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Aug 4, 2015 at 8:57 am
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800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
Clearly you've never attempted to ride a bicycle across a steel bridge grating; might as well just throw yourself down on the ground and let the cars roll right over the top of you.
As others have mentioned we have been pushing for this for some time but unfortunately it is not an easy fix. Of course the reasonable thing to do would be to close one of the general traffic lanes in each direction and make it a bus/bike only lane until a better solution can be enacted.
But heaven forbid you inconvenience a few SOVs for something as trivial as a few cyclists' lives.
http://www.seattlebikeblog.com/2014/09/0…
1. Take it slow. This is not the place to set personal best speed records.
2. Have a bell and ring it when approaching pedestrians, other cyclists, and other sidewalk users. Sure, most of them have earbuds in so just keep dinging it (or use your voice) until they hear you. If they are coming at you then passing is much easier.
3. NEVER stand on the concrete barricade between the road and sidewalk. Some big ass truck or bus will pick you off with a mirror, or you'll fall and get flattened. When passing, stay to the inside, along the railing. Yes, you may occasionally have to STOP and let someone else pass. Just stop in between the concrete posts and wait. Look at the water, boats, or ducks, and just be patient.
4. DO NOT USE the cut-out on the south end of the bridge. That's a freaking disaster. Plus, it puts you out on 15th right where the on-ramp from Nickerson is. Instead, stay on the sidewalk and follow it as it parallels Emerson Street. Options abound from there - you can either turn right at the end of the bridge, head into Fisherman's terminal, and loop back under the bridge to get back to 15th or to Nickerson or to the Ship canal trail. Or you can stay on Emerson until you get to Gilman and then take that down to Myrtle Edwards and to downtown. Where else are you going if you are crossing this crappy bridge?
Should the City fix this screwed up crossing - YES! But until then, some common sense and patience might just save your ass.
Visuals change minds.
Talking doesn't.
I say this as someone who lives in Ballard, rides 300 days a year, and works downtown.
Thank you.
Bikes are feasible as transportation for a tiny percent of people and should recieve road space and government transportation funding accordingly.
And if on the roads they should be required to have an operating license and license plate like every other vehicle in traffic.
@16
"SOV's" (cars and trucks for normal people) are viable transportation options. They get people into town to work or spend money. They bring groceries and medications and other necessary or luxury goods into town.
Bikes are vehicles for arrogant entitled jerks to fully display their arrogant entitled jerk-hood. (See the peurile whinong of Savage in this post as an example.) They serve no other purpose at all.
And while the Fremont Bridge is certainly an option, what if I am trying to get from my home on Perkins Lane to, say, Volterra in Ballard? I might miss the insalata course!
LOOK, THERE! EVIL PURE AND SIMPLE!
For light rail however I would much prefer a tunnel, city rail works best when it's a completely separated grade, Seattle should be building a subway, not surface light rail.
@32, and who exactly should pay for a bike only drawbridge?
You're welcome for the subsidy.
It's about time people paid attention to issues that mostly impact high-earning white males! They are completely underrepresented in Seattle, and their needs should be a priority!
Actually, the best way to start finding a workable solution is to silence everyone who's never ridden a bike in traffic on a regular basis. And don't try and fake it, either, because it's obvious the moment you open your mouth that you don't know what you're talking about. The reason we have this mess (and not just the bridge) is because the infrastructure was designed by people who drive. If you're not aware of how to ride in the city, you shouldn't be part of the conversation.
Seriously. I've done a good amount of advocacy, primarily for off-roaders, but also some roadie type stuff and have known probably hundreds of cyclists through such channels and would struggle to come up with more than 10 or 20 that I know don't own cars. 50%. What a laughably shit-brained and (more likely) deliberately provocative statement.
@20- It takes more than five minutes to get from the Ballard Bridge to the Fremont Bridge and back to the Ballard bridge in a car when there is no traffic. And everything else in your post is wrong too.
@36- You're wrong about car ownership that is irrelevant because you're also wrong about road funding. Residents of Seattle pay for the roads with property taxes. Get it through your thick skull. And also stop debasing the AstrobaseGo! name with your inane drivel.
Way to be a dick there guy. All I did was put an idea out there while acknowledging the overall problem. But you have to be the judgmental prick that decides I should just STFU since I don't ride a bike. (All little context: I use to ride but have never felt comfortable after being hit by a car. I've never been able to get over the anxiety of it when I've tried to ride. But I guess you'd say that just proves your point that I don't know how to ride in the city.)
Well thanks. Appreciate it.
The taxpayers, silly - just like every other transportation project. That's how it works.
If you put it right next to the existing bridge, you could have one operator for both, just like the First Avenue South bridge. Maybe then you could even widen the existing Ballard Bridge to allow for more traffic for those precious, precious automobiles.
