Archive for the ‘Burke-Gilman Trail’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Reminder: 65th Street Cycletrack Open House is tonight

Monday, September 17th, 2012 by

Do you bike to Magnuson Park? If you’re a Club volunteer or you take classes with us, you probably do. If you work or visit one of the many nonprofits here, you just might.  If you live here, enjoy the beach, the playground, the athletic fields and the scenic trails, you might as well.

I ride a bike to the park several times a week for my five-mile commute, and this summer, my seven-year-old son came along with me to attend a few sessions of summer camp. One day from our summer stands out for me — the day we were nearly hit by a car, riding from the Burke-Gilman Trail into Magnuson.

Two-way cycletrack in Montreal that includes a driveway cut.

It was a beautiful morning, and we’d been having a conversation about how nice it was to be biking early in the morning on our family bike together. We had just turned off the trail, and I noticed a single car parked on the right side of the street. I spotted the bright taillights as we turned onto the 65th Street, which indicated to me that the car was likely about to pull out. I braked and slowed, and started ringing my bell (hello, we’re here, please notice us!), taking the lane and giving the vehicle a wide berth as we passed it. While I never took my eyes off the car and the driver-side mirror, the driver didn’t look and pulled out, just as we were parallel to his car. I hollered. The landscaper working nearby hollered. Some quick maneuvering very narrowly saved us from being hit.

I was shaken and near tears, thinking I had done just about everything right in terms of defensive riding but still narrowly missed being hit. When I heard about the 65th Street cycletrack project, I realized that had we been in the protected bikeway, this incident would not have occurred. It’s possible that other collisions, like the one that happened to a woman in my husband’s running club, will decrease overall if speeds are brought down due to the project.

Benefits of the Project (from SDOT):

  • * Dedicated space for people driving, walking, and biking
  • * Increased safety and comfort for families riding with children and other more cautious bicycle riders
  • * Decreased risk of collisions from “dooring” (car doors suddenly opening in front of bikes) and from vehicles overtaking bikes
  • * Increased awareness of all road users
  • * Better non-motorized access to the park, which decreases demand for vehicle parking close to Magnuson Park natural areas
  • * Lower speeds on NE 65th Street (speeds on NE 65th are greater than 30mph (emphasis mine))
  • * Shorter crossing distance for pedestrians at NE 65th & Sand Point Way
  • * Better connections between Magnuson Park and the Burke Gilman Trail for all users

What’s a “cycletrack”? The short answer is that it’s a physically protected bikeway. More and more cities are building them. I recently enjoyed riding cycletracks in downtown Vancouver. The proposed cycletrack on the south side of 65th will connect people on bikes from the Burke-Gilman Trail to the trail into Magnuson Park. It will be two-ways, have a three-foot physical barrier and will feel more secure than tangling with cars on 65th.

It’s a small project, but the 65th Street protected bikeway needs your support.

The Open House will take place Monday, Sept. 17, from  6:30  until 8 p.m at The Garden Room in  The Brig building, 6344 N.E. 74th Street. 

If you want to see the project built, attending the Open House is the most effective way to show support. But if you can’t make it, please send a quick letter to our City of Seattle representatives (Mayor, City Council, leads at SDOT). Let’s complete this short but critical gap in what is otherwise a lovely ride to the park.

Posted in Burke-Gilman Trail, Meetings & turnout, Road & Trail News | No Comments »

Moving Forward on a Safe and Connected Burke-Gilman Trail

Friday, September 14th, 2012 by

By Kevin Carrabine

Seattle’s diverse neighborhoods are a source of pride and joy, and each contributes something unique to the weave of our civic fabric. Ballard is foremost among them, and a place I’m proud to call home.

Unfortunately, for Ballardites who want to travel to and from other neighborhoods in ways that limit pollution, keep us healthy, and set an example for our children, the streets often feel too dangerous. We are forced to weave through fast-moving traffic or negotiate poorly maintained or absent sidewalks and bikeways.

A notable exception is the Burke-Gilman Trail. The trail starts at Golden Gardens and winds through our region for nearly 17 miles – a spectacular ribbon of right of way that any city would be proud to own for its citizens. Tens of thousands of Ballardites and Seattlites walk, run, skate, and bike the Burke-Gilman each year to commute to work, to go to school, to run daily errands, to take their families to the park, or to travel between neighborhoods. Freed of the hassles of car traffic and hills, trail users find a transportation oasis amidst the chaos of the city streets, and a very functional one at that.

