Comments

1. ODB

   February 18, 2012

   In the excellent Publicola article on the waterfront design, the proposed bike facility is described as “an attractive corridor to move north-south during commute times” but similar to Greenlake and Alki during days and weekends. (Also, not a “bike highway” and very different from the Burke-Gilman.) Query how this temporal division between commute and non-commute times is going to work in practice? Greenlake is not really a very functional path for bicycling at commuting speeds, but it also has bike lanes on adjacent streets as an alternative. The editor’s note mentions that a separate cycle track is under consideration. It seems to me that a cycle track or bike lanes may be needed to minimize user conflict and maintain the waterfront as a viable bike commuter corridor.

   Here is the relevant part of the article:

   PubliCola: Looking at the drawings of the shared bike/pedestrian trail in your presentation, it seemed that bikes and pedestrians would interact at an awful lot of intersections. How does this plan keep cyclists from running into pedestrians? [Ed. note: Foster explained Wednesday night that the city is still looking at a lot of design options, including a separated cycletrack, for the bike facility, but that it would definitely be on the west side of the waterfront, eliminating the need for bikes to cross an intersection every block.]

   Foster: It’s definitely a concern. We think there are some great design solutions that keep that from happening. The main thing is, this is not going to be designed as a bike highway. You’re going to have a shared-use bike facility on the waterfront. It’s going to feel very different from the Burke-Gilman Trail. It will be a bike facility, out of traffic, that will be an attractive corridor to move north-south during commute times. During the days and weekends it’ll be more like Green Lake. That’s a mixed space, with bikers, pedestrians, and rollerbladers. That’s also how Alki works today. It’s kind of self-regulating. It needs to be separated but porous. People are going to be walking across the bike path.

   1. Gary

      February 20, 2012

      Not a “bicycle highway?” yet “an attractive corridor to move north-south during commute times” This guy obviously doesn’t do a bicycle commute.

      There is no way I’m going to ride through a bunch of tourists at commute speed, it would be like bowling for tourists. And if I can’t ride two miles at speed, I’m going to pick an alternative route. Which means as a cycle track it’s use will be low, and all the bicycle haters will point to the cost and say, “See no one uses what we build, why build more of this stuff..” to which I’d reply “EXACTLY” but they’d miss my point which is don’t build me a “Green Lake trail” and expect me to commute on it.

2. Gary

   February 20, 2012

   Why don’t these nut cases wear elbow and hip pads? I see a few knee pads, but if my chances of falling on the pave were as good as these guys are, I’d want something besides my skin to hit first.