And with regard to bicycle licensing--really? The first vehicles present in America were horses and horse-drawn carriages and wagons. To this day, such equine vehicles require no licenses (except when operated commercially) in most jurisdictions. Like bicycles and several other slow-moving non-motorized vehicles, horses are typically given essentially the same rights as any other vehicle but excluded from freeways and other arteries; similarly again, operators of motor vehicles are required to exercise extra caution around them.
The legal status of horses and associated equine vehicles demonstrates that bicycles are NOT (as you claim) given undeserved special status. Rather, extra safeguards and oversight are imposed on automobiles and their operators due to the much higher risk to persons and property associated with one's operation.
You wanna have this discussion? We can have this discussion in a civilized manner. But it's going to be based on the facts, dammit. I know you and the facts have had some differences, but it's beyond time you and they were reconciled; it's downright unhealthy to go through life in brazen opposition to the facts.
@37: Exactly.
We need a new bridge or a widened bridge. An underground tunnel for transit would be good too. Which is cheaper?
To be fair, it is not unreasonable to protest how SDOT vastly prioritizes car projects (almost $300,000,000 spent on a redo of six lanes of the Mercer Mess and it's still as mess), and vanity projects ($55,000,000 spent on the SLUT, Paul Allen's little tinker toy streetcar to nowhere) over projects in the Seattle Bicycle Master Program, and how at their current rate of implementation huge numbers of us will be long dead before the SBMP is completed. Oh, and the south end hardly has any nice, grade separated bike lanes, which is a gaping environmental social justice issue.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/W…
Design glitch? Weird, I've never had that problem. In a car. You know, the things roads were built for, rather than your childrens toys? Your pal is a quadriplegic because he was playing with a toy in traffic.
Bicycles are great for exercise. Weekend runs on the Burke Gilman? They're good for that too. But they are not and never will be serious options worrhy of public funds and dedicated road space as transportation.
Sidewalks are, unlike bike lanes, necessary for access to homes and businesses. Which makes them worthwhile use of public money. No Critical Mass of pedestrians or equestrians or wavon drivers are asking that half of Stone Way (a major arterial, or it was anyway) be closed to legitimate road users for a few users an hour to walk into Seattle. Know who did? Bike nuts.
Yes, residual use applies for horse drawn vehicles etc. But again, nobody in these communities is demanding their entertainment be treated as worthy of government funding for special infrastructure so they can play with their toys.
The City should put in a new ped/bike/multi-modal transit bridge a la Tilikum Crossing in Portland, and eventually light rail to Ballard should go across it as well.
But as I stated above light rail should be underground using a tunnel to cross the ship canal.
I ride a bike, I walk, I take the bus, and I drive. Depends on where I need to get and how quickly. And I'm not going to complain about the horror of Seattle traffic when I do get behind the wheel, because I become part of the gridlock problem when I surround myself in my own little fossil-fuel-burning cocoon.
Seattle is a dense city with a growing population, and setting the default transportation bias to "car" seems silly. Yes, cars are important and necessary sometimes, but if more of us got our asses out of our private vehicles and onto buses or on bikes or on foot, congestion might be substantially reduced. Someone came up with the concept of "meatless Mondays." What if we did the same thing to reduce or use of automobiles. Everyone picks one weekday per week to NOT drive. My math skills may be rusty, but wouldn't that result in a 20% reduction in automobile traffic per day on average?
Furthermore, we need to use our existing streets and roads better to move people...not cars. It's about mobility. Step one: eliminate street parking. Why should temporary storage of private vehicles be a higher priority than bus lanes or bicycle routes?
SB. I thought you were history. Hoped you were.
Brisbane has a great bridge across the river, just for the walkers and bikes. There are bike lanes along both sides of the river in the city, as well.
@58: Yeah, we're not building horse lanes precisely because almost nobody drives a horse these days. We ARE building bike lanes because loads of people DO ride bikes; some 2013 statistics found that 10% of Seattleites biked at least several times a week, and another 20% biked occasionally. And that's in a city where only half the population has access to a bike! Despite what you may loudly and repeatedly say, there are plenty of people who ride bicycles!
I see you've got no response to what I said about bike registration, huh? Figures. You can't do much better than argumentum ad lapidem even on the best of days.
Guys, if u want to be fiscally responsible, bike to work. You're trapped in the confines of your own cars, and it's hitting you right in the wallet. 😄
Well, something very easily could be done: remove a lane of traffic and convert it to a buffered bike lane. You could even convert the superfluous third lane into a reversible-flow lane!
I understand that it wouldn't be popular, and would probably hurt some feelings, but it's not as if NOTHING can be done on the current bridge. Something could CERTAINLY be done. If you think this is too extreme an idea, consider that it's also entirely possible to shut the bridge down to cars entirely. So, there's always that!
Mostly, I'm looking out for the taxpayers. I would hate to have them pay for a huge infrastructure project that would cost millions and millions of dollars. Instead of that, we can just take a lane away from the cars and convert it to bike use!