Yet there remains a glaring gap in the trail: over a mile-long “missing link” from Ballard’s Fred Meyer to the Chittenden Locks.

While this causes significant navigational problems for walkers and bicyclists, the gap is more than inconvenient and embarrassing – it’s downright dangerous. The gap forces trail users to cross Shilshole Avenue and the most dangerous railroad crossings in the city. It pushes people into complex intersections and unprotected roads with fast-moving traffic. Numerous crashes within the missing link section happen every year, resulting in completely preventable injuries.

Why hasn’t it been fixed? Didn’t Ballardites identify the missing link as a neighborhood plan priority in the late-1990s? Haven’t mayors all the way back to Paul Schell and Greg Nickels, along with the City Council in 2003, made closing the gap a top priority? Wasn’t there a City Council-approved compromise alignment designed and completely funded, ready for construction in mid-2009? The answer to all of these is yes.

All the pieces were in place to move us forward on the trail. It was completely in the public right of way, driveway crossings for businesses were improved, and drainage, roadway, intersection improvements were all embedded in the project. A federal grant had been secured to pay for it – your tax dollars at work for you. So what happened?

Well, a handful of people have clogged things up with lobbying and lawsuits – and they pledge to continue fighting this connection, no matter how much our community wants it. This despite having signed legal documents acknowledging the City’s right to build the trail as proposed, and the engineering efforts made by the City to satisfy each and every access and operational issue raised by adjacent property owners.

While opponents of building the missing link cite safety concerns, the City has studied the area for more than 15 years, and concluded that closing the gap is the best solution for safety. As a nurse practitioner, I make public health and safety my career – and I have no doubt they’re right.

The litany of lawsuits means further delays, which means more crashes, more dollars wasted, and more ill will generated. It means Seattle is at risk of losing the federal grant money for the project. It means perpetuating the safety, navigation, and traffic conflict problems we’ve known for decades, and it means fewer Ballardites have the transportation choices they and their families desperately need and have been demanding.

Ballard deserves better. We need safe, convenient transportation options that connect us to our neighborhoods to the east, west, and south, and finishing the Burke-Gilman is critical to that network. Simply put, it’s time for the gap to go.

Kevin Carrabine has lived in Ballard for 24 years. He co-founded Friends of the Burke-Gilman Trail and serves on the Board of the Cascade Bicycle Club.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Advocacy, Burke-Gilman Trail | 5 Comments »

SDOT proposes NE 65th Street bicycle and pedestrian improvements; hosts Open House

Tuesday, September 11th, 2012 by

On Monday, Sept. 17, the Seattle Department of Transportation and the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department are hosting an Open House to share information on upcoming Magnuson Park projects, including a new bicycle and pedestrian improvement to connect Magnuson Park and the Burke-Gilman Trail.

SDOT is proposing new bicycle and pedestrian facilities on NE 65th Street to provide a family-friendly connection between the Burke-Gilman Trail and Magnuson Park.

The project would consist of a two-way cycle track on the south side of the street, separated from trafic by a  sturdy barrier. There will be one opening along the route to maintain access to an existing driveway.

At the intersection of NE 65th Street and Sand Point Way NE, the cycle track would be complemented by new pedestrian improvements, including new ramps, shortened crossing of NE 65th Street, and a larger and more comfortable waiting area.

With the upcoming completion of the mixed-use asphalt path on NE 65th Street between 62nd Avenue NE and Sportscenter Drive, this project would allow off-street pedestrian and bicycle access all the way from the Burke-Gilman Trail to the waterfront, continuing up the Waterfront Promenade.

Other Open House information will include updates on:

• The Headwaters
• Off-Leash Area Wetlands
• Lakeshore Drive Parking
• Central Wetland and Shoreline Improvements
• Seattle Public Utilities’ Combined Sewer Overlows project

The Open House will take place Monday, Sept. 17, from  6:30  until 8 p.m at The Garden Room in  The Brig building, 6344 N.E. 74th Street. 

If you are supportive of the project, attending the Open House is the most effective way to show support. But if you can’t make it, please send a quick letter to our City of Seattle representatives (Mayor, City Council, leads at SDOT). Let’s complete this short but critical gap in what is otherwise a lovely ride to the park.

