(Course map, from Emerald City Ride website)
The westbound West Seattle Bridge will be briefly bicycles-only one morning in May as part of the Cascade Bicycle Club‘s Emerald City Ride. This big in-city ride is returning this year for the first time since pre-pandemic 2019. It usually includes a stretch of major highway infrastructure – past examples have included the Highway 520 floating bridge and I-5 express lanes – and this year for the first time, that’ll be the high bridge. This is set for Sunday, May 5th, a 20-mile route that starts (at 7 am) and ends in the SODO Stadium District, outbound over the West Seattle Bridge and around Alki, to Fauntleroy, through Delridge, then returning over the low bridge. (See the course map here.)
We just talked to Cascade’s executive director Lee Lambert and media-relations manager Paul Tolmé about the ride plan. On the morning of the ride, they’ll close the bridge, plus southbound 99 from the stadium zone to the bridge onramp, from starting at 5:30. Riders start at 7, in waves, and bridge access closes at 8; all riders have to be off the bridge by 9, and the bridge will reopen by 9:30. Those are the only road closures – once off the bridge, Lambert says, it’s “rules of the road,” though he notes, “There’ll be a LOT of bicycles.” How many? Tolmé says they’re expecting at least 2,000 riders; Lambert says they’re capped at 4,000. In addition to the full 20-mile route, there’ll be shorter options, too, 7 to 10 miles. Registration opens next Tuesday (March 12) at 10 am.
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