This actually sounds like a good move to me. Delridge as it is has very narrow lanes. I think traffic may actually move smoother with one proper width lane.

And then of course bike lanes are groovy.

As far as I'm concerned, the biggest traffic issue in Seattle is the goddamn drawbridges.

The biggest traffic issue in Seattle is the need for dedicated bus lanes and many neighborhoods with absolutely no space for wider roads.

Shit SUV drivers say.

IN B4 "BUT DELIVERY TRUCKS AND OLD LADIES GOING TO MEDICAL APPOINTMENTS!!!!!!!!!1111"

And when the average drivers trip is doubled or tripled SDOT will claim that there is no discernible time added, or very little. Motherfuckers probably average in the 24 hr period. 50th used to be great when it had two lanes each way. Now it gets backed up end to end.

From what I've seen, people in West Seattle could use a little exercise.

I was concerned when the city did this to NW 130th. But it had no noticeable effect on car traffic. Still, not many cyclists use the bike lane there as far as I can tell.

For the record, I am not a cyclist, but will be enthusiastically supporting McGinn. He fought to protect Seattle taxpayers from the viaduct. He personally communicated with people in my neighborhood to resolve an issue we had here. Seattle could do so much worse with a career politician instead of a liberal populist.

If it pisses off West Seattle, I'm all for it.

Hey, Westies. I hate you. And I'm calling you Westies now.

"50th used to be great"

ahahahahaaaha

@8 Are we thinking of the same 50th? The one where the second lane on each side is filled with parked cars?

I like blue blob at the bottom. This conversation would probably make more sense if different people were covered by different colors. If you're going to copy the format of websites that make fun of Facebook threads, you might as well do it right.

Here's your choice:

A) Two lanes flowing at about the same speed, except when the left lane traffic stops completely for someone making a left turn, when the right lane traffic stops completely for a bus stop, or when the right lane slows as everyone takes their turn to swerve around a bicyclist.

B) One lane flowing steadily - not stopped or slowed by left turns, buses, or bicyclists - but going no faster than the slowest driver on the road.

Which is more common? Left turns, buses, and bicyclists or slow drivers? In Seattle, I would say slow drivers.

Which is safer? The one lane road is clearly safer for everyone.

Which is faster? Even with the slow driver possibility, the one lane solution is probably faster overall. It is better to keep moving steadily - even if slowly - than to stop completely.

Which is more irritating? One lane is more irritating by far. Yes, it's frustrating when you're stopped by a left turning vehicle ahead of you or by a bus, or slowed by a bicycle, but somehow that is less irritating than following a slow driver for 15 blocks.

4 lanes at 12 feet per lane = 48 feey wide.

3 lanes at 12 feet per (one thru lane for each direction plus a center two-way left turn lane) = 36 feet.

Now add one 5 foot bike lane on each side, and you get 46 feet.

It works beautifully. The center TWLT lane provides that refuge that left-turners need. Traffic flows better.

Why do all these walkers need all that room? Let's get rid of sidewalks for more car lanes.

Delridge only has four blocks of its length that are four lane sections...

look it up on google maps.

I have serious concerns of the mental health of the type of people who get frantic over lane changes this small.

@8: If you're talking about 50th St., north of the canal:

I used to drive between I5 and Stone Way daily, before and after the revision. It works much better now. Also, the revision came in long before McGinn.

Car drivers are fat, ugly and angry. Bike riders are thin, good looking and happy. This conversation is over.

The amusing thing is that most of the people ranting about bike lanes probably also consider themselves environmentalists. They just have yet to connect the dots in their brains about what climate change means for cities. At 400 climate ppm, the private automobile is now untenable. McGinn and O Brien are the only officials at city hall will to stand up on behalf of the future against the pro-car reactionaries.

Doing this on Fauntleroy Way unquestionably improved the street. Good move for Delridge way too.

As far as I'm concerned, the biggest traffic issue in Seattle is the goddamn cars.

I remember when the 'road diet' was first proposed for W. Nickerson St on the north side of Queen Anne and people started all the fear-mongering about 'congestion' and 'accidents' and 'damn cycleistas getting in the way' - the owner of GM Nameplate on 15th Ave W even threatened to relocate.

In the end Nickerson was narrowed as planned. The result: less congestion, fewer accidents, and GM Nameplate is still doing business on 15th Ave.

