Time for all the lardass pseudo-liberals in their hybrid SUVs to repeat their bullshit anecdotes about why bicyclists suck and should be banned or taxed out of existence.

Speaking as someone who has occasionally parked in that area since a former coworker held an annual party at her boathouse, I'm staunchly in favor of that cycle track for *my* peace of mind. Backing out of a parking space along that part of Westlake in the summer is both frustrating and terrifying. Am I simply not a psychopath? Is that my problem?

Meh, they're still butt-hurt over losing a bunch of their free parking spaces a few years back.

I was cyclist number 4535 yesterday on the Fremont Bridge at 6pm, so I'm guessing 32,000 "in recent weeks" is well below the number during peak use.

If SDOT backs out of this cycletrack, Ed Murray & the City Council should expect a heap of shit.

Okay. I'll speak up here. There does need to be a dedicated cycle track. However, those of us who use the parking (early morning rowers, for instance) need to have as much parking as possible, and reasonable ingress/egress to get to that parking. And we need to be able to get our shells from the boathouse to the trailer.

Speed limits, that cyclists actually observed, would also be helpful, so that speeders wouldn't surprise me as I am trying to slowly and carefully back into a parking space. Yes, I know cyclists feel it is their constitutional right to goo whatever speed they wish, but no traffic in that mixed use area should be above 15MPH. Even in the cycle track.

I know compromise is a dirty word all around these days, but this fan-of-cyclists-but-still-a-vehicular-commuter believes in it whole-heartedly.

I biked to work in that neighborhood up until 6 months ago, I can testify to the fact that transportation is woefully dysfunctional for a neighborhood that was completely rebuilt in the last decade. Car traffic is gridlocked, the streetcar gets stuck in the gridlock, and the bike lane on Dexter does nothing for people who live and work east of that street. This cycletrack is long overdue, it should have been built concurrent with the streetcar tracks. Have you seen how many traffic police are needed for each daily commute? Can't imagine that's a cheap solution.

@5 The cycling community is happy to work with the local businesses and residents in order to make a well design facility. That's what the meetings are about, not if it will be built.

We want the same thing: a safe, clearly defined, and convenient path to get where we are going with a minimum of conflicts. There is more than enough space. At 150' wide, Westlake and the parking lot are big enough for to land a 737. Currently that space is almost entirely dedicated to cars.

Six feet of path in a configuration that safely allows vehicles and pedestrians to cross is not much of a challenge compared with many of the streets in the bike master plan.

Seriously. You bike down the lake's western shore and hit a path with no guidance to downtown. You don't want to ride along the rails of the streetcar, so you wind up oddly dodging pedestrians in South Lake Union developments.

@FauxfuaxAlex & @bago: This isn't for Westlake in South Lake Union, but for the parking lot along the water between SLU and Fremont. It is in the bike master plan to build an extension of the cycle track all the way downtown though. http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/do…

Is this flyer so bad? Not too hyperbolic -- after all, the parking spots ARE at risk. The reason to oppose these people isn't that they're lying or even that they're organizing to make their point heard. It's that elevating non-car transportation alternatives is a gajillion times more important than the mild discomfort a handful of parkers might suffer in the process. I have no problem with them bringing their whiny case public. It's a reminder that cyclists need to show up at the meeting too.

Compromise is needed in this issue. The Westlake Stakeholders are not "anti-bike". The Westlake Stakeholders Group has galvanized support from residents and business owners to give voice to a small community who had been ignored by SDOT and the Cascade Bicycle Club.

SDOT and the Cascade Bicycle Club got a grant for this project and began planning without consulting the neighborhood residents, and without even having a Environmental Impact Study or an Economic Impact Study - they were just going to ram it through. It's not just about parking, folks.

Two years ago SDOT completed at 2.5 million dollar dedicated bike lake one block away from Westlake up on Dexter. It's a well designed, fully functional dedicated bike lane - just one block from Westlake. Too many cyclists don't like the hill they have to climb on Dexter, so the Westlake cycle track was proposed. Just because cyclists don't like a hill? Christ - you are on a bike. If you don't like hills, maybe cycling isn't for you.

