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A Golden Opportunity to Improve the Burke-Gilman Trail

Thursday, May 23rd, 2013 by

The Burke-Gilman Trail is more than a regional treasure; it is a major transportation, recreation and nature corridor and the most heavily used trail in Washington. But as you’ve likely experienced, for 1.7 miles the trail passes through the University of Washington (UW) campus and it becomes challenging and stressful, especially for those of us on bikes.

People walk across the trail at all sorts of catawampus intersections. Short sightlines make it hard to see. It’s just plain crowded with people walking and bicycling to the point of being dangerous for everyone.

Fortunately, the UW has applied for a federal grant that would fund rebuilding the entire 1.7 segment through campus in time for the opening of the UW light rail station in 2016. But this grant is highly competitive and judged in part on community support. Every one of us needs to show our support if we want to help the UW rebuild the trail.

Look, the Burke-Gilman trail through the UW campus is already crowded, and it’s only going to get worse unless we do something. In fact, studies from the UW indicate that by 2030, this section of the trail will see a 92 percent increase in the number of pedestrian trips during peak hours and a 238 percent increase in the number of bicycle trips.

That’s why the UW has already started working on a small portion of the trail and is currently assembling funding to fully rebuild the entire 1.7 miles.

While the UW has a great start on funding for this project, they’re trying to secure the last-dollar-in by applying for a TIGER grant, a highly competitive federal grant in which only about 4 percent of applicants win. Projects from the Puget Sound region have won in all four rounds of TIGER grants thus far; however, none of these projects were exclusively biking and walking projects. This project would be a game-changer.

The proposed project1 will serve as a model for pedestrian and bike trails nationwide, including new standards for protecting people walking and bicycling, interchange design and long-term durability. In fact, the Rails to Trails Conservancy is partnering with the UW to research trail use before and after project completion as part of a nationwide study on trail improvements and their effects. But none of this will happen unless we show our support.

Show your support for rebuilding the Burke-Gilman trail through the UW campus>>

Posted in Advocacy, Burke-Gilman Trail | No Comments »

Shutting down TWO lanes of I-5?

Monday, May 13th, 2013 by

Imagine if two lanes of I-5 were shut down. You would face an unprecedented traffic nightmare. 

You wouldn’t be able to get to work on time. It would take hours to pick up your kids from school. It would be painful to get just about anywhere.

Now imagine if the only reason these lanes were closed was the Washington State Department of Transportation couldn’t do its job. I don’t know about you, but I would be pretty angry.

This is basically what’s about to happen unless the state legislature grants King County Metro a new long-term funding solution to replace its current temporary stop-gap funding. If the legislature doesn’t act now, Metro will be forced to cut 17 percent of our bus service.

Since 400,000 people ride the bus on an average work day, a 17 percent cut would mean 68,000 people would be forced to drive or simply not be able to get where they need to go. That’s the equivalent of shutting down two lanes of I-5, simply because the legislature couldn’t do its job.

There are two ways you can help save our buses and prevent a traffic nightmare:

1. Contact your state representatives and tell them you support a transportation bill that includes state support and local funding options for transit and safe streets.

2. Attend a Public Hearing of the King County Council and tell them how bus cuts would affect you:

Tuesday, May 14
3:30 p.m. open house
4:00 p.m. public testimony
Union Station, 401 S Jackson St, Seattle

 

This is about more than preventing a traffic nightmare. It’s about providing people with the basic freedom to get where they need to go.

Like 10,000 other people in the Puget Sound region every week, I load my bike on the bus to get to work. My wife needs our car to drop the kids off at day care on her way to work, so I rely on the bus to get to work and make a living. Hundreds of thousands of your friends and neighbors rely on the bus to get to work, school, shops, restaurants, and places of worship.

A 17 percent cut in bus service would be devastating for all of us. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Prevent a traffic nightmare, tell your state representatives to save our buses.

Posted in Advocacy, Meetings & turnout | 1 Comment »

Cascade Bicycle Club Endorses McGinn, Bagshaw, Conlin and O’Brien

Thursday, April 18th, 2013 by

Today, Cascade Bicycle Club announced its early endorsements in Seattle. Cascade Bicycle Club issues early endorsements to a select group of previously endorsed candidates who have demonstrated a strong and consistent commitment to creating a better community through bicycling and have made substantial accomplishments on bicycling-related issues.

Cascade’s early endorsed candidates in Seattle include:
• Mike McGinn – Mayor
• Sally Bagshaw – Seattle City Council, Position #4
• Richard Conlin – Seattle City Council, Position #2
• Mike O’Brien – Seattle City Council, Position #8

Mike O'Brien

“Mayor McGinn has shown bold leadership in making our streets safer for everybody, whether they drive, haul freight, ride transit, bike or walk,” said Craig M. Benjamin, Policy and Government Affairs Manager for Cascade Bicycle Club. “He recognizes that sixty percent of people in Seattle want to bicycle more, but they are not doing it because they don’t feel safe. So he has shifted our bicycling investments toward physically protecting bike lanes from speeding car traffic and building more neighborhood greenways – low-speed, low-traffic streets that are safer for families.”

“Councilmember Bagshaw has worked hard to make bicycling so safe that Seattle families will let their eight year olds ride their bikes to school, to parks, to libraries and through their neighborhoods; and grandparents will choose to ride their bikes to the local neighborhood business district for a morning cup of coffee and newspaper,” said Evan Manvel, Director of Policy, Planning and Government Affairs.

“Councilmember Conlin has a track record of leadership in taking bold steps to advance bicycling, from supporting safety improvements that make our streets safer for everybody, to getting a bike lane planned on the new Portage Bay Bridge, to working with partner agencies and jurisdictions to secure tens of millions of dollars for investments in bicycling,” said Benjamin.