Oh, @25, I'm a bike rider. If only. *sigh*

Bullshit. 50th used to be way faster than 45th. The easiest and fastest way to head west was to travel 50th to almost the end, avoid the 5 point light intersection by hanging a left on residential to 45th, bully your way into 45th just before the last light. Now how the fuck you do that genius when that shit is backed up? Oh yeah, I go down the residential streets parallel to 50th.

Face it, they're just upset because of the Viaduct work and the Seawall affecting their commute.

Here's a hint: It will get MUCH WORSE for multiple decades, thanks to the Tolled Tunnel of Terribleness.

@3 for the Unknown Commenter win of the day.

@31 is correct. This changed when they altered the street grid and turns on it, to let the 26 and 16 go faster and people to make turns more quickly. That plus allowing people to park on 50th, which used to be NOT ALLOWED UNTIL 8 PM.

"Which is going to stop traffic whenever someone needs to turn left."

Haven't these idiots noticed that all the "road diets" ADDED A LEFT TURN LANE?!? That's why it works.

Parking is a far more serious issue for traffic in this city than bike lanes. A single car parked in a lane that can do either takes out an entire lane of traffic. If we had better transit and better bike lanes we wouldn't need as many parking spaces anyway.

@34, you are full of shit, as always. The parking restriction on 50th has always been from 4-6 PM. It should be until 8 PM but it isn't, and never has been. And neither the 26 or the 16, or indeed any bus, travel on 50th except to cross it. And "alter the street grid" is nonsensical, like your existence on earth.

@31, you're also lying if your former scheme involved a left turn from 50th into the neighborhood, because that has ALWAYS been an almost impossible maneuver, and in fact is much easier now that there is a dedicated left turn lane. Traffic on 50th moves about the same as it always has, better in some places. And, as @23 points out, the lane changes came long before McGinn.

All of the streets that have been modified to reduce the number of through lanes and add a left turn lane have seen IMPROVEMENTS for cars. These changes were made primarily FOR cars. The bike lanes don't take away anything; the left turn lane does, but it gives back far more. The people complaining simply do not know how traffic works.

The only exception I can think of is Stone Way, and that's because the goddamn second lane keeps appearing a reappearing, causing a ten-block-long permanent merge zone, which is stupid.

Fnarf do you live near 50th? I have lived in the U-dist for 17 years. Travelled on 50th a handful of times a month for as long. Where you at bitch?

@38: Nickerson: nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded? lulz

AM Peak Before: 816
AM Peak After: 733 (-10%)

PM Peak Before: 915
PM Peak After: 927 (+1%)

http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/do…

@39, I cross 50th twice a day, and travel its length from the U District to Stone Way at least weekly, and have for 15 years. The first time I did so was 1978. And, unlike you, I am aware of my surroundings.

It's people like you, darting in and out of lanes, cutting in and out of the neighborhoods, driving through parking lots to avoid lights, etc. who CAUSE traffic jams.

The #1 cause of traffic backups on 50th is jackasses cruising west from the freeway or the U District in the right lane during the hours that parking is legal, who then have to merge. This has ALWAYS BEEN TRUE. #2 used to be left-turners -- that problem has gone away. #3 eastbound is the backup on the freeway, which backs up traffic on eastbound 50th even if you're not going to the freeway. You used to be able to cut around them, but that causes accidents. I'll bet you've been in a few yourself, if you drive the way you describe.

@40, when these creeps complain about lane reconfigurations what they really mean is "I useta drive my '78 Buick Lesabre down that street at 40 MPH with my seat belt hanging out the door and nobody ever stopped me, now I gotta pay attention to other people, WAH".

Lard-ass SUV drivers whining from their entitled waiting line at the burger drive-thru. Fukkum.

#41, you're a joker man. I never saw, nor traveled on 50th backed up from FUCKING I-5 off ramp to Stone Way until the reconfiguration. Go take your Alzheimer medication b/c you clearly don't remember shit right anymore.

The way these whiners sound makes me feel like they must be picturing the mayor himself out there on their streets, sneaking around at night with a pot of paint and a brush and snickering like Muttley while he takes away their fahrensraum.

@44 Kudos for funniest and subtlest Godwin in a long time.

The more lanes you take away and give to cyclists, the more cyclists cant avoid license and registration of their bikes to pay for it.

WSDOT says anything that uses the road from 0 to 2,000 lbs, pays the same fee for registration and its about time we ask cyclists to pay their fair share. I know most roads are paid for by property taxes, but some of that does come from the gas tax and the latest transportation package uses even more gas taxes to pay for local roads. So cyclists will very much need to pay their entry fee soon, otherwise they will see a backlash from drivers who feel they are paying way too much and cyclists too little, for the same freaking lane.

