Home › Forums › West Seattle Rants & Raves › Car Free Day —May31 2009
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March 21, 2009 at 3:04 am #590164
TamsbugMemberI’m sorry but car free days are a real pain for the people who live on Alki and some of the food places down on the beach sent their employees home the last car free day we had on Alki because of no business.
Another thing with the economy so bad we should be using the city money to fix the major pot holes in the streets not paying overtime to police for car free day. The last Car Free Day the Police Overtime was $22,000.00 paid by the City. I would much rather have the street fixed! Sorry that is how I feel.
March 21, 2009 at 4:19 am #661251
WSBKeymasterLast night at the Alki Community Council’s monthly meeting, it was mentioned again that community volunteers are being sought to staff roadblocks etc. so that police overtime will be lessened.
summer.streets@seattle.gov for anyone interested in helping.
The event is longer this year because of the first-ever West Seattle 5K to raise money for local schools:
March 21, 2009 at 5:06 am #661252
IrukandjiParticipantRemind me, do the buses in WS run on plain ol’ Sunday Time when doing this event? With only one bus an hour to 1.5 hours, there’s little encouragement to head down there. Last time we tried to get a Sunday bus we arrived 10 min. prior to scheduled stop and waited 305 minutes before giving up and walking home to get the car to go somewhere else.
March 21, 2009 at 5:27 am #661253
herongrrrlParticipantGood point. Most of Alki doesn’t get any bus service at all on Sundays, because the 37/53 doesn’t run.
Last fall on car-free day, I waited an hour at California and Admiral for a 56 to take me to Alki. I finally took the water taxi shuttle down. It was PACKED with people waiting for the regularly scheduled 56, which never showed. If they’re going to continue to do car-free days, there needs to be adequate public transportation to get to/from the areas in question. In theory I support the idea of car-free times and places, but in practice it seems like there are a lot of kinks that need to be worked out.
March 21, 2009 at 5:29 am #661254
IrukandjiParticipantherongrrl, we were, perhaps, waiting for the same damned invisible bus!
March 21, 2009 at 5:37 am #661255
ErikParticipantThe only place that was car-free was Alki Ave. from 63rd to California.
Admiral was free to drive down, no need to wait for a bus.
March 21, 2009 at 4:28 pm #661256
BonnieParticipantI think I will avoid Alki on that day.
March 22, 2009 at 12:38 am #661257
TamsbugMemberI think it is great they are having a 5k run to raise money for West Seattle High School. But we have had many 5k runs down Alki/Harbor Ave that started at 6 am or 7am and ended around 11am and no they never shut down the whole street.
The bus service for Alki use to be great years ago now it is nothing.
March 22, 2009 at 11:10 pm #661258
TamsbugMemberAlso, if they have to have this Car Free Day Again I hope the volenteers understand that the lane on the residential side is not closed to traffic. The mayors office leaves it open for the residents to come and go.
March 23, 2009 at 4:55 pm #661259
JoBParticipantI agree that car free day on Alki would be far more successful if there was adequate public transportation provided… it places too large a burden on the neighborhood when everyone tries to drive their cars to the nearest possible access point so they can easily walk in with their coolers.
Continuously running shuttles would easily move people up and down beach drive.. making those businesses dependent on tourist dollars more accessible than they are now.
The idea of a car free day is a good one.. but as usual, adequate planning seems to be lacking…
As for those who live there… it’s one day. How difficult should it be for you to plan to accommodate one day’s inconvenience?
April 6, 2009 at 6:25 pm #661260
TamsbugMemberI do agree with you on the the Water Taxi Shuttles that would be great. As far as inconvenience yes it is big time. When you have a parent that goes to church and would like to go home yes it is very easy.
Every time we turn around down here they are raising our property taxes for some reason and Im sorry but Car Free Days are a big waste of Tax payers dollers when other things really need fixing. Let the Mayor Nichols have Car Free Day on his oown street!
April 6, 2009 at 6:34 pm #661261
austinMemberI had a car free day on alki yesterday. Made better time on foot than the one million people trying to drive their cars. My favorites were the ones who play their music really really loud while stuck in traffic- How fun must that be! Go humans go. :/
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