Every day hundreds of people use the sidewalks all along Westlake (from SLU Park up to the Fremont Bridge) and have to deal with aggressive cyclists riding WAY too fast, zipping in and out of pedestrians, frequently hitting them. I know of four people and three dogs who have been hit by cyclists going over 15 mph. Three of those people (and one dog)
were hit and runs, with the cyclists tearing off a full speed. Don't believe me? Take a stroll all along Westlake and put your life in your hands as some dude pretending he's in the Tour de France whips by you at 25 mph..

Clearly Ansel Herz sees only one side of this issue and is completely uninterested in learning more about the local small businesses that will be impacted. No, I'm not talking about Kenmore Air or McCormick & Schmicks. I'm talking about the dozens of small marine oriented businesses that rely on parking for customers. No - not rich yacht owners, but normal wage earners involved in the maritime industry. There are plenty of them all along Westlake, and they will be impacted. .

This article reads as if it were written in conjunction with the Cascade Bicycle Club. Maybe it was because it is one-sided and biased. It's apparent Ansel Herz hasn't fully educated himself on this particular issue, as his knee-jerk "reporting" evidences.

Okay cyclists/Herz and others - bring on the hate for my comments. And I remind you, I'm a lefty liberal who agrees with most of what the SLOG says. I'm not a rich yacht owner, and I'm not a "NIMBY" asshole - I just realize that compromise is needed and equal representation from both sides is a must in this fight.

I can't figure out why there is cycling infrastructure on Dexter between SLU and Fremont.

Westlake makes so much more sense, and having bike lanes on both seems wasteful.

@12- Because they're two different routes to two different places.

@13

What? No they aren't. They start 2 blocks apart at Denny and then merge together into Nickerson street.

Given how much of the city needs bike infrastructure, it seems weird to build out both Dexter and Westlake.

@11: A lot of cyclists take the Westlake parking lot because it is ALREADY a designated bike/ped route: the Cheshiahud Trail. It's signed and marked but lame and dangerous. I ride Dexter (or Eastlake) myself, but the city needs to fix the piece of crap "trail" that the clueless Nickels administration created.

Local opposition to the proposed Westlake cycle track in no way qualifies as NIMBYism, within commonly-accepted usage of that term. If Ansel's advocacy journalism goes no deeper than name-calling, he should at least make an effort to learn what the available pejoratives mean.

Ansel's scare-quoted "stakeholders" certainly qualify as stakeholders, within the common usage of that term.

Pressing one's case and cause at public meetings is normally approved behavior in the ethos of Slog ... it's unclear why the same conduct is considered nefarious in this instance.

Living wage jobs are normally considered favorably here, and they are at the core of this conflict ... though Ansel sweeps that issue entirely under the rug, pretending instead it's all about a bunch of self-entitled car-heads with an attitude problem.

Contrary to Ansel's post, the stakeholders' complaint was not seen as "baseless" by either side. It was withdrawn in response to a compromise ("involvment") offered by the City because of the complaint's undisputed potency at law.

And lastly, Ansel ignores the City's history of bad-faith dealings with the Westlake stakeholders ... including "outreach" that began only after the City had fully committed itself to creating the cycle track.

@15, take a look at the trail map there buddy... it divots along with the waterfront sidewalks and certainly isn't a straight path through the parking lots.

http://www.seattle.gov/parks/LakeUnionLo…

@12 It's hard to figure out when you aren't on a bicycle, but Dexter and Westlake really are two different routes. From Fremont, I take Dexter to the Seattle Center and central downtown. I take Westlake to South Lake Union and north downtown.

You're right—a single large, intuitive, efficient, dedicated, well-connected bike route might convince everyone to take one route or the other but right now, we don't have that route.

@16 - Very well stated. Thank you. I too am disappointed in Ansel's biased, immature article and complete misunderstanding of how many living wage jobs are at stake in this issue. Clearly, Ansel has some growing up to do as a journalist. He's actually taking an angry stand against the same people he usually champions.