@46

At some point predictions of an anti-bike backlash need to either come true or stop. We've been hearing it for over a decade. Why would car lovers who actually believed any of this shit spend all their time threatening to elect anti-bike politicians? if you love cars and want more lanes, go vote for more cars and more lanes. And why didn't you do that last election? And all the ones before that?

Oh, you did? But you lost? In fact, you lost worse with each passing year?

It's like anti-gay kooks promising they're going to all rush to the polls next election and turn things around. Their faction is shrinking. Getting older, dying off, changing their minds in the face of facts. They're losing.

Car culture is losing. What you're arguing is that by losing, you're going to win. Because as the number of drivers shrinks, they'll get more and more pissy. Just like anti-gay kooks whose anger and disappointment has pretty much boiled over. Problem is, getting angrier doesn't make more of you. There's your problem. Not enough of you.

Better watch out! Better watch out! You wouldn't like me when I'm angry! LOL.

I'm so confused.

I drive a car and own a bicycle. So am I a bike fiend or a bike hater? A car fanatic or a greenie bike freak? I mean, I have to be one or the other, right? There can't possibly exist a human being who wants the two transportation media to happily coexist.

Except, of course, that we "tweeners" do exist. We're almost certainly the (silent) majority. And we're amused by the inane absolutism (on both sides, though on balance there are many more anti-bike trolls) exhibited in the comment threads of every post in this topic.

If the "bike lane" is actually just the door zone for parked cars, the commenter on the original thread is right - I'm just going to ride my bike in the lane anyway.

Too many of Seattle's "bike lanes" are just repainted door zones. They're a fucking joke. Frankly, I'd rather have two lanes of traffic, it gives the cars a lane pass me in and a safe place for me to ride, instead of in the debris filled gutter with a sharrow painted in it.

Bike licensing doesn't work. See San Diego's attempts to do so. The bureaucracy involved costed more than the income from it so they scrapped it.

Besides all the other logical arguments against it, like a bike could ride on a patch of road forever and cause no wear and tear to it, unlike cars, especially the asshats cruising around on their snow tires.

@50

You mean 47, not 48.

What should I have picked? Racists? Sexists? Climate change deniers? Any way you look at it, it's the wrong side of history. It's not like the amount of petroleum to go around is increasing. It's not like the available land for lanes and parking spaces is increasing. It's not like all that CO2 in the atmosphere is cleaning itself up. Cars are unsustainable and bikes didn't cause that. Car culture did that, and the cure isn't more lanes.

The irrationality is like thinking gay marriage will destroy straight marriage. You're being given a left turn lane and then whining about having to wait. You didn't have a left turn lane before. Now you do. It's not such a bad thing but the irrationality is controlling your mind.

And again, these road diets started years ago, and yet still the anti-bike backlash hasn't appeared. Like others on the wrong side of history, your demographic is shrinking along with the rationale for a car-centric culture. Even people who love cars know it doesn't scale and it's unsustainable. You're losing.

You can either be a dead-ender like the anti-gay bigots or you can move on and find a new battle. Or get out there and bring your backlash vote to the polls. I'd love to see it. I'm tired of the empty promises. Show me what you got or go home.

@50, it's not a "road diet", it's a LEFT TURN LANE. Which makes life for cars easier, not harder. I was just driving on 50th, and that left turn lane was a godsend yet again.

The kind of people who complain are the kind of people who care a great deal about who is in THEIR way but nothing at all about whose way they are in themselves.

The problem with 50th is I-5, jackasses. You're never going to get rid of the backup at I-5, ever.

And the trivial problems with 50th, OF COURSE, have nothing whatever to do with bike lanes or bikes or bicyclists, because there is no bike lane on 50th and not even the dimmest cyclist would attempt to ride its length in traffic. But the ignorant and pointless rage spews on.

If McGinn loses, the next mayor is going to pursue the same policy with regard to streets and bikes, so you'll get nothing for it. People LIKE bike lanes and left turn lanes.

If McGinn loses, the next mayor will not persue any further right of way transit projects other than the ones presently in motion that will alleviate the need for Seattlites to get in a car and drive in the I-5 parking lot and our inter and intra city transit will potentially be all the worse for it.

I do love all the people on this thread who are saying "back in my day (when the population was half what is now and car ownership was much lower) there wasn't nearly as much traffic so it must be McGinn's fault because he bicycles."