Richard Conlin

“Councilmember O’Brien has championed efforts to secure additional funding for bicycling infrastructure and the region’s early efforts to bring a bike share program to Seattle,” added Benjamin. “He sees what other cities are doing to support building a better community through bicycling and wants to see Seattle not just keeping up, but leading the way.”

“We’re proud to endorse these candidates because of their hard work to make our streets safer for our children and everyone who wants to ride,” said Mo McBroom, a Cascade Bicycle Club board member and chair of its Legislative and Endorsements Committee. “We look forward to working with them to connect our city with a complete network of protected bike lanes and neighborhood greenways.”

Over the next few months, Cascade will make endorsements in additional races across the Puget Sound region.

Please contact Craig M. Benjamin, Cascade’s Policy and Government Affairs Manager, at (206) 713 6204 or craig.benjamin@cascadebicycleclub.org for more information. 

Posted in Advocacy, Elections, Media alerts | 7 Comments »

A better world for our children?

Thursday, February 14th, 2013 by

It’s a simple question. If we do this, will it create a better world for our children?

Let’s invest in a better world for our children.

As parents, Stacy and I ask this simple question when we make our big decisions. Where we live. Where we work. What we eat. Where we play. How we get around.

If you have kids, you know exactly what I mean. If you don’t have kids, I bet you still understand what I am talking about.

Next week our representatives in Olympia will introduce a multi-billion dollar package of transportation investments. When I see their proposal, I’ll ask one simple question: Will it create a better world for our children? 

Will it make it safer for our kids to bike and walk to school? Will it make it easier for hard-working families to bike, walk or take transit to work, school, shops, restaurants, and places of worship? Will it focus on fixing our existing roads while making them safer for everybody?   

For too long big corporations that profit from building highways have successfully pushed a roads-only approach. Well-heeled highway lobbyists have convinced politicians to spend most of our money on costly new highways instead of focusing on fixing the roads we already have and providing families with more options to get around. 

They’ve rigged the system and made our cities less livable for working families and less safe for kids. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Cascade Bicycle Club is working with the Transportation for Washington campaign, a coalition of more than 200 elected leaders and organizations representing social justice, housing, faith, health, environment, labor, and business communities, to push for transportation investments that provide all Washingtonians with the opportunity to get to where they need to go.

We have a plan that will make our neighborhood streets safer for our kids, invest in fixing our existing roads before we build new ones we don’t need and can’t afford, and provide everyone with the freedom to bike, walk or take transit to get around.  

But we can’t expect our representatives to do the right thing because we hand them a plan.  They’ve got lots of people handing them plans, including highway lobbyists. Your legislators will only do the right thing if they hear from thousands of people like you.

Join thousands of your friends and neighbors and tell your legislators to make the transportation revenue package invest in a better world for our children>>

Posted in Advocacy, Olympia | 3 Comments »

Council passes SR 520 resolution

Monday, February 11th, 2013 by

We did it! On Monday afternoon, Seattle City Council passed the SR 520 resolution, ensuring safe and convenient connections between neighborhoods for everyone.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but it couldn’t be truer than it is right now: It’s amazing what people working together to make their neighborhood better can accomplish.

Just a few months ago, plans for Seattle side of the SR 520 bridge replacement project did not include critical biking and walking connections. We were poised to repeat the mistakes of the past, further dividing our communities and making our city less safe for kids and less livable for working families.

Powerful corporations were pushing for a roads-only approach to the project with little concern for making our streets safer for everybody. Politicians were talking about the project making our streets safer but not taking the concrete actions to create what families need.

Fortunately, caring neighbors in Montlake, Madison Park, Roanoke, Portage Bay, Laurelhurst and Capitol Hill came together as a community and spoke up for a better future. They demanded the SR 520 replacement project reconnect our neighborhoods and make it safe, comfortable and convenient for everyone, from an 8-year-old child to his 80-year-old grandmother, to bike and walk in their neighborhood.

Everyone agreed: if we’re going to spend billions of dollars on a new 520 bridge, one that will stand long past our lifetimes, we have a responsibility to get it right.

When the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) asked the community for input on the project, over one thousand neighbors spoke up in support of investing in biking and walking connections to make their neighborhood streets safe for our children and continuing the regional shared-use trail across the new Portage Bay Bridge.

Cascade Bicycle Club worked hand in hand with these caring neighbors and our friends at Seattle Neighborhood Greenways to make sure our representatives heard this message loud and clear and knew how to fix the project.

We helped people like you write over 1500 letters to the Seattle City Council asking them to tell WSDOT to get SR 520 right. We delivered a packet of community letters showing overwhelming community support for improved biking and walking connections and technical guidance on how WSDOT could make these connections happen. And we worked with our City representatives and their staff on the language of a Resolution to make all of this a reality.

Now, we have a plan for a better future.

Our representatives heard our voices loud and clear and this afternoon the Seattle City Council unanimously passed a Resolution that will help ensure we get SR 520 right.

The Resolution calls on WSDOT to redesign the biking and walking connections to and through Montlake and the west end to make them work for kids and families, develop options for including a shared-use trail across the new Portage Bay Bridge, collaborate with city agencies and the community to improve the project design before it is finalized and create an interim plan ensuring biking and walking connections will work during the years of bridge construction.

Now, as WSDOT works to secure funding and complete the Seattle side of the SR 520 project, we’ve laid the foundation for the project to make it safer for kids and families to bike and walk on their neighborhood streets.

All because people worked together to make their neighborhood better.

Please thank the City Council for passing the SR 520 Resolution and making it safer for kids and families to bike and walk on our neighborhood streets.

Posted in Advocacy, SR520 | 8 Comments »

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