It's not about cyclists vs. parking lots. It's about living wage jobs in the maritime industry. While others in the Westlake Stakeholders Group may harp on the loss of parking, the greater issue here is the loss of jobs for the small businesses that exist from the 1500 block on up north to the Fremont Bridge. Ansel has dug his young, inexperienced journalist's heels into the cyclist's camp, and has no idea that he's actually fighting against what he normally writes about - living wage, normal folk who need jobs. One wonders if he will ever figure that out.

This fight isn't about rich yacht owners wanting more parking. It's about the loss of a maritime community that has existed on Westlake Avenue for over 100 years. Historically, Lake Union is a working lake, and it still is. When customers can't park, business goes away. Don't believe me? Explore Westlake (on foot) and you might learn a thing or two.

No one is against cyclists. No one is saying "Fuck those goddamn cyclists! They are ruining America!" No - this is not a Republican vs. Democrat issue. This is an issue of a small, working community of non-rich folk who depend on the industry to make a living. Perhaps the Westlake Stakeholders Group has hammered in too hard about the "loss of parking" and has not clearly explained what that means to many people, but that's the core issue.

Ansel, you and I are on the same side of the political fence on 99% of the issues out there. I enjoy your writing and perspective, but your inexperience and youthful vigor have trumped your journalistic integrity here. It's a deeper, much more complex issue than your name-calling, knee-jerk, biased article says. Working people don't want to see their jobs go away and, like it or not, when customers can't park - they go elsewhere. A reduction of 40% to 60% of parking will have a huge impact on the economy of this community.

I realize it's more fashionable to disparage "NIMBY" types and champion "green" cyclists, but any real journalist would realize its a more complex, nuanced issue.

(FYI: I'm a cyclist as well. Yup, I am.)

@11 - anyone complaining about cyclists going 25mph on flat terrain has zero credibility. The average cyclist is totally incapable of generating enough energy to obtain - let alone sustain - that kind of speed. Well-trained cyclists have a hard time sustaining 20+mph, and do so with far less frequency than the complaints from people who simply don't know what they're talking about.

It's like the comedian George Carlin once observed about driving: 'anyone going slower than me is an a$$-h0le... Anyone going faster is a maniac.'

@21, YES, the far larger danger is the absurd stopping distance of bicycles at a high rate of speed (to say nothing of the fixies).

@17: I've ridden it. It goes through the parking lots.

@22: You have no idea what you're talking about.

I recently drove through those parking lots looking for parking close to where I wanted to go. The cyclists were a total surprise, and since I was looking for parking rarely saw them in time to avoid an "oh shit, cyclist!" moment. The parking that will be lost is the free parking that is always full by 7am. Let the workers for q13 and random tech companies pay like the rest of the schmucks, or take a bus. Or find some extra money to build a parking garage. Westlake needs a cycletrack.

@11 "Christ - you are on a bike. If you don't like hills, maybe cycling isn't for you."

Dexter has BIKE LANES, not a cycle track. They put you between parked cars and moving traffic: it's a route suitable for experienced riders who are comfortable being one meter from quickly moving vehicles.

Riders who aren't comfortable being close to quickly moving traffic and those not strong enough to climb the hill should have a safe route between the Burke-Gilman trail in Fremont to South Lake Union and the downtown. Heck, I'm a fairly experienced rider and I avoid Dexter when I'm going to climb Capitol Hill afterwards.

If anyone is fuzzy on what it's like to bike Westlake, I've taken some photos and video of that harrowing route which can be seen here: https://plus.google.com/1081619286690555…

@11 if you don't understand facilitating cyclists on the flatter route from one neighborhood to another, perhaps commenting on urban transportation planning isn't for you...

So if the city goes ahead and builds the bike lane, ignoring the wishes of the Westlake stakeholders, it will be just how the city/state ignored the wishes of the waterfront stakeholders in approving the viaduct tunnel plan.

So listen up kids, Its democracy when your building bike lanes and but a wasteful "police state" if its a tunnel for cars.

