I sure hope you didn’t have any other plans on Sunday, because you can do bikes bikes bikes morning ’til night. Bike Works Executive Director Ed Ewing pitched to Seattle Bike Blog that people could attempt a Ride for Major Taylor/Bikecitement doubleheader. Are you up for the challenge? Route map for the long route, from Cascade. The day kicks off with Cascade Bicycle Club’s annual Ride for Major Taylor, which is quietly one of the the organization’s best rides of the year. And this year’s long route will be a banger. It’s a 62-mile loop that starts in White Center and heads south to Tacoma bef ..read more

The $930 million Move Seattle Levy was the most ambitious city transportation levy in the U.S. in 2015, but it also overpromised on what it could feasibly deliver for those dollars. The result is that Seattle has completed a lot of great work while also failing to meet the goals promised to voters, especially for transit but also for walking and biking. Now, nine years later, Mayor Bruce Harrell is proposing a larger eight-year, $1.35 billion transportation levy to replace the Move Seattle Levy when it expires at the end of this year. That is a 45% increase in total, but a 63% (24% when adjust ..read more

Your boss should go to the Employer Bike Summit Wednesday afternoon at the Central Branch Library in downtown Seattle. It’s a free opportunity to learn and share info on how to make a workplace more bike-friendly and to network, which is an activity I hear bosses love doing. Or if your boss is one of those really busy bosses, then they should send folks from HR. Details and registration: Get ready to pedal into a more sustainable commute this Spring at the 2024 Employer Bike Summit! Discover how you can champion bike commuting at your organization with informative sessions covering topics li ..read more

Public comment closes today (April 12) on early concepts for the future of Aurora Avenue N, the most dangerous street in the city. The good news is that the city is considering some very ambitious ideas for the city-managed state highway, including protected bike lanes and center-running rapid bus lanes. The less good news is that the concepts at this point seem to pit bold transit improvements against bike safety. But it’s still early, so this is the time to make it clear that there is a lot of support for a future Aurora Avenue that prioritizes biking, walking and transit to foster a safe an ..read more

From SDOT. The walking and biking trail on the Spokane Street Bridge will be closed April 19–28, and SDOT will not be building a safe bike route through SoDo like they did in January 2023. Instead, the city is offering a free daily round trip ticket on the bus or West Seattle Water Taxi. The closure is part of a larger project to reroute the wiring for the swing bridge controls under the Duwamish River rather than along the high bridge. When the bridge will be inoperable due to scheduled maintenance, maritime travel gets priority so the city must leave it swung open. Because the city decided i ..read more

My child attended the truly amazing Pike Market Child Care and Preschool for three years before graduating in summer 2023. We biked there every day together. Navigating the market is second nature to her. She knows all the shortcuts and how to find every store (well, every store with candy, magic, or toys). Her allowance played a major role in propping up the market’s fortune teller machine industry during those tough early pandemic years. She cried the day that the on-street picnic tables disappeared at the end of summer because that is where we would sit to eat an after school snack every da ..read more

Download larger JPG images of SE Seattle from the 2014 Bike Master Plan and proposed 2024 Seattle Transportation Plan. Mayor Bruce Harrell’s proposed Seattle Transportation Plan (“STP”) is now in the hands of the City Council, who can make some final changes before adopting it as official city policy. The STP will supersede the 2014 Bicycle Master Plan, so it’s important to take a close look at its vision for the next 10–20 years of bike improvements across the city. To do so, Seattle Bike Blog will post a series of six stories focusing on different areas of the city. You find other areas ..read more

The news out of the Bellevue City Council this week was extremely disappointing. The council decided to backtrack on their Vision Zero commitment and all but toss out most of the Bike Bellevue network that was developed over a period of years following significant public outreach and study. In the process, they also left their city’s staff exposed to further personal and professional attacks (see section 2). The ambitious Bike Bellevue plan may be doomed The Bellevue City Council has decided that most of these streets should remain dangerous. Bellevue’s City Council voted to only consider real ..read more

Did you know that Cascade Bicycle Club not only hosts bike rides on streets but also advocates for investing in infrastructure to make streets safer for biking? What a scandal! Or at least the Editorial Board of the Seattle Times decided all of a sudden that this behavior is somehow scandalous. What’s not to like about a refreshing bike ride on a Sunday morning? Turns out, it’s not so simple. I’m picturing a colorful video of a happy family riding bikes that turns black-and-white while their eyes all start glowing red. What horrible truth have they uncovered? Well, Cascade is paying for eve ..read more

A rentable cargo bike I saw last year in Amsterdam. Cargo bikes and heavy-duty bike trailers are bulky and pricey, but so useful. While some people, like yours truly, are going to invest in cargo-hauling bike solutions, most people may not find themselves in situations where they need to haul stuff around by bike often enough to justify the cost and space required. And depending on people’s living situations, there may just not be a great place to store a large bike or trailer at home. This is where something like a cargo bike share system would be amazing. It may not be a surprise to learn th ..read more