Construction at 7th and Pine has displaced Pronto Cycle Share’s fifth most popular station. You can now find it at 7th and Union in front of ACT Theatre.

While this move does put the station a little closer to the convention center, it moves it two blocks further from Westlake Station. Previously, it was the closest Pronto station to Westlake.

A month ago, Pronto moved Sher Kung Memorial Station at 2nd and University to 2nd and Spring at request of the Garden of Remembrance Board. This move added two extra blocks of walking from University Street Station.

While both of these moves have legitimate reasons, the city and Pronto need to make sure these major transit connections are as strong as possible. That’s why this tweet from Seattle Transit Blog is spot on:

I would love to see the @SeattleParks department would let @CyclePronto set up a station right in Westlake. cc @zachshan

— Seattle Transit Blog (@SeaTransitBlog) March 4, 2015

Westlake Park (or Westlake Center’s plaza) is the perfect place for a Pronto station. It connects to both the transit tunnel and mayor Sound Transit buses, as well as being the closest thing Seattle has to a town square. I would bet a station here would immediately become the most popular station in the city.

But Seattle Parks has so far been resistant to citing Pronto stations in parks, a policy that needs to change.

In other Pronto station news, the return of the displaced station at Pine and Bellevue has been delayed again for “several more weeks.” I know Pronto was not expecting the station to be closed for this long, but it would be great if there were a policy in place to move stations to temporary locations nearby rather than remove them entirely. This station is pretty vital to connecting the downtown and Capitol Hill service areas, and the two closest stations are up or down significant hills.

#WomenWhoBike

This is a reminder that the #WomenWhoBike ride is today (Thursday). Meet at 7th and Bell by 5:30 p.m. to join these Seattle area bike leaders on a ride to City Hall:

Sally Bagshaw – Councilmember, City of Seattle

Madeleine Carlson – Ride Leader, Seattle Critical Lass & Seattle Kidical Mass

Barb Chamberlain – Executive Director, Washington Bikes

Monica Dewald – Senior Civil Engineering Specialist, SDOT

Holly Houser – Executive Director, Pronto Cycle Share

Liz Jose – Adult Programs Manager, Bike Works

Gina Kavesh – President, Washington Bicycle Racing Association (WSBA)

Elizabeth Kiker – Executive Director, Cascade Bicycle Club

Phyllis Porter – Outreach Coordinator & Events Specialist, Bike Works

Merlin Rainwater – Board Member, Various

Robin Randels – Community Connections Advocate, Cascade Bicycle Club

Kelli Refer – Field Programs Coordinator, Cascade Bicycle Club

Rebecca Roush – Bicycle Program Coordinator, Sound Transit

Dawn Schellenberg – Traffic Management, SDOT

Ann Sutphin – Travel Options Lead, SDOT

Cathy Tuttle – Executive Director, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways

Jessica Szelag – Executive Director, Commute Seattle

Taldi Walter – Community Affairs Program Manager, REI

Sam Woods – Multimodal Program & Project Development Manager, SDOT