Tag Archives: bikes

City of Seattle not giving up on ‘Healthy Streets’ program in the Central District

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(Image: @SNGreenways)

The pared-back Healthy Streets program has lived on in corners of the city including the Central District, providing hope for advocates wanting to make Seattle safer for bikers, pedestrians, and the drivers who love them.

The Seattle Department of Transportation has announced it is making new investments to the Healthy Streets routes through the CD that are hoped to add new solidity to an effort criticized for a half-baked approach that depends on flimsy signs and driver goodwill.

According to the SDOT announcement, the Healthy Streets routes along 22nd Ave and E Columbia are lined up for new features to be constructed in 2024 and 2025 including a planned new vehicle divider at the busy 22nd and Union intersection that would be installed as early as this summer to do more to protect the routes from car and truck traffic.

“To further improve safety for people walking and biking along the north end of the Central District Healthy Street and discourage cut-through traffic, we’re excited to announce that we will construct additional safety enhancements at the intersection of 22nd Ave and E Union St,” the announcement reads. “These enhancements will include installing a new median on the south side with a cut-through for people biking, restricting vehicle turns from E Union St onto 22nd Ave, and restricting vehicle access southbound onto 22nd Ave from the intersection.”

The changes at 22nd will include installation of a “new median with bike cut through on south side of intersection” to block motor vehicle traffic, and elimination of left turns in both directions from 22nd Ave onto E Union. Continue reading →

Between Capitol Hill and downtown, it is now west on Pine, east on Pike

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(Image: SDOT)

West on Pine, east on Pike.

Pine Street is now one-way between the base of Capitol Hill and downtown. The Seattle Department of Transportation says crews were working this weekend to finalize the overhaul to make Pine the westbound component in the new couplet configuration with Pike.

CHS reported here on the $17.45 million project to transform Pike and Pine into one-way streets below Bellevue Ave with protected bike lanes and safety improvements including wider sidewalks as part of the city’s waterfront improvements. 18 months of scheduled work on the project began late last year. Continue reading →

$$$ for a Capitol Hill Superblock? 2024 city budget includes cash for ‘public space activation concepts’

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The mother of the Capitol Hill Superblock is hoping she has left a lasting final gift to the neighborhood’s pedestrianization dreams.

Seattle City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda says a portion of $600,000 carved out of the city’s 2024 budget with revenue from the JumpStart tax on its largest employers will go to creating “public space activation concepts” including a $300,000 pedestrian and bike friendly effort on Capitol Hill.

“I’m very excited about the $600,000 in Jumpstart economic revitalization funding included in the 2024 budget for public space activation in Capitol Hill, Mt. Baker, and Rainier Valley,” Mosqueda told CHS in a statement on the earmark. “This funding will build on the years of community organizing and advocacy in Capitol Hill and beyond—led by organizations such as the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict—for healthy, activated, pedestrian-oriented public spaces, to begin to actually implement public space activation concepts inspired by leading cities like Copenhagen.”

Mosqueda, who will be leaving Seattle City Hall in the new year to take the seat she won in the November election on the King County Council, has been supporting the efforts around a so-called Capitol Hill Superblock for years and sponsored the budget amendment this fall “to build momentum and lead to tangible improvements in these neighborhoods.”

“This is exactly the type of investment we envisioned for the JumpStart economic revitalization dollars to create healthy, safe, vibrant spaces in our neighborhoods that support small businesses, and provide places for the community to enjoy,” Mosqueda said. Continue reading →

It is only three blocks but Pike readied for big, bike-friendly one-way change on Capitol Hill

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A rendering of the plans for Pike (Image: Waterfront Seattle)

(Image: Waterfront Seattle)

The Seattle Department of Transportation says it is time to begin the transition that will change Pike and Pine between the waterfront and Capitol Hill into one-way streets.

Pike, you’ll go first.

“As early as” this Saturday — depending on weather and the construction schedule — westbound vehicle access to Pike on Capitol Hill between Terry and Bellevue will come to an end.

“This is the first step in making Pike and Pine streets one-way from 1st Ave to Bellevue Ave, Pike St one-way eastbound, and Pine St one-way westbound,” the city says. “Westbound bike travel on Pike St will remain accessible during construction until improved routing to Pine St is established.” Continue reading →

Work to complete one-way Pike and Pine and new bike lanes crossing onto Capitol Hill

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(Image: Office of the Waterfront)

The work to install new bike lane protections and rework Pike and Pine in downtown and on Capitol Hill below Bellevue into one-way streets has crossed I-5. The city has announced crews will begin the major changes work beginning soon to permanently remove the westbound lane on Pike between Bellevue Hubbell.

The Seattle Department of Transportation says the work should begin “as soon as November” to complete new roadway painting and update traffic signals.

“Once work is complete, you will see the following improvements between 9th and Melrose avenues: wider sidewalks buffering pedestrians from freeway noise and higher railings with integrated lighting on the bridges over I-5, increased landscaping and protected bike lanes separated from traffic by curbed buffers and planters,” the city says. Continue reading →

After 13 years of bikes and blogging, Tom Fucoloro is ready to tell the story of Seattle biking — even if Capitol Hill would rather walk

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(Image: Seattle Bike Blog)

By Cormac Wolf — CHS Reporting Intern

Tom Fucoloro has been behind the handlebars in Seattle for over 13 years. In that time he’s grown Seattle Bike Blog from a small side project to a pillar of the city’s thriving biking community, even netting a book deal in the process.

