DP
I stand corrected about the SW Admiral Way configuration. Sorry for not fact-checking that first. (D’oh!)
I’m a bicyclist too, and I hate sharing busy streets with cars in any fashion. (“Sharerows” are the worst!) However, I would gladly abandon all the arterials to the cars in exchange for a citywide grid of standalone bike trails.
Most of the trails we have now (Alki, Duwamish, Green River) are scenic trails, not commuting trails, and they’re not even continuous. To connect from the west end of Alki to Lincoln Park, for example, you have to travel on one of the narrowest, most parked-on residential streets in Seattle (Beach Drive SW). It’s the same only worse going the other direction. To get from Alki to Duwamish, you have to go over some of the meanest of the mean streets in South Park.
To me, it seems like SDOT and McGinn are doing this for the sake of appearance more than substance. It’s a quota system that hurts motorists but doesn’t help bicyclists.
Austin, as a serious bike person, how do you stand on this? Would you rather have lots of sharerows and bike lanes up 8% hills? Or would you rather have the equivalent of a Burke-Gilman trail running around Alki, through the Junction, and going on downtown?
(Or would you rather have a kayak channel?)