Posted in Burke-Gilman Trail, Meetings & turnout, Road & Trail News | 1 Comment »

As the Missing Link designs get sent back again, something must be done to improve safety

Thursday, August 30th, 2012 by

On Tuesday, Aug. 27, the City of Seattle Hearing Examiner disappointingly ruled in favor of the Ballard Business Appellants by sending the updated design for the Missing Link stretch of the Burke-Gilman Trail back to the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) for a full Environmental Impact Statement. 

The Missing Link section of the Burke-Gilman Trail refers to the area where the trail ends at Ballard’s Fred Meyer and people are left to find their own route to the Chittenden Locks where the trail picks up again. The Missing Link also includes the most dangerous rail road track crossings in the city, on Shilshole Avenue below the Ballard Bridge, which is the cause of numerous bicycle crashes every year.

For years, the City has been eager to begin construction on the fully funded Missing Link segment, but the process has continuously been stalled by a string of lawsuits by the Ballard Business Appellants, which includes the Ballard Chamber of Commerce and businesses like Ballard Oil and Salmon Bay Sand & Gravel.

Earlier this year, SDOT once again reissued a revised Determination of Non-Significance (DNS) on the Missing Link design after King County Superior Court Judge Rogers requested further study. In submitting the revised DNS, SDOT determined that “this proposal still will not have a probable significant adverse impact on the environment”.

However, at a third go at the Hearing Examiner’s office this past week, the Examiner disagreed with SDOT, stating that the Shilshole Avenue Segment of the Burke-Gilman completion project will create “significant adverse impacts in the form of traffic hazards” due to conflicts between truck movements and trail users.

“We are disappointed,” said Chuck Ayers, Executive Director of Cascade Bicycle Club. “The Missing Link continues to be a major safety concern, and this setback perpetuates the problems that already exist with the rail road tracks, navigation, and interaction between road users.”

While it is up to the City now to determine where they want to go from here, Ayers hopes to see a quick response from the City.

“We want to see fast action to bring all the stakeholders together to discuss our options. Something has to be done to improve the safety on the Missing Link segment until a trail is built,” said Ayers. “We hope the City will do whatever is legally required to move the project forward.”

Posted in Burke-Gilman Trail, Missing Link | 2 Comments »

Biking to and from Magnuson Park could get much safer

Monday, August 13th, 2012 by

Last week, my coworker Tessa and I met with a representative from the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) about a fabulous new project lined up for later this summer: a cycle track from the Burke-Gilman Trail to Magnuson Park.

Here’s the short version: SDOT is planning on building a two-way cycle track on the south side of NE 65th Street from the intersection of the Burke and 65th to the entrance to Magnuson. They are even planning on reusing some materials from another project to save money on the construction. Overall, the project seems to be a slam dunk, though we made some minor recommendations for improvement.

But like any project, it is not without some amount of opposition. A handful of vocal “not in my backyard” property owners in a nearby condo complex are concerned because the half-block-long cycle track will cross one of their functional driveways. But what they don’t yet understand is that building the cycle track will actually make the street and sidewalk safer for everybody, including them.

For one thing, the project would draw people who ride on the sidewalk into the cycle track, making the sidewalk free and clear for pedestrians. Also, the crossing of 65th by people walking and biking on the trail will become shorter and easier to see (noteworthy because of a recent incident in which a runner was hit right there). And you know that hairy maneuver of trying to turn left onto the trail while biking uphill on 65th with heavy oncoming traffic and cars piling up behind you? The cycle track will make that turn obsolete.

Sure, maybe I am a little biased because that stretch of 65th is part of my commute from Ravenna to the Cascade office, but that is also a route used by many other employees of businesses in the park, residents of the surrounding housing units, and our families, friends, and neighbors who visit Magnuson’s beaches and trails. For many of us in Northeast Seattle, Magnuson is our backyard. So let’s say “yes” to a great project – yes in our backyard.

If you are supportive of the project, click here to send a quick letter to our City of Seattle representatives (Mayor, City Council, leads at SDOT) and let’s look forward to completion of this short but critical gap in what is otherwise a lovely ride to the park.

Posted in Advocacy, Burke-Gilman Trail, Seattle Bicycle Master Plan Update | No Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »