed from the advertisement on Seattle Bike Blog, Cascade Bicycle Club’s 2023 Ride for Major Taylor is Sunday. And the ride has two completely different route options that both start at the White Center Bicycle Playground: … Continue reading →

OK, OK, yes, it is ridiculous that Pike Place allows cars (especially non-delivery vehicles). But that is just one little street downtown, and it tends to take up most of the space in local conversations about pedestrianizing streets. Let try … Continue reading →

The Bicycle Film Festival will screen May 6 at the Egyptian Theater on Capitol Hill. And among the short films featured is “A short film about Seattle bike messengers, day laborers, and outsourcing gone wild.” Tickets are $30. From the … Continue reading →

The Washington State Senate and House are both mulling over how to incentivize more residents to ride electric bicycles, and the Senate’s version of the state budget would provide a $300 rebate for any state resident who buts an e-bike … Continue reading →

Since 1968, Seattle Parks has been hosting car-free days on Lake Washington Boulevard during the spring and summer. It’s one of the longest-running open streets events in the world, and the department partnered with SDOT in recent years to expand … Continue reading →

A complete rebuild of E Marginal Way has been in the works for a long time, and work is set to finally get under way this autumn. The street is both a major bike route and the trucking access point … Continue reading →

I expected to feel a little sad upon arriving back in the United States after a weeklong family vacation in Amsterdam. But that’s not what happened. I love Seattle, and I love biking here. Perhaps it’s because I’m older now … Continue reading →

Here’s something weird: We don’t really know where sidewalks do or do not exist in Washington State. We have some ideas, but no comprehensive dataset. Our bad data is even worse if you need to know which sidewalks and curb … Continue reading →

My kid loves to count the bikes with blue front tires here in Amsterdam. And they really are everywhere. At first I thought it was some kind of style trend, but then I noticed they were all the same brand: … Continue reading →

From WSDOT: CLOSURES 3/31-4/3 WB 520 off-ramp to Montlake Blvd will close from 8 p.m. on Friday to 5 a.m. on Monday. WB 520 off-ramp to Lake Washington Blvd will close from 6 p.m. on Friday to 5 a.m. on … Continue reading →

Greetings from the lower countries! We took our five-year-old on her first trip out of the country for a somewhat spontaneous family vacation to Amsterdam. We spotted a surprisingly cheap flight a couple months ago and bought the tickets on … Continue reading →

The Duwamish Trail will finally connect to the Spokane Street Bridge in May, SDOT told area stakeholders. Work will begin in early April and, weather permitting, should be be completed in just a couple weeks. The permanent trail connection will … Continue reading →

For those who have never paid attention to a Washington State legislative session before, we are about to enter the next distinct phase of the session: The budget. The early months of the session are mostly focused on general policy … Continue reading →

Seattle Bike Blog is not where people usually go to read about light rail station placement debates. But as a Seattle resident who cheers for both an affordable and thriving International District as well as the best transit service we … Continue reading →

Commute Seattle dramatically expanded its annual analysis of work trip survey data, finding a wealth of interesting data about how the city’s commute patterns have changed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The biggest change by far is that … Continue reading →

Bob Svercl’s latest video is a bike ride around North Beacon Hill focused on some history highlights of the area. He even included a route map if you are inspired to ride to the featured areas yourself. This is the … Continue reading →

There’s a very interesting piece buried deep within a major roadway rebuild project on Rainier Avenue in Renton: 1,000 feet of trail on the east side of the street that will someday be part of the Lake Washington Loop connecting … Continue reading →

Councilmember Dan Strauss sent a letter (PDF) to Mayor Bruce Harrell asking him to shift SDOT’s Missing Link efforts to focus on designing and building a Burke-Gilman Trail connection on Market Street and Leary Way in Ballard. “I see a … Continue reading →

Trail connections to the under-construction Judkins Park light rail station will get lighting as the city and Sound Transit work to improve station access conditions before it opens in … uh … well, at some point. Judkins Park Station is … Continue reading →

We are well into the phase of the legislative session where it becomes really difficult to keep track of which bills are moving, which ones are stalled, which have been amended to be better, which have been amended to be … Continue reading →

Contrary to what you may have read on Twitter or saw written on yellow signs on trees on Pike Street near the market, Seattle’s decision to cut down cherry trees on the block between 1st and 2nd Avenues has nothing … Continue reading →

One year ago, the King County Board of Health voted 11–2 to repeal the county’s rare all-ages bicycle helmet law. One of the arguments in favor of repeal was that the law was not a top reason that most people … Continue reading →

SDOT is set to present their “top to bottom review” of the Vision Zero program to the City Council Transportation Committee March 7, and safe streets advocates are pushing for more specifics and hard deadlines to “light a fire under … Continue reading →

Washington State bills banning turns on red near many key locations statewide are officially dead after neither the Senate nor the House failed to move them forward before a session deadline. This is how many bills die every year, essentially … Continue reading →

R+E Cycles is turning 50 years old, and the storied bike shop and frame builders behind the Rodriguez and Erickson custom bikes will be celebrating by hosting the return of the free Bike and Pike expo for the first time … Continue reading →

On his first day on the job, SDOT Director Greg Spotts pledged a “top-to-bottom review” of the department’s Vision Zero program to figure out why traffic injuries and deaths are increasing, especially for people walking and rolling. He assigned employees … Continue reading →

SR-520 will be closed this weekend as crews install girders for the future walking and biking bridge that will cross the freeway heading toward the Arboretum, among other work. The cross-lake trail will be closed along with the rest of … Continue reading →

Crews building improved bike lanes on Pike and Pike Streets downtown will close existing stretches of bike lanes for months at a time. So while both bike lanes were already incomplete, biking there will get worse before it gets better. … Continue reading →