@49- The road dieted areas usually don't have on-street parking, so the bike lanes are FUCKING AWESOME. There's no barrier between you and traffic, but instead of having people riding up your ass and doing all sort of dangerous lane crowding bullshit to pass you they just drive on by.

One 'n done. McGinn will be flattened. He declared war on the automobile, at a time when almost seven-eighths of Seattle residents live in a household with at least one car. We have noticed, and we are going to throw McGinn's ass out.

Bike licensing doesn't work. See San Diego's attempts to do so. The bureaucracy involved costed more than the income from it so they scrapped it.

Run bike licensing through the DOL system and it'll work fine. The problem is that Seattle's bicyclists are arrogant, selfish parasites who think they are better than everyone else, don't have to pay for anything, and are free to ignore every traffic law. The local politicians have catered to them, but when McGinn gets a thorough whipping that is going to end.

At some point predictions of an anti-bike backlash need to either come true or stop. We've been hearing it for over a decade.

You are about to get your backlash. We are going to eat your hero McGinn for breakfast and shit him out before dinner. Fuck him, fuck you, and fuck your bicycles. I can hardly wait.

Wholly anecdotal, as a West Seattle-ite (late to the party), the road diet had had far less effect on auto commuting than the constant tinkering with bus routes and bus bulbs. That said, as noted above, the impending apocalypse is really the viaduct teardown with no downtown exits from 99.

@47 "At some point predictions of an anti-bike backlash need to either come true or stop."

It did with the failure of McGinns attempt to raise car tabs $60 for 20 years. Fully endorsed by the Cascade Bicycle Club as 20% of it would have gone to cyclists, but overall rejected by 53%?

"Why would car lovers who actually believed any of this shit spend all their time threatening to elect anti-bike politicians?"

Oh I dont know, probably because taxes are high enough as they are and how drivers dont want to deal with the reality of subsidizing both mass transit and bike lanes, in addition to road projects.

"if you love cars and want more lanes, go vote for more cars and more lanes. And why didn't you do that last election? And all the ones before that?"

I dont, in fact I dont even own a car, nor do I have a license. Voted for mostly democrats last election, but not for McGinn.

"It's like anti-gay kooks promising they're going to all rush to the polls next election and turn things around. Their faction is shrinking. Getting older, dying off, changing their minds in the face of facts. They're losing."

Im 40, please dont accuse me of being a stereotypical while old man who hates gay people. Really appreciate it if you dropped that attitude.

"Car culture is losing. What you're arguing is that by losing, you're going to win. Because as the number of drivers shrinks,"

The more people that live in Seattle, the worse the traffic gets and while many are switching to mass transit to commute to work, majority wont adopt bikes to commute unless they live close to it. Plus you need to factor in how biking is seasonal, that many will stop commuting once the weather turns to shit.

Cyclists won (not earned) the right to use the road, but its clearly not enough, they want more, so they should honestly pay more. As someone who has no license, there is nothing stopping me from using the road, when in reality there should be a test, a license and vehicle fee.

@37 it used to be until 8 in the late 80s when I moved here, for the 2-3 blocks where the traffic piles up. I like the turn lane at the Good Shepherd tho (Ian's brother went to private school there).

I can't help it you didn't live on Burke at N 46th like I did when I moved here.

@61- "Cyclists won (not earned) the right to use the road,"

Cyclists have always been allowed on the roads. Paved roads were created for cyclists. You have the order of historical events backwards. Along with everything else.

@61 - Except not really. The Downtown Seattle Association also endorsed the $60 car tabs for the road and transit improvements but I wouldn't go so far to say that this means people hate pedestrians, road improvements, and transit. Your own issue with the $60 tabs appears to be because you like busses more than streetcars. Does this mean that Seattle residents reject streetcars? Probably not. Also, we're still getting more streetcars! On Slog itself, the primary issue seemed to be the regressive nature of the tax with many refusing to vote yes for that reason. Much like the Roads and Transit measure, too many people disliked a bunch of individual pieces of this tax but saying any one thing killed and therefore a majority of Seattle rejects that thing is highly disingenuous.

In summary, your anti-cyclist fantasies are amusing, but not practical or realistic; they're only forged from the part of you that likes sticking it to the people/things you don't like. Then again, that's been your m.o. since you've been on Slog, so we shouldn't be surprised.

And speaking as a West Seattle resident, Delridge's road diet is awesome and I keep hoping they'll do the same to 35th. Please also note that I commute to Redmond and when I have the option, I'd much rather take Delridge than 35th to get to the WSB.

So Pridge is a Microsoftie. No wonder their crap is so bad and the company is so arrogant.