The photo’s from Don Brubeck, president of West Seattle Bike Connections, which mustered more than half a dozen volunteers this weekend to “widen” the bike trail this along Spokane St. east of Avalon/Harbor by cutting back blackberry tangles and other weeds. If you commute by bike, you’ll see their work tomorrow.
So great to see grass roots action. Not waiting for the county or some other “they” to do it. This was a hazard point with potential for bicycle-bicycle and bicycle-pedestrian crashes.
You all are very welcome, it was our pleasure. We, as a group, ride this route daily and know first-hand how bad/dangerous it was getting.
We also did this last year and will continue the tradition for as long as necessary.
A special THANK YOU to Martin and Rose to are not part of our group but responded to one of the fliers we hung along the trail (last of them to be removed this evening as I return home from work) and came to help. Their 2-extra sets of hands REALLY HELPED in cutting down the amount of time it took to complete the work, about 2 1/2 hours in total.
It sure was nice riding to work this morning and not having to dodge, bob & weave my way around that corner with the hopes of no one having to do the same thing on the other side.
Ride on, and ride safely!!!!
WOW!!!!
Thank you for doing this!!! Go West Seattle Bikers and the like!
Thanks you. You beat me to the draw, though. I cleared out this area a couple of years ago and it held “fine” for a couple of seasons. About a month ago I noticed the blackberries were encroaching into the bicycle path again and I was thinking about cutting back the blackberries for a second time. This is work actually the responsibility of the Washington State Department of Transportation, but they don’t seem to know it. Again, thanks to all who did the work!
I’ve actually had good response from the City of Seattle on Vegetation issues by filling out a “Request a City Service Form” It usually works in a week or two. See the link and pick “Overgrown Vegetation”
https://seattle-p1csrprodcwi.motorolasolutions.com/ServiceRequest.mvc/SRIntake
Bill, glad to know have others also have been involved in helping get these bushes under control. For this time round, I made sure to cut as many stalks down below this time, to lessen the growth. We also managed to expose one of the street signs for either straight/left, or right. It was so obscured. We’d hope that might help drivers actually pick the right lanes before last minute cutting each other off to get to the correct lane! (that said, during the 2 1/2 hours we still heard plenty of horns).
Lot of vegetation there, hopefully it will stay down longer this time.
it is a phenomenal improvement, appreciated this morning .. and every other day after. I noticed that the park people were trimming down at the other end near the bus stop. wonder if they took the hint? :)
I love seeing people roll up their sleeves and make things better. Thank you!
Way to go folks, nice to see people take action rather than asking for a handout.
Thanks, Don – appreciate all of your hard work to help WS become more bike friendly! I have another recommended spot, not sure WSBC could tackle it, or if it would need to be SDOT, but someone should – it’s the sketchiest spot on my commute to/from downtown every day, and afraid someone will get seriously hurt there some day. The location I mean is the east side of Delridge, just north of SW Charlestown Street – it’s especially dangerous if you’re heading west from the Spokane Street bridge and curving to the south to go along Delridge. The path is narrow and the visibility is poor there and if someone were to have to swerve to avoid a northbound traveling cyclist or pedestrian, I could easily see them losing control and being forced out into the northbound car Delridge lanes – going the wrong direction into head on traffic – not a recipe for fun! Anyway, I am always hyper alert going through that section – SDOT did some clearing there within the last 6 months, and it helped some, but still needs more help. Anyway, keep up the good work!
Isn’t it the property owner’s responsibility to keep their vegetation from encroaching on public sidewalks and trails, and the public’s responsibility to keep the city informed of violations so that they can enforce this?
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