Bicycling to work, day 3: City councilmember gets an earful

West Seattle-residing City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen just wrote about Day 3 of bicycling to work (as part of the Walk/Bike/Ride Challenge) – 2 people showed up to join him (as did reporter Johnathon Fitzpatrick, a transportation bicyclist we’d assigned to cover this morning’s ride). Rasmussen writes that as they pedaled along, somebody swore at them – NOT a driver! Read about it here (and look for Johnathon’s story on WSB later). P.S. The councilmember won’t be riding tomorrow, but will on Friday, and you’re welcome again that day to join him, meeting up at 7 am at Weather Watch Park (4035 Beach Drive SW).

7 Replies to "Bicycling to work, day 3: City councilmember gets an earful"

  • JAT July 21, 2010 (10:47 am)

    I encourage interested cycle commuters to make the trip in with council-member Rasmussen on Friday. As for the rider who yelled, those of us riding along toward the back of what’s sometimes called a “bike bus” as he passed us agreed that if you need to ride that fast (and I usually do…) you should probably be riding on the road rather than on a bike/pedestrian mixed use path with the leashed dogs and babies in strollers.

  • I. Ponder July 21, 2010 (11:05 am)

    I clicked on links to see what the circumstances of the “altercation” were, but I see nothing. If it’s worth mentioning, surely it’s worth explaining.
    Thanks!

  • sam July 21, 2010 (11:13 am)

    I clicked on the link, and what I thought was worth mentioning….I didn’t realize that a freelance reporter for the West Seattle Blog was from Edmonds. I guess I assumed written reports were by people from West Seattle.

    • WSB July 21, 2010 (11:20 am)

      Johnathon’s specialty has been Seattle City Hall. He has only covered a few things for us but knowing that he is a transportation bicyclist, I asked him to take this one on. The people who write regularly for us are West Seattleites, although honestly, if I came across an amazingly talented person who lived somewhere else but did a great job of covering stories, I wouldn’t rule her/him out on residency. In 30 years of media, I have often worked with people who did not live in the communities they covered for a living. I don’t believe you could run a news organization this way without living and working in the community as we do, but in terms of bringing in a freelancer every so often, I don’t believe the fact Johnathon doesn’t live in West Seattle will be an impediment to the story. – TR

  • JAT July 21, 2010 (1:07 pm)

    “Altercation” – the view from the back:

    The six of us met up at Weather Watch Park and made our way north to the buffered bike lane along Alki. While on the streets Tom Rasmussen recommended riding single file so as to make it easier for autos to pass (which is considerate but not a legal requirement, by the way). Once on the trail we formed into a two-abreast group with Tom leading the way and generally circulating so as to talk with each-other. We were probably riding along around 12 – 14 mph. At 59th Ave SW the buffered bike lane moves up to a curb-separated position from the road and, though at grade with, is separated from the pedestrian path by a strip of hedges and grass with benches.

    at about the 1100 block of Alki the separation between pedestrian and bike paths stops, creating a mixed use path (bored yet? these distinctions are what transportation cyclists think about all the time) In reality the mode separation between cyclists and pedestrians is fairly informal all the way from 59th SW.

    So we’re poodling along at 12 – 14 mph and occasionally a faster rider would approach from behind, we’d squeeze together a little and they’d pass us. Fairly near the 1100 block transition to a fully mixed use path an man came up behind us calling loudly “On your left, on your left!” and when he got up to where Tom and the rider he was talking to at that point were he yelled “On your left!” directly at Tom and as he passed turned back to yell something else which I didn’t hear from my position at the rear of our group but which is reported to be an expletive of a sphintery nature.

    The yelling man proceeded to cycle away at 19 mph (I’d call it 20, but that’s giving him too much credit…)

    I guess he thought we were holding up traffic (on the bike path). That’s what people who yell that word at cyclists usually seem to think.

  • Kelly July 21, 2010 (2:53 pm)

    And that qualifies as an earful? As cyclists and trail users know, that kind of poor behavior (from a man wearing spandex with logos on it, no doubt) is hardly news.

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