Our next meeting will be Monday, March 7, 6:00 p.m., at Cortona Cafe,
25th Ave & E Union.

Discussion items:

Sound Transit Light Rail opening March 19
Seattle Neighborhood Greenways will a have a bicycle petting zoo at
the grand opening festival on Capitol Hill. We’re recruiting
zookeepers from the neighborhood. Joseph and David W volunteered to
be zookeepers, and if you’d like to be a zookeeper, too, let Brie know.

We’ll post signs that encourage people to bike and walk to the
station — and from the station to neighborhood destinations. (For
example, an arrow with “5 min walk to the light rail station” or “3
min by bike to the library.”) Merlin, Joseph, and David S have
volunteered to evaluate where signs will go and get them put up – and
they’ll probably need more help posting the signs.

We’re going to try to put together a scavenger hunt for people biking
and walking, with raffled prizes from neighborhood businesses. Seth,
Brie, and Andrea are starting that effort, and would love more help.

Spring Kickoff Event ideas
Many neighborhood greenways groups are planning spring events to
engage large groups of people. Some ideas for our group are to team
up with the Trust for Public Lands and the Parks dept for their
opening event for adult exercise equipment at Powell Barnett Park, or
to coordinate something with the folks at Jimi Hendrix Park when they
finish their renovation. Merlin and Brie will check in with Maisha
Barnett to see about opportunities at both.

Neighborhood Street Fund application ideas
Thanks to the Move Seattle levy, the NSF program will be active
again. It’s a little different from the NPSF program, both in how the
money is distributed and in how large the projects can be (that is,
much larger). The applications aren’t available yet, but we believe
they’ll be due this spring, so we brainstormed some possible ideas.
– Improving the staircase between Boyer and Interlaken with a ramp
for wheeled vehicles (may not be eligible because it’s on Parks land)
– Implementing the improvements we get designed for 12th & Denny and
other portions of the Denny greenway
– Repaving the intersection at 10th & Roanoke, which is incredibly
hazardous to people on bicycles
– Repaving 10th several blocks south from Aloha (where the potholes are severe)
– Fixing sidewalks along the greenway

We hope to have a lively discussion on the list about these ideas and others.

20/25 default speed limits
Seattle Neighborhood Greenways is moving forward with our citywide
priority to change the default speed limits to 20 for residential
streets and 25 for arterials. We believe City Council members are
largely in support of the idea, and that we can get it passed this
year. Once the legislation is passed, unsigned roads will
automatically have the default speed limits. Most arterials are
currently marked with other speeds, and wouldn’t change immediately,
but the change in default (from 30 to 25) would give SDOT the
flexibility to assign speed limits that are appropriate for each arterial.

No legislation has been introduced, but we need to build community
awareness and support before it is. There is a coordinated citywide
campaign to do that. CSG is approaching several local community
groups. If you have connections with a group (especially schools,
preschools, and other kid-related organizations) and want to ask
their support, let us know and we’ll get you supportive materials.
We’ll also get you connected with the campaign so that we know which
groups have been approached and which haven’t.

2016 is the year for 20/25!

Columbia Greenway
SDOT hopes to implement the Columbia greenway this year instead of
2017. Currently, the route follows Columbia all the way from Broadway
to 33rd, including the nearly impassable hill between 29th and 30th.
Merlin, Brie, and Joseph will meet with SDOT to discuss creative
alternatives. At the time CSG did a scouting ride, we recommended a
two-way protected bike lane between 25th & 33rd, recognizing the
challenge in providing a smooth route for greenway users and
through-riders on Cherry. At our meeting, we also talked about the
possibility of expanding and improving the sidewalk on Cherry to make
it possible for people biking uphill and walking either direction to
use the same stretch, with a short protected bike lane headed
downhill on the north side of Cherry that both greenway users and
through-riders could use; Because the unacceptable incline is really
just a couple of blocks on Columbia, we could route users back to
Columbia for the final blocks up to 33rd. There may be other creative
ideas too, but we cannot have a greenway route that includes a hill
no one can be expected to bike, walk, or push a wheelchair up.

Bailey Gatzert Safe Routes to School
Brie is still working on coordinating a community walk with Brian
Dougherty to identify the quick fixes and the top three engineering
priorities for kids walking and biking to Bailey Gatzert. At this
point, the walk will be in early March, so that we can get a heat map
of where kids are coming from to help direct the conversation. The
walk will include representatives from all the involved neighborhood
groups, the principal, and a few parents.

24th Ave E advocacy
Merlin continues to work with the Montlake advocacy group and with
Jim Curtin to include traffic calming measures on 24th Ave E as part
of the repaving project. In particular, we’re also advocating for
protected bike lanes on 24th Ave E.

Sidewalk capacity at Broadway & John
When the light rail station opens, Sound Transit anticipates
4000-5000 people at the intersection of Broadway & John at peak
hours. The current sidewalk does not have the capacity for that
number of people, and SDOT’s plans to expand the sidewalk are part of
the future streetcar expansion plans — that is, they won’t happen
for a few years, at least.

We need to document crowd size and issues, preferably filming the
area, about a week after the station opens, so that we can determine
the extent of the problem — or, indeed, if there is a problem. If we
need more capacity, we may need to install temporary curb bulbs to
provide more room for people waiting for the walk signal.