thank you Sam and thanks to everyone
who's here today we're going to

celebrate a major milestone for our
Center City bike network and it's really

exciting to say that we have completed
the four protected bike lanes that were

built downtown in 2019 this is another
major step to build the city of the

future a city of the future has to be a
city that is safe and more connected for

people that bike and walk and roll we've
got to make sure that in our climate

fight we're really doing what we need to
do in the city of Seattle and that means

getting people out of cars as much as we can
particularly single occupancy vehicles

we want to connect people wherever they
need to go with great transit with

options to walk and to bike so that
means job schools training everything

has to be connected if we want to
achieve our climate goals have a safer

more vibrant city and achieve our vision
zero goals the more connections the

better Seattle had the nation's
greatest drop in drive-alone commuting

since 2010 again a great benchmark for
us we are really leading the nation on

people who are not driving alone so we
need to keep that trend going since 2006

the percentage of people who bike to
work has increased by 22% while the number

of people driving has decreased by 14%
that's just a remarkable thing I'm

really excited in addition to 8th Avenue we've completed the new bike

projects in South Lake Union Capitol
Hill and Chinatown International

District really making these connections
is the critical thing for getting more

people to use bikes people will get on
their bike if they feel safe and we know

that as those safe routes are put in
place the use increases for the first

time ever people of all ages and
abilities have safe bike connections

all the way from Chinatown
International District to South Lake

Union and beyond it's a great thing for
people to be able to get

anywhere in our city we know we need more
but this connected infrastructure is a

great first step in 2019 alone we
invested over 14 million dollars in 13

miles of new bike facilities those
projects were spread throughout Seattle

from Rainier Valley to Fremont in 2020 we
will invest another 16 million dollars

and deliver another 11 miles of bike
safety projects as we're rebuilding

Seattle let's build a city we want and
let's make sure that city has safe

access for bikers these projects
demonstrate that we are back on track to deliver

our levy commitments and we will continue
to build more bike facilities this year

this moment today represents years of
tireless advocacy by not just the people

here now but so anymore it also
represents many many hours of work

in our streets by SDOT staff and crews
and I want to give a huge thanks to that

cascade bicycle club and Seattle
neighborhood greenways together launched

the basic bike network campaign in early
2017 to reinvigorate efforts to make

biking to and through downtown safe and
accessible we set an aggressive but

realistic goal of completing a connected
minimum grid of all ages bikeways in

downtown by the end of 2019 from while
there's work to do realistically gaps

remain on 4th Avenue 12th Avenue Bell
Street and around the new arena downtown

we know that the network was only as
strong as its weakest clip and we'll be

working with the city to fulfill their
commitment to complete closing the gaps

in the basic bike network including
funding and building the two-way bike

way on 4th Avenue next year but today
let's celebrate this milestone that

underscores what's possible
when the city and the community it serves come together

with a shared vision and the will to
execute
Clara: So every bike route has a story

and we've heard a little bit about the
advantages to the safety advantages

we've heard a little bit about the data but I
would like to tell a little story about

the Pike/Pine corridor this corridor has
been a popular bike route for ages for

people on bikes in the morning traffic
commute even before the improvements

over 20% of the people coming down that route were people on bikes but the

route was uncomfortable and it was
unsafe and we know that paint isn't

enough so without protection from cars
the vast majority of people didn't feel

comfortable biking down that route
with the new protection that went in

last year majority of people will
actually consider biking on that route

and women are considerably more likely to bike when
there's protection from vehicles that's

why we set out to make the corridor more
accessible to wider cross-section of the

community I also want to talk for a
second about our local volunteers at

Central Seattle Greenways they led an
extensive community engagement effort on

Pike and Pine Streets that resulted in community
supported bike plan connecting

downtown to Capitol Hill on that already
popular route we talked to local

businesses along the corridor and hosted
a community workshop to talk through

trade offs making sure that everyone's
needs and concerns were voiced talking

to people about what they value about
their street and the ways that it could

be improved and changes to our street
can often be controversial but when we

come together and bring everyone to the
table and discuss the street space and

all of our competing needs people can
talk to each other constructively and we

can build streets that work better for
everyone for the whole community in the

whole neighborhood and some people
through that process who started out

skeptical became some of the biggest
supporters of this connection because

more people walking rolling and biking
in a neighborhood and down the street

make it an increasingly lively thriving
neighborhood and increases support

and customers for local businesses
when we hosted a celebration ride on the

new bike routes downtown the end of last
year one attendee said that

despite riding her bike regularly for
transportation this was the first time

in nine years that she had ridden
downtown and she was delighted to feel

safe and comfortable riding on downtown
streets so I want to give a huge thank

you to the mayor for your leadership
in building out the pieces of the basic

bike network we look forward to working
with you to finish the missing sections

so that we can give people real options
to get where they need to go thank you

I think we have time for a few questions

[Offscreen]  You know the conversation
about the Roosevelt RapidRide

and the bike lane on Eastlake. There have
been some comparisons made

to 35th from people who are concerned
that the city might

backtrack on that commitment as was done
on 35th

Are you willing to make a commitment that
that bike lane is definitely happening?

Mayor: So not prejudging what would come out of
an EIS or what the lawyers would say we

need that bike lane we can't have a
connected bike lane if people can't get

from the north end to downtown
Seattle there's only a few routes you

can go on and so Eastlake is moving
forward