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August 12, 2008 at 12:55 am #587749
WSMomParticipantI’m just wondering if anyone else out there dreams about a bike pathway, separated and safe from car traffic, added to the plan for the viaduct replacement? Wouldn’t it be exciting and innovative if the City of Seattle led our country in developing “bikeways”, like freeways but devoted to bicycles, so we could safely ride our bikes downtown, to U of W and to the airport?
What do you think of this idea? Would you be willing to ride a bike if you felt safe from car traffic? Would you be willing to pay for it with tax increases?
August 12, 2008 at 1:12 am #633965
JulieMemberYES!!! I drool over the solutions from Copenhagen and similarly enlightened (mostly European) cities noted by Alan Durning of the Sightline Institute in his “Bicycle Neglect” series:
I’m not willing to pit my comparatively fragile human body against behemoths driven by cell-phone users–or even SmartCars driven by attentive drivers. It’s not a fair contest.
And for people who think we can’t do bikes here in Seattle because of the hills, I’d point out there are hybrid electric bikes that can give a boost to those of us not athletic enough to get up the hills.
I’d pay in a heartbeat for real, separated, safe bikeways. “Sharrows” reassure me not one bit.
August 12, 2008 at 1:26 am #633966
WSBKeymasterI have to refresh my memory but there is a bicycle path plan in the south-end replacement project – will post the urls when I go dig them up. It sounded fairly secure. – TR
August 12, 2008 at 1:34 am #633967
CountingCoupMemberGreat post! Seattle does have a plan for extending our current bike lanes and some paths but I agree, how about some true commuter devoted bike paths (and not just painted road lanes) across all of the low lying geography across Seattle?
For proposed bike plans for the city, see:
August 12, 2008 at 1:35 am #633968
JoBParticipantyes.. yes.. yes…
i can’t ride much anymore, but i would gladly pay to give others the opportunity.
August 12, 2008 at 3:45 am #633969
HPMemberjust from reading all the cyclist vs driver vs peds and all of the issues i second joB yes yes.. yes and i dont ride either (yet)
August 12, 2008 at 3:46 am #633970
WSMomParticipantJulie:
Thank you for this link! Makes me want to visit Copenhagen!! Interestingly, the U of W researcher who created wrote the report mentions the Seattle Viaduct at the end of her presentation.
August 12, 2008 at 11:00 pm #633971
JulieMemberTR, I’m not seeing any specific separated bike path planned for West Seattle–all I’m seeing is shared roadways, climbing lanes, and sharrows. These parts of the plan may indeed be helpful to some kinds of bicyclists (although I’m dubious about the sharrows), but they’re not at all what WSMom is talking about.
Can you point to something I’m missing?
August 13, 2008 at 8:04 pm #633972
CountingCoupMemberI never said the proposed Seattle City Bike Project was anything like what WSMom was talking about. In fact I wish it were.
The link for our cities project is what we currently have in place for bike plans here thats all.
August 14, 2008 at 5:42 pm #633973
JulieMemberCountingCoup, I did understand that you weren’t saying the Bike Project was like the separate paths WSMom was wishing for. My comment was directed at TR, because I was hoping she knew about something I didn’t. If there’s any such possibility, I want to know about it so I can support it!
(BTW, I also support the city bike plans (with reservations about whether sharrows might be a waste of money), however inadequate. Perfection is the enemy of the good.)
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