He moved to Seattle around 2009 after selling his car to fund his trip and biking full time. Faced with the problems of the city’s bike infrastructure he started looking for anyone who was documenting the experience of Seattle bikers.

“I kind of started looking around for someone else who was writing about bikes. And there wasn’t really anyone who was fully committed to the beat,” he says. “There’s an excellent bike blog down in Portland. And I thought, hey, I could do that in Seattle”

You can find Fucoloro Monday, August 28, at Capitol Hill’s Elliott Bay Book Company to celebrate the book’s release. He’ll be signing books — and likely fielding questions about our future I5-less Seattle

Bikes have been in Seattle longer than cars have, Fucoloro says, but he places the inception of the modern biking community at the first Bicycle Sunday on Lake Washington Boulevard in 1968. Continue reading →

With echoes of the ‘Broadway bikeway Smurf turds,’ SDOT making repairs to cracking Melrose Promenade barriers

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The Seattle Department of Transportation hopes a few steel rods will keep its latest solution for quickly, affordably, and hopefully safely protecting bike lanes from cars from going the way of the notoriously flimsy “Broadway bikeway Smurf turds.”

The department has responded to issues identified in the newly installed concrete separators on the bike lane portion of the Melrose Promenade project with a plan for a quick and longer-term fix.

CHS reported here on the final pieces of the $4.3 million project moving into place including the new protected bike lane that officials hope will make for better Capitol Hill connections to Seattle’s growing network of safer streets. Continue reading →

Over a decade in the making, $4.3M Melrose Promenade’s final pieces include new bike lane, better Capitol Hill connections to Seattle’s growing network of safer streets

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By Kali Herbst Minino

Construction on the $4.3 million Melrose Promenade project, aiming to make walking and biking safer, accessible, and attractive along Melrose Ave on Capitol Hill, is planned to be completed in June.

Seattle Department of Transportation crews have been working on the final pieces of the project: a new protected bike lane between E Pine and Denny, reconfiguring street parking on the west side of Melrose, new crosswalks on Pike and Pine, new curb ramps, and sidewalk repairs. Melrose at Pike and Pine’s decorated community crosswalks will be re-constructed later in the summer.

The project is one piece of a community vision of a “Melrose Promenade.” Central Seattle Greenways, an organization comprised of community members who advocate for safer streets, helped work on that vision alongside the Melrose Promenade Advisory Committee (MPAC) 10 years ago. Creating a series of events titled “Muffins on Melrose,” CSG advocates talked with passersby about the street’s potential over free muffins and coffee.

MPAC’s website has been lost due to age, but a 2013 document lists their ultimate goals: improving pedestrian safety, new bicycle connections, additional connections to other forms of transit, and creating pedestrian green and gathering spaces. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill’s ‘last bike shop,’ Velo lived through the evolution of Seattle commuter culture

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(Image: Velo Bike Shop)

By Mary Murphy, UW News Lab/Special to CHS 

Velo Bike Shop has closed after serving the Seattle bike community for 55 years. Ten years ago, it left Capitol Hill. The shop’s lease was up, and after serving the bike community for decades, owner Lloyd Tamura is retiring.

“Seattle had this huge bicycle renaissance in the ‘70s in the ‘80s, and Velo became a real institution on Capitol Hill,” Tom Fucoloro, founder of the Seattle Bike Blog, told CHS about the bittersweet milestone. “They will forever have a very solid place in bike history.”

Founded in 1968, Velo started its journey at an abandoned gas station in Madison Park, renting bikes for people to ride around the University of Washington, Lake Washington Boulevard, and the Arboretum.

The store became so popular that after some time, Velo was able to open up multiple locations in Capitol Hill, the University District, downtown, West Seattle, and later South Lake Union.

Happy Bike Everywhere Day: Friday May 19th is Bike Everywhere Day with events and stations lined up to greet riders across the city. Seattle Bike Blog has the 2023 BED map here.

In the ’90s, Lloyd took over the family store, and Velo Bikes consolidated into one location: its well-known storefront in Capitol Hill at 11th and Pine where it was open for 27 years.

Velo later made the move to the South Lake Union neighborhood in 2013, for reasons concerning their building’s lease and the growing property rental rates in Capitol Hill.

During the time of Velo’s move to South Lake Union in 2013, Seattle created a mass increase of biking infrastructure downtown. At the same time, companies like Amazon, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, and Google were booming in the South Lake Union neighborhood.

Velo Bike’s journey tells a broader story about the evolution of Capitol Hill and Seattle’s ever-changing biking culture. Continue reading →

OK, OK… one last thing about the new Glo’s: Yes, there will be outside seating and yes, Capitol Hill Station is finally getting bike lockers

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How about one last CHS post about the new Glo’s? Its arrival seems to be the final bump needed to get more daily use of the plaza above Capitol Hill Station.

The new diner’s perch on the edge of the AIDS Memorial Pathway and plaza affords some new opportunities starting with the deck area at Glo’s where the diner’s Julie Reisman tells CHS seating will be going in soon just across from E Barbara Bailey Way and Cal Anderson Park. Continue reading →