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Bike Master Plan Draft 2: West Seattle, Duwamish Valley, Queen Anne, Interbay and Magnolia

The last day to comment on the second draft of the Bicycle Master Plan is Friday (today!). Email your comments to [email protected].

This post is a continuation of a series investigating some of changes in the newest draft of the Bike Master Plan.

In general, the updated Bike Master Plan includes a lot of bold and smart projects. We noted many in our analysis of the first draft. This post focuses mainly on the changes between drafts.


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West Seattle

Blue=Protected bike lane. Green=Neighborhood Greenway. Red=Trail. Download full plan and map here
Blue=Protected bike lane. Green=Neighborhood Greenway. Red=Trail. Download full plan and map here

The plan for West Seattle has not changed much from the first draft (so we don’t have a whole lot more to add).

As we noted in our first look at plans for the neighborhood, because of West Seattle’s geography and disconnected street grid, there are not a whole lot of options for safe bike and connected bike routes in West Seattle that don’t involve protected bike lanes on busy streets. Which is exactly what the plan calls for.

Connections to bridges and ferries is also still a key focus of the plan, which is smart for a neighborhood that has few points of access to other parts of the city and region.

There is probably an opportunity for a neighborhood greenway connection north of Fauntleroy in the 36th/37th Ave SW area.

South Park and Georgetown

There needs to be a connection of some kind between Airport Way/Lucile where the Beacon Hill Neighborhood Greenway starts to the west side of Georgetown Playfield. Corson Ave S is pretty miserable today, but there seems like there much be a good connection option either on-street or through the playfield in some way (trail?).

South Park has several good options for neighborhood greenways to connect homes to the 14th Ave S business district.

The plans for connecting to Concord International School are good, and could easily plug into a neighborhood greenway route on the east side of 99.

Magnolia, Interbay and Queen Anne

Seattle BMP Master Map-qaLet’s start at the Ballard Locks. For one, it is missing from the map. While there is likely very little the plan can actually do about the design of the walkways through the Locks, I think it is definitely worth noting a desire for the walkway to be a 24-hour crossing. Obviously, this involves negotiating with the Army Corps of Engineers, but it’s a worthy goal to keep working towards.

W Commodore Way in front of the Locks entrance could also use a bike facility of some kind.

Gilman Ave from Magnolia to the Elliott Bay Trail has been upgraded to a protected bikeway in this draft, which is a fantastic project we suggested in our look at the first draft. This would help create a family-friendly connection between one of the final gaps between the Ship Canal Trail to the Elliott Bay Trail.

The plan still includes a bikeway of some kind over the Ballard Bridge, but it also includes a crossing at 3rd Ave NW. This is a possible location for a new Ship Canal Crossing tied to in-process plans for high speed transit to Ballard.

Let’s not forget about the Aurora Bridge. Some relatively small investments (especially on the exit on Queen Anne connecting to Raye St) could go a long way to increasing connectivity and safety between Queen Anne/Top of Dexter to upper Fremont and Wallingford. Today, it’s already way safer than the Ballard Bridge (though, of course, that’s a really low bar).

Some people might argue with me here, but I think a climbing lane up the counterbalance on Queen Anne Ave would be awesome. It’s a damn hard hill, but also pretty cool if you can make it. The plan includes so few options up Queen Anne, that it might as well embrace the idea that some people will go ahead and just try taking the most direct route (how cool would it be to have a bike route sign at Queen Anne Ave/Roy that says: “^ The Hard Way. > The Easier Way.”

Any other notes to add about these areas? Let us know in the comments below.


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5 responses to “Bike Master Plan Draft 2: West Seattle, Duwamish Valley, Queen Anne, Interbay and Magnolia”

  1. stevesliva

    Oddly a bike path from Roy through Lower Kinnear Park isn’t there. FOLKpark folks have been pushing that, and it’s a good idea. They envision it going as far as W Prospect to cross over to the helix bridge. It could honestly go farther along the Van Buren Ave W right-of-way (if it’s not vacated to the businesses along Elliot) all the way to the westbound Magnolia bridge approach and perhaps farther north along 14th Ave W right-of-way.

    Also, I mentioned in the downtown post, greenways that include stairs are misleading on this biking master plan. Galer St. greenway in QA is predominantly stairs.

    Nickerson to 14th Ave is the easy way to get up QA. Good to see that on there.

    1. stevesliva

      Odd, they dropped the Lower Kinnear Park path since the first draft, but I see they envision a bike path over the Magnolia Bridge (replacement?) that could connect directly to Roy St through the Van Buren Ave W right-of-way and Lower Kinnear. Magnolia to SLU would be pretty nice that way.

  2. biliruben

    I rode up onto Aurora to catch a bus north at 45th the other day. I missed it, so I figured I’d just peddle north on the sidewalk, cross the last bridge and ride north on the West side of 99 and connect to the interurban, right? Wrong.

    When you are on Aurora, there is no escape. You are fenced in until you get to Greenlake. That has to be an easy fix.

    1. Breadbaker

      I rather doubt there’s an easy fix; that’s the zoo.

  3. AiliL

    West Seattle Bike Connections gave SDOT a detailed review of the BMP along with a Report Card review: http://westseattlebikeconnections.org/2013/07/23/bike-master-plan-update-comments-deadline/

    We hope to get snippets of the full report published within the next day or two.

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