Again, I understand that this would hurt people's feelings, which would really suck for them. Sorry.
It takes me 30 min from west Seattle to get downtown to my work and I dont have to sit in traffic, AND it's financially responsible-- that's a pretty awesome thing to get behind and support
I think that outs you as someone entirely non-observant of auto-related taxes, hard. You're not going to register a car in Seattle for less than $130 (my 18 year old car had $80 in Transportation Benefit District stuff, $30 in license fees, $10 in weight base fee, $5 in RTA tax, and $5 in service fees for the ferries). Gas tax just went up 7 "pennies on the gallon" so between the state and the feds it's 62.9 "pennies on the gallon" in tax. Next year, WA state is on track to be the 2nd highest state gas tax in the nation.... which is only acceptable because we've got the least regressive tax structure in the nation (oh wait...).
You're not even touching my larger point about people being stuck in their cars and a significant percent of road users not being properly accommodated. All for a car-centric culture
http://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?c…
(6) It is a gross misdemeanor for a resident, as identified in RCW 46.16A.140, to register a vehicle in another state, evading the payment of any tax or vehicle license fee imposed in connection with registration. It is punishable, in lieu of the fine in subsection (4) of this section, as follows:
(a) For a first offense:
(i) Up to three hundred sixty-four days in the county jail;
(ii) Payment of a fine of five hundred twenty-nine dollars plus any applicable assessments, which may not be suspended, deferred, or reduced. The fine of five hundred twenty-nine dollars must be deposited into the vehicle licensing fraud account created in the state treasury in RCW 46.68.250;
(iii) A fine of one thousand dollars to be deposited into the vehicle licensing fraud account created in the state treasury in RCW 46.68.250, which may not be suspended, deferred, or reduced; and
(iv) The delinquent taxes and fees, which must be deposited and distributed in the same manner as if the taxes and fees were properly paid in a timely fashion, and which may not be suspended, deferred, or reduced;
(b) For a second or subsequent offense:
(i) Up to three hundred sixty-four days in the county jail;
(ii) Payment of a fine of five hundred twenty-nine dollars plus any applicable assessments, which may not be suspended, deferred, or reduced. The fine of five hundred twenty-nine dollars must be deposited into the vehicle licensing fraud account created in the state treasury in RCW 46.68.250;
(iii) A fine of five thousand dollars to be deposited into the vehicle licensing fraud account created in the state treasury in RCW 46.68.250, which may not be suspended, deferred, or reduced; and
(iv) The amount of delinquent taxes and fees, which must be deposited and distributed in the same manner as if the taxes and fees were properly paid in a timely fashion, and which may not be suspended, deferred, or reduced.
What I do object to is this idea that people can trivially switch between the two regardless of their personal circumstances. It's easy to bike to work if you don't have anywhere else to go (or to take others to) and you happen to live and work within a short distance. Given the issues with housing and cuts in mass transit, many have to live outside of Seattle while working inside, and a bike isn't going to cut it with that sort of commute, and there isn't a bus that works. Add to the fact you have lots of jobs where schedules change or are extended at a moment's notice and transportation becomes even more difficult.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that regardless of your personal circumstances or mode of travel, maybe folks should stop assuming that what works for them works for everyone and quit being assholes to each other. We all have rent/mortgage to pay and we all need to get to work on time. A little civility and empathy goes a long, long way.
That bridge is 98 years old and will need to be replaced soon. Surely there are some reasonable fixes that would improve safety until a new bridge is built.
Dan, when is this happening? I'm down!
You gotta understand I am obese to a morbid extent, I've got nothing going on for me other than trolling on this website.
I love these posts from "Seattleblues", but troll SB is not able to form the possessive grammatical construction.
A few examples from his rich writing history...
etcetera, ad nauseum. And zero examples of doing it correctly.
And yes, SB, I'm "stalking" you. Or as I like to call it, "collecting evidence." Heheheheh. Feel like going away yet? Feel like fleeing into the comforting arms of your oppressed Black wife? Curious minds need to know.
But the travel lanes had lower speed limits then, and the drawspan didn't have hazardous steel grate decking.
The sidewalks are wide enough on the drawspan, where the decking makes the travel lanes hazardous for skinny-tired bicycles. It's the long approaches that have sidewalks only suitable for walking, and those lanes are paved well enough for bicycle use, as they were when the bridge was first built. The real hazard isn't the bridge, it's the drivers.
1. Reopen sidewalk access from the travel lanes to the sidewalks at the drawspan.
2. Lower the speed limit on the bridge approaches to 20 mph, and *enforce* it.
3. Use shared lane markings to encourage faster bicyclists to use the travel lanes where they're paved, and use the sidewalks on the drawspan if their tires are too narrow for safety on the steel grate.
4. If enough motorists are upset by driving at the safe speed of the existing bridge, let them find ways to fund a replacement bridge.