bikeseattle.org

A transportation comparison depicting how many cars, bus, and bikes to transport a few people.
Photo credits: Münster, Germany, Press Office

A friend of mine put a deposit on a Smart car this weekend, so I’ve been looking around online to see what it’s all about.

Turns out starting early next year, Smart cars are going to be officially available to the US market for the first time (non gray market that is). My thought here, is if you don’t want to give up the car, or need a good city/commuter car, why not one of these?

They have a $99 refundable waiting list, start at $11,590, and supposedly get over 40 mpg.

From Cascade Bicycle Club:

With a unanimous vote the Seattle City Council today passed the Seattle Bicycle Master Plan (BMP) — a comprehensive roadmap toward a more bicycle-friendly city. The BMP proposes a network of bikeways to help Seattle bicyclists travel more safely and easily, including bicycle lanes, shared lanes, signed bike routes, and bicycle boulevards. Altogether, the BMP calls for over 450 miles of new bicycle facilities to be installed over the next 10 years.

Time to get out and vote. One of the bigger ticket items (bicycle related) on this November’s ballot is Proposition No. 1

To reduce transportation congestion, increase road and transit capacity, promote safety, facilitate mobility, provide for an integrated regional transportation system, and improve the health, welfare, and safety of the citizens of Washington, shall Sound Transit (a regional transit authority) implement a regional rail and transit system linking Lynnwood, Shoreline, Northgate, Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, SeaTac airport, Kent, Federal Way and Tacoma as described in the Sound Transit 2 plan,

The Roads & Transit package integrates the Sound Transit 2 plan for transit investments and RTID’s Blueprint for Progress, which details investments in state highways, bridges and local roads in three counties.

Purposes of the Roads & Transit Plan

• Prepare for the projected 1.2 million additional people who will be living and working in the region by 2030
• Move more people faster through the region’s most congested corridors
• Meet the public’s call for an improved and well-maintained road system as well as a fast and reliable mass transit system
• Connect many of the region’s population and employment hubs with light rail, transit and improved highways
• Provide more transportation choices

(taken from RTID.org)

For reference, here is what the Bicycle Alliance of Washington and Cascade Bicycle Club have to say about it.

update: More local opinions

• Seattle Transit blog
• The Stranger
• Metroblogging in Seattle

The Seattle PI reports

A West Seattle bicyclist is recuperating after someone shot him with a BB gun late Thursday on his regular commute home in what appears to be a random attack.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Mark Thomas, a friend of the victim. “It feels like it’s an assault on cyclists everywhere.”

The BB pellets hit Peter McKay, 46, with such impact that one penetrated his left lung, releasing air into his chest cavity, and the second just missed his aorta and spinal cord.

McKay first described the incident on his personal blog, where he noted that the “damage could have been much worse.”

Man, what the hell? Isn’t it enough to deal with dark, rainy traffic? So glad it wasn’t worse Peter, and heal quick! (here’s his personal account of the incident).

The NWDF Seattle Cultural Center is hosting Danish National cyclo-cross champion Joachim Parbo this Friday from 7-9pm.

You will hear Joachim talk about the various aspects of racing including:

· Enjoying a life filled with pain and sports?
· Pain as your training partner?
· Traveling, training and food
· Working with press and sponsors
· What happened in Denmark with Bjarne Riis confessing doping and Michael Rasmussen getting kicked out of the Tour de France?
· Bike Show & Tell. See the $6,000 top level, lightweight race bike used by Parbo.

Seattle Cultural Center - 1833 North 105th Street Suite 205 Seattle , WA 98133 [google maps]

The seattlelikesbikes group is organizing a second ride for Stone Way today. Here are the details from their site. Hope you can make it out.

4:30pm Meet up at Gas Works Park. 5-6pm Ride!

Two months ago, on August 1st, hundreds of cyclists rode to protest the removal of a planned bike lane on Stone Way and the extended closure of the popular Fremont segment of the Burke-Gilman trail.

Two months have passed and NOTHING has changed!

The City has broken their August promise to reopen the Fremont segment of the Burke-Gilman Trail. The City’s reassurances that their “sharrows” on Stone Way were a safe alternative to the originally planned bike lane don’t ring true.

In early October, the Seattle City Council is planning to finalize this unacceptable, compromised Stone Way situation in the new Bicycle Master Plan. We ride to hold the Mayor and City Council accountable to the original promises made to cyclists, to make Seattle a safer, more welcoming city for cyclists.

Trier, like a lot of misinformed folks, seems to believe the only road taxes we pay are motor vehicle licensing fees and fuel taxes. But the truth is that those fees largely pay for state and federal highways, and even then only a portion of them. The rest of the costs of those roadways are borne by all taxpayers generally, including bicyclists, through local, property and sales taxes. Local roads, where you find most cyclists, are another story altogether.

Full Seattle PI article

Whose Roads? - by Todd Litman (1994)

Quick reminder that the Colonnade Novice area grand opening party is today from 10am-2pm.

Not the way to be starting the weekend, but I’m just reading that a cyclist was killed late yesterday afternoon. My deepest condolences to his family for their loss.

One bicyclist was killed and another was injured Friday afternoon in a collision with a dump truck in the city’s Eastlake neighborhood.

Two men in their 20s were apparently riding north on Eastlake Avenue toward the University Bridge when a dump truck making a right turn onto Fuhrman Avenue East crashed into both of them around 3 p.m.

Police said the two men got pinned under the dump truck and were dragged for several feet.

– Full KOMO article

Additional coverage from the Seattle PI , NW Cable news, and King 5

update:
The cyclist has been identified as a 19 year old from Colorado.

The driver turned into Lewis and another bicyclist, they added. The second rider, a 19-year-old man, suffered minor cuts and abrasions.

The bike riders recently had moved from Colorado, a Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman has said. They were not wearing helmets, she added.

Seattle police did not cite the truck driver.

–Bicyclist killed Friday is identified