Sure I would love to commute on a $1000 bike that has 0 fuel costs compared to my $50,000 van that I had to buy to fit my wheelchair that eats thousands a year in gas but that is just not possible.

Sadly in this city the non able-bodied are considered invisible. Its called “ableism”.

Its not my fault I’m crippled and forced to own a car. Its hard to find parking in Northgate because all the handicap spots are taken up. Yes I’m fairly mobile so I don’t have to even use them most the time but parking is still a bear. I cant wait for the garage and train because it will save me a fortune because the light rail will drop me off right at work but i need to drive 4 miles to get to Northgate. An impossibility to do in a wheelchair with my condition.

I notice Cyclists fight so hard to get their way and seem to really hate cars but you need to be aware that its not a battle and adding pedestrians to the cry makes it sound nicer but its all self serving for bikes.

The best thing a cyclist can do besides praying for all the streets to be dug up and turned into paths is just be more aware and cautious. I cant tell you how many bikes I see drift out in traffic avoiding glass or potholes and don’t even bother to see if there is traffic behind them. Im constantly buzzed by uncaring cyclists that don’t care that they are scaring the hell out of me. Ive almost hit a cyclist at night because they wear dark clothing and have no lights on. I see about 20 a day that run the stop light next to my house while flying down the hill at 40mph in a 25mph school zone (yes several children have been hit by cyclists over the years and its getting more frequent!).

Its nice that the little girl in the story wants a safe trip to northgate but it seems “safe” to a lot of Seattle cyclists means they can be oblivious and not have to worry about repercussions of ignoring everything around them. Trusting that everyone sees you even though your in a bike line is just insane and its begging for trouble.

If you want a safe trip, wear a helmet, put lights on your bike. wear a dayglow vest. and PAY ATTENTION!share the road means cars share it with cycles, not bikes own it and lets cars use it.

In the meantime please stop making cars the enemy. Not all of us live in the populous parts of the city in healthy bodies that can cycle.

However, they’re also displacing 451 spots on Northgate property that they’re obliged to compensate Simon for. See http://projects.soundtransit.org/Documents/pdf/projects/link/north/northgate/20120601mitigation_fact_sheet.pdf.

The parking garage is pegged at 600 to 900 spots. If it comes in at the low end, it’ll just be 32 more spots than the current parking available for the Northgate Transit Center and Northgate Mall. That doesn’t strike me as a sin against nature. Sure, I’d rather more people biked, walked, or took public transit to Northgate, as I do, but I also acknowledge that not everyone’s schedule always permits it. Moreover, King County Metro is decreasing service, not increasing it, so neighborhoods that are currently poorly served by transit aren’t going to get any better anytime soon.

Like others, I’m put out that Cascade is lying with statistics by cherry-picking its numbers. You don’t have to cite every number that Sound Transit has ever produced, but you have to cite the relevant numbers so your audience can make an intelligent decision, not an emotional decision based on limited information. 900! $40,000,000! Fear! Outrage! Balderdash.

I depend on Cascade to scan for significant regional cycling issues that I don’t have time to look out for myself, not to sensationalize every little pothole. Please research a bit more before you call the membership to action.

Really? Look at what McGinn and the City Council tried to shove down Capitol Hill’s throat. That got stopped only at the last minute, and a lot of it was cooked up in secret meetings of McGinn’s allies.

If you took the time to look at the docs you’d see the foundational records and decisions about what will happen when Link comes to Norhtgate. If you examine the five years since then, you’d see ongoing dialogue through the design- and related planning processes. If you looked at the ST website, or King County’s or PSRC’s Growing Transit Communities materials, you would see repeated references to Northgate planning, including records of discussion about how to deal with the agencies’ parking mitigation requirements in order to clear the way for Transit-Oriented Communities. That is, after all the main point: getting the system built and having the right kind of land use occur as a result. As recently as March the ST Board told the ST staff that a parking garage next to the station would inhibit re-developemnt of public land, and to go back to the drawing board. Were you at that meeting? I’m guesing not. This thread suggests you haven’t done any of that due diligence, so you have missed that central point and misled club members as a result.

I normally don’t belabor things to this extent, but the lack of self-awareness being demonstrated here is rather astonishing. (And to get the bona fides out of the way, yes I am a club member and regular bike commuter, and yes I have inside information. I just don’t see why the club has to shoot from the hip on things like this without a more considered approach; this issue is simply not as simple as the post would have readers believe. The energy & focus of the membership is a precious thing to use up.) Peace out.

As to the timing? 2006 is when this decision was made. That’s a statement in itself; here we are, six years later, re-opening a major issue in true Seattle fashion. Go, team. My original point stands: to make the statement, “What we do know is that Sound Transit reached a backroom deal to build a parking garage without any public involvement, none”… well that just is not true, and it’s a disservice to club members to tell ‘em that.