— Advertisement —

Bike News Roundup: A dangerous rail crossing. No not that one.

It’s time for the Bike News Roundup!

First up, University of Tennessee Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Chris Cherry and graduate students Ziwen Ling and Nirbesh Dhakal recently documented a ton of bike crashes at a single railroad crossing (hmm, this reminds me of a certain “missing” trail in Ballard…). Not only did they publish their findings, they also put together this video:


— Advertisement —


Pacific Northwest News

National & Global News

Halftime show! Vox recently interviewed Donald Shoup for a quick reminder that land use rules in most of America require free homes for cars even while homes for people get more and more expensive:

This is an open thread.


About the author:


Related posts:

Comments

10 responses to “Bike News Roundup: A dangerous rail crossing. No not that one.”

  1. Matthew Snyder

    SDOT recently started construction on the new Rainier Valley North-South Neighborhood Greenway. The alignment changed a few times during the planning process, but the final alignment has the greenway running along Renton Ave S heading north from Orcas towards Columbia City.

    A portion of that segment of Renton Ave S (from Orcas to 37th Ave S) has no sidewalk on either side of the street. There’s not even really a path along the side of the street for pedestrians or children biking, or a curb for that matter. It’s just asphalt.

    I naively assumed that SDOT would be adding sidewalks there as part of turning the route into a “greenway,” but I asked, and they’re not going to.

    The response I received from SDOT stated, “The project seeks to make people walking and biking the priority by including elements like 20 mph speed limit signs, speed humps to calm traffic, stop signs for side street crossings, and pavement markings to help people find their way.” It’s hard to understand how people walking and biking can be the priority when there’s no safe and separated path for people to walk or (if they choose to) bike.

    I get that we don’t have the money to add sidewalks to all of the, what, 20%? of city blocks that currently lack them. I just think that if we’re going to spend the time, money, and political capital on building “greenways,” we should make sure the word means something. At minimum, a greenway should have a sidewalk, or be closed to cars. Otherwise, I really don’t understand the point.

    1. ScottA

      On the Rainier greenway – I just studied the contract drawings a couple days ago and was happy to see the speed humps and bumps on Renton Ave near Brandon. A much needed improvement. Considering the low bid was just over $1.7M for then entire greenway it’s understandable that only certain corners get remodeled sidewalks. This section of Renton Ave experiences major speeding so many neighbors will greatly appreciated the traffic calming features even if they’ll still be scared to let their kids wait for the bus along this stretch of road.

      1. Matthew Snyder

        Are the contract drawings online by any chance? I’d be interested in seeing what specific improvements they’re making. Turning the “traffic circle” at Renton / Brandon / 37th Ave S into a diverter would help (and would probably be cheaper than building a sidewalk), but just adding a speed hump there doesn’t seem sufficient.

      2. anon

        https://www.ebidexchange.com/SolicitationDocuments.aspx?cid=eb31bf6e-250d-4d1d-abfb-37cb20108045&uid=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&sid=100435

        You have to create a fake account, which is kind of a pain… oh well.

        Speaking of the greenway, what happened to the north end?

    2. Christopher Burke

      The 27th Ave NE “greenway” in Lake City also had no sidewalks before it was a greenway, and doesn’t have any now that it is. I agree completely–if SDOT is going to spend money and encourage walkers and bikers, build a frickin’ sidewalk!

    3. Clark in Vancouver

      From my experience, you have to put in diverters. Speed bumps just mean the cars speed between the bumps and then brake to slow down to go over them and then speed again. We’ve all seen it.
      What needs to be done is reduce the volume of cars on a greenway. Ideally it should be only locals and those visiting the locals who would ever be interested in going down one. Anyone else driving should see that that one street is different than the others in the grid and that it will not be good to drive down. (Or there’s a barrier preventing them from that.)
      It can be done in a few ways. At arterials, have the greenway end in bike permeable cul-de-sacs. Then nobody driving down the arterials will turn into a greenway and will use some other street instead.
      Make a series of one-way blocks, alternating the direction each block. Two-way for bikes.
      I’m guessing that diverters are cheaper than sidewalks per block since you only need some concrete at each end and not concrete along the full length of both sides.

  2. Christopher Burke

    I could almost not bear to watch all those crashes next to the highway. Is there a camera on point at the Ballard crossing?

    1. Southeasterner

      Based on this video they should. It would be easy enough to mount something under the Ballard Bridge.

      Even more interesting than the bike crashes would be how many trains use the track! I always love the irony that the same people who claim nobody uses bike lanes and trails to back their opposition to the missing link also point to the absolute need for a “vital” industrial rail spur that is never used.

  3. Andy Sapuntzakis

    Marysville has a similarly oblique RR crossing on Old Hwy 99 / State Ave / Smokey Pt Blvd at about 120th St NE.

    https://goo.gl/maps/D2ppbiDzatL2

    The sidewalk on the northbound side was recently redesigned to cross the tracks perpendicularly. Northbound cyclists could use it assuming it’s properly signed, but the southbound ones are out of luck?

    IMO they should replace the small northbound gravel areas with pavement, preceded by a cycling warning / diagram. Build the same thing on the southbound side.

    At least they’re trying.

— Advertisement —

Join the Seattle Bike Blog Supporters

As a supporter, you help power independent bike news in the Seattle area. Please consider supporting the site financially starting at $5 per month:


Latest stories

Bike Events Calendar

Mar
19
Tue
6:00 pm South Seattle Safe Streets Coali… @ Virtual via Zoom
South Seattle Safe Streets Coali… @ Virtual via Zoom
Mar 19 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Joint meeting between Rainier Valley Greenways & Beacon Hill Safe Streets.ShareMastodonTwitterFacebookRedditEmail
Mar
21
Thu
7:15 pm Point83 @ Westlake Park
Point83 @ Westlake Park
Mar 21 @ 7:15 pm
Point83 @ Westlake Park
Meet up in the center of the park at 7ish. Leave at 730. Every Thursday from now until forever rain or shine. Bikes, beers, illegal firepits, nachos, bottlerockets, timetraveling, lollygagging, mechanicals, good times.ShareMastodonTwitterFacebookRedditEmail
Mar
23
Sat
11:00 am Sharing Wheels Bike Parking Lot … @ Sharing Wheels Community Bike Shop
Sharing Wheels Bike Parking Lot … @ Sharing Wheels Community Bike Shop
Mar 23 @ 11:00 am – 3:00 pm
Sharing Wheels Bike Parking Lot Sale @ Sharing Wheels Community Bike Shop | Everett | Washington | United States
Sharing Wheels will have completely cleaned and refurbished bikes, As-Is bikes, parts and accessories at our spring Parking Lot Sale! All road bikes will be 50%. All other bikes are 20% off. We have mountain,[…]
Mar
25
Mon
5:30 pm Downtown Greenways monthly meeting
Downtown Greenways monthly meeting
Mar 25 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Last Monday of the month.  Join us! https://seattlegreenways.org/downtowngreenwaysShareMastodonTwitterFacebookRedditEmail
Mar
27
Wed
6:00 pm Ballard-Fremont Greenways Meeting
Ballard-Fremont Greenways Meeting
Mar 27 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Ballard-Fremont Greenways meets monthly on the 4th Wednesday of the month. Join the google group for monthly meeting information: https://groups.google.com/g/ballard-greenwaysBring your enthusiasm and ideas to share with the group or just stop in to say hello[…]
— Advertisements —

Latest on Mastodon

Loading Mastodon feed…