West Seattle traffic alert: Bike-trail work to run 3 days

SDOT sends word that the bike-trail work by the “low bridge” will run one extra day – so now it’s continuing 7:30 am-3 pm daily through Wednesday. A reminder for both bike riders and motorized-vehicle users: “Bicyclists will slow down and follow a very brief signed detour at the lower West Seattle Swing Bridge on 11th Ave SW on Harbor Island. To accommodate the landscape workers, vehicle traffic will be reduced to one lane westbound on SW Spokane Street and one lane eastbound on Klickitat Avenue SW in the vicinity of 11th Avenue on Harbor Island.”

12 Replies to "West Seattle traffic alert: Bike-trail work to run 3 days"

  • I. Ponder June 18, 2012 (2:59 pm)

    I’m wondering if improved signage is part of this project. It’s needed and was promised months back.

  • Question June 18, 2012 (3:43 pm)

    I’m wondering if they can take the money and fill some potholes instead

  • I. Ponder June 18, 2012 (5:50 pm)

    I accidentally ran my bike into a pothole on East Marginal Way a few days ago and almost went down. I ride a bike and drive a car. I pay property taxes and vote. I’m disgusted with anti-bike trolls, who think making streets and paths safer for bikes and pedestrians is a poor use of funds. I doubt they’d enjoy sitting in traffic behind my car instead. When I use my bike for commuting, it makes their car commute faster and reduces demand on gasoline.

    • WSB June 18, 2012 (6:21 pm)

      SDOT contact couldn’t get the answer about the signage today, though she doesn’t think so – but will check tomorrow.

  • Al June 19, 2012 (8:58 am)

    I. Ponder, do you mean this signage update?
    http://seattlelikesbikes.org/wordpress/?p=1282

    I think SDOT thinks it’s good, but it’s still not very helpful if you don’t already know your way by bicycle…

  • JAT June 19, 2012 (9:43 am)

    I agree Al, (and I hate that under the bridge loop-di-loop – Dark turning two-way bike traffic on a path no wider than a city sidewalk with pedestrians – can’t possibly be up to engineering standards… but anyway)

    the signage, while improved, is not really helpful unless you have a pretty good idea where you’re already going.

  • dbsea June 19, 2012 (11:30 am)

    Has anyone taken this temporary detour route?
    Any comments on it? Doesn’t look like it’d be too much a detour off the usual route.

  • I. Ponder June 19, 2012 (12:40 pm)

    Al: Thanks for posting that link. I was hoping that wasn’t the end result of what I lobbied for after the runner was run over. But it is. What I think is not intuitive is that the path LOOPS. Sign with straight arrow doesn’t clue clueless cyclists. Signage should be easily understood by perceptually challenged and lost people. It’s visually unclear that the path loops under the bridge. What they did may be sensible, but it’s still unclear. I continue to see people who are lost and not illuminated by the signage. Time to get out the spray paint. Gave city process a chance and the outcome was less than mediocre.

    • WSB June 19, 2012 (4:21 pm)

      Before the link and followup discussion here, I asked SDOT about the signage. Peg Nielsen replied today: “As I expected, the crews working on the bike trail are just working on the landscaping. So I checked with our Bicycle program folks about the promised signs. They tell me that the signage improvement that we committed to late last year has been installed. We added quite a few signs and then we had someone new to the route ride it and that person had no problems. We could look into the situation if you could provide a very specific location.” (I will point Peg to this thread – which seems to qualify as “very specific” …) – TR

  • JN June 19, 2012 (6:35 pm)

    I’ve been looking for the detour, but there are no signs and no one has directed me off the path yet (while the workers are there, btw). Am I missing something here?

  • I. Ponder June 20, 2012 (12:14 am)

    I just rode through there tonight going both ways and thought about the improvements. I ride that way all the time and I didn’t have any problems. Like duh! Put yourself in the shoes of someone who is unsure and perhaps even safety conscious about heading toward the foot of a bridge and I think that’d be a different perspective.

    Heading west, one arrow sign points at a diagonal toward the right. To me it indicates I should cross the street (which you shouldn’t). That arrow should be straight up, indicating go straight ahead.

    What would be very helpful is a wayfinder sign indicating the U-turn that the path will be taking. This should be placed at the decision point (the point at which people scratch their heads). You know how on winding mountain roads they warn you in advance about how the road will be curving? You need more than straight arrow signs to do that, right?

    The signage that was installed is better than nothing, but is still not as effective as it could be. The bike symbols painted on the sidewalk are a plus.

    That the path loops under the bridge may not be intuitive for MANY people. I’m not saying this point is safety critical. I am saying that since it was addressed as a project, I’m giving it a ‘C-‘ grade for implementation.

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