You probably know your neighborhood better than anyone else, especially people who don’t live there. You know which streets are the best for riding a bike, which ones to avoid, what intersections could be safer, and even what the secret short cuts are to get from point A to point B. That’s why we need you to come along on a “Bikeability Tour” of your community.
The Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board (SBAB) and Cascade Bicycle Club have teamed up to conduct a series of Bikeability Tours throughout Seattle over the next several months. The purpose of these tours is to identify challenges and opportunities for better to bicycling in a particular area, including what could be done to improve safety and connectivity through the area for bicycle riders of all ages and abilities.
Bikeability Tours are something SBAB has done in the past to experience and evaluate bicycle infrastructure (or lack thereof) in a particular area. This upcoming series of tours will take place in each of the city’s six sectors over the course of the update of the Seattle Bicycle Master Plan. They are open to the public and residents of the respective communities are encouraged to attend.
Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board Bikeability Tour, January 2012
Each tour will be lead by a certified Cascade Ride Leader, so you’ll be in good hands. Cascade and SBAB are also partnering with local groups, such as the various extensions of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, to make sure the route is planned well and that we see what needs to be seen.
We will conclude each ride with an hour of discussion at a local café or restaurant so we can digest what we’ve seen along the way and help inform recommendations made by SBAB to the team of planners updating the Bike Master Plan. Oh, and the rides will be a lot of fun and a great way to meet your neighbors as well!
There’s a couple of Bikeability Tours planned already, and more are in the works. Here are the details for two tours in May/June:
Tuesday, May 22 from 6 to 8 p.m.
Location: Southeast Seattle
Hosting with Bike Works, Beacon B.I.K.E.S., and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways
To be followed by food/drinks at El Quetzal on Beacon Hill until 9 p.m.
Click here to RSVP
Sunday, June 10 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Location: Interbay and Queen Anne (this one’s going to be hilly!)
Hosting with Queen Anne Greenways and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways
To be followed by food/drinks at Nickerson Street Saloon until 4:30 p.m.
Click here to RSVP
Stay tuned for more Bikeability Tours this summer. If you have a good idea for an area that needs to be explored by bicycle, please email me and let me know.
Our city’s budget should reflect our values and priorities. That’s why the City of Seattle’s annual budget hearings are often packed to the walls with interest groups and individuals trying to get their needs met with limited public dollars. Usually, Council doesn’t go into budget deliberations until fall. But this May, you have three opportunities to avoid the crowds and get your voice heard early by the same City Council that will decide what we’re spending money on in 2013.