@20

Your camp lost me, and likely many others, forever and ever when you tried to block the entire city's bike plan over this issue. That was a gigantic "fuck you" directed at every single person who rides a bike in Seattle. Even if it wasn't malice, it was certainly stupidity.

Anyways, your argument that "It's not about cyclists vs. parking lots. It's about living wage jobs in the maritime industry" is hilarious, because a few paragraphs down you then state, "When customers can't park, business goes away." So I guess it is all about parking, then?

@28

"So listen up kids, Its democracy when your building bike lanes and but a wasteful 'police state' if its a tunnel for cars. "

$3.5 million bike structure that improves safety for those already using it

vs.

$10 billion tunnel that has less capacity than current structure and will likely not be used anyways because of high tolls

But we can't exactly expect an honest argument from you: you have already established that you are, above and beyond all else, a totally ignorant and irrational bike hater with nothing of value to add to these arguments.

This argument is ridiculous. The parking lots along that stretch of Westlake are huge. There is plenty of room for a cycle track AND parking for lakefront businesses/residents. Everyone will be happy and safer: Cyclists won't mow down pedestrians, cars won't flatten cyclists, and parkers will still have spaces.

A cycle track should have been installed along Westlake the last time it had major street-level improvements, and it is an astonishing oversight that it wasn't. I'm not sure when that was, but judging from looks it wasn't a terribly long time ago-maybe the mid-90's?

A missed opportunity, and it is ripe for correction.

Shorter Indica Dogwalker:

"I'm not a NIMBY because it's not literally my backyard, it's public right of way that doesn't belong to me"

"I'm a cyclist who recognizes that there's a dangerous situation (and has not idea what a cycletrack is), but I believe the city should do nothing to address the problem and a few free parking spaces are more important than the people whose safety I purportedly care about."

@21 Average, non-enthusiast adults on bikes generally ride 8-15 mph according to national engineering standards. But the same standards note that fit competitive cyclists routinely exceed 30 mph sprinting on flat ground.

Obviously, there's a huge potential range of speeds for people on bikes, and some of those people clearly belong in the street, not on a sidewalk or crowded sidepath. But, if you sit for any length of time watching any of Seattle's popular off-street cycling routes, whether Westlake or the Burke-Gilman or the I-90 Trail, you'll see a conspicuous minority of people riding at competitive speeds where they really don't belong.

National and state standards say off-road bike paths should be designed for 18-20 mph on flat ground, to safely accommodate the majority of recreational and transportation cycling. That's not 25 mph, but even 18 mph is fast enough to cause serious injuries if human-powered vehicles aren't adequately separated from pedestrians.

I can have empathy and understanding for the bikers, but can the bikers have it for me/us?

I qualify as one of your NIMBYs, I guess. I am a self employed psychotherapist who has been on Westlake since 2003 and recently renewed my lease up to 2016.

When my therapy clients can't park, they stop coming. I ain't rich. I am still paying off my student loan, and supporting my wife and kid. If they kill half the parking it will seriously mess with the living of a whole bunch of shrinks, massage therapists, acupuncturists and naturopaths on Westlake. It ain't a bunch of rich boat owners and Amazon employees, so have a fucking heart.

@34: Bicycling is great therapy.

@34 No one except your fearmongering neighbors is talking about getting rid of half the parking. With more effective management, parking loss should be low. The parking study I saw on the website showed that there's ample parking nearby, if not directly in front of your business.

@12 Dexter is a popular route to get cyclists up into Queen Anne via 6th Ave N and Halladay St. Westlake doesn't have access to to Queen Anne. Two totally different routes.

@34 - the land your clients are parking on are a public asset, yet you expect it to be available for you to make a profit while running a private business? If you want dedicated, private parking to facilitate your business then you should be leasing space in a building that includes parking on its private land.

@21: I used to bike commute in Chicago -- a very flat place -- and on certain stretches of my ride I would routinely maintain 25-30mph. It's hard to do that in a city, even a flat one, if you're dealing with traffic lights. But, if you're on dedicated track it's not difficult for a cyclist to get over 20MPH and sustain it.

Amsterdam. Class is dismissed . . . .