It’s Monday morning and you’re biking to work. You’re riding along the Burke-Gilman Trail when you encounter a big patch of broken glass threatening to flat your tires and ruin the start of your week. So what do you do? Well, if you’re Stephanie Frans, you swing by Counterbalance Bicycles to borrow a broom and clean the mess up. Thank you, Stephanie, for saving the day!
Mayor McGinn announced today that he is advancing plans to study a new crossing of the Ship Canal and a high capacity transit corridor from downtown to the University District via South Lake Union and Eastlake. The City Council had previously approved funding to begin study of the University District to South Lake Union corridor project in 2014.
“These two projects are essential to connecting more of our neighborhoods with better transit, including rail,” McGinn said. “A new crossing of the Ship Canal can significantly improve transit service, provide people who walk and bike a better alternative to congestion on our existing bridges, and create space for freight. The University District to South Lake Union project can also help bring rail to one of our most heavily used transit corridors, supporting future growth in jobs and housing.”
McGinn is proposing to advance that study to this year and begin the Ship Canal Crossing study this year in order to help ensure both projects can be eligible for competitive federal grants and other funding sources.
"A new crossing of the Ship Canal can significantly improve transit service and provide people who walk and bike a better alternative to congestion on our existing bridges" -McGinn.
Traffic on the Ballard and Fremont bridges causes delays for transit and vehicles on these heavily used routes. Pedestrian and bicycle facilities on both bridges do not meet minimum design standards. The City’s Transit Master Plan and Bicycle Master Plan already envision a new crossing of the Ship Canal to address these concerns. Future growth in northwest Seattle will add to the need for a new crossing.
“More space for transit, bicyclists and pedestrians on a separate crossing will help ease congestion for freight mobility and make it easier for people to travel north-south,” said Eugene Wasserman, of the North Seattle Industrial Association. “I support funding this crossing study”.
The Ship Canal Crossing study would evaluate several crossing concepts and analyze their feasibility, focusing on pedestrian, bicycle and transit needs while considering freight and automobile functions. The study would develop conceptual design alternatives and prepare cost estimates, and coordinate with Seattle’s Transit Master Plan and Sound Transit long-range planning. The cost of this study is $500,000.
“It’s hard to get around Seattle on a bike, especially if your trip requires you to cross the Ship Canal as your options are either intimidating, inconvenient or not safe. It doesn’t have to be this way”, said Craig Benjamin of the Cascade Bicycle Club. “Another crossing would make it safer and faster for everyone to get around Seattle, whether you drive, ride transit, bike or walk.”
The University District to South Lake Union via Eastlake route was identified as a top priority high-capacity transit corridor in the Transit Master Plan approved by the City Council in 2012. This project would serve a route that is different from Sound Transit’s University Link light rail.
Rising demand is expected to exceed existing transit capacity on this route, leading the City to propose studying improved transit service such as rail or bus rapid transit. The Transit Master Plan indicated that up to 25,000 riders per day would use passenger rail on this corridor. As South Lake Union continues to expand its capacity for office and residential growth, riders per day could be even higher.
The University District to South Lake Union High Capacity Transit study would develop conceptual design alternatives and cost estimates for rail, bus rapid transit, and enhanced bus service on that route. It would also coordinate with Metro and with Sound Transit long-range planning. The proposed budget for this study is $2,000,000. The current budget includes $1,000,000.
“We all want more transit but expanding our transit system — no matter what the mode — doesn’t just happen on its own. It requires careful study, planning, and construction to ensure the best use of public dollars,” said Councilmember Richard Conlin, chair of the land use committee. “The sooner we move forward with these efforts, the sooner our neighborhoods will enjoy the benefits of improved transit, walkability, and bikability.”
This week, the chairs of the transportation committees in the Washington State Senate and House of Representatives released their proposed transportation budgets. Both proposals largely maintain the status quo in transportation funding, which is unfortunate. However, a separate transportation revenue package could make things even worse.
Two programs of interest to people who support bicycling and walking would receive about $26 million together over the next two years, up from about $24 million in the last two years. The Safe Routes to Schools grants program and the Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety grants program help local communities make their roads safer for all users through sidewalks, bike lanes, crosswalks, safety lighting, and educational efforts. They focus on, respectively, the routes that students walk or bike to school and the locations that see the highest number of collisions and injuries involving people who walk or bike.
While we appreciate this funding, it is very far from meeting the need. Less than 20 percent of the projects requested by local communities, many of which were willing to put up their own matching monies, would be funded. With this low rate of funding, but with population and interest in bicycling growing, the backlog of projects will also grow.
A similar program aimed at revitalizing commercial areas – known as Complete Streets grants – was created in 2011, but has never been funded, and remains unfunded in the new budget proposals.
To put this in context, the bicycle and pedestrian programs receive about three-tenths of one percent (0.3%) of the overall transportation budget. Rail, mass transit, ferries, and road maintenance receive substantial, but still not adequate, amounts. Meanwhile, the biggest single chunk of the transportation budget – over $3.3 billion – goes to expanding roads or building new ones.
Plus, that doesn’t include funds for the “mega-projects,” the giant highway expansion projects full of new lanes and interchanges on I-5 and I-405, State Routes 167 and 509, the Columbia River Crossing, the Spokane North/South freeway, and more. Those projects are proposed to be funded by a separate transportation revenue package (new taxes). The revenue package was originally intended to tackle the massive backlog of maintenance on the roads we’ve already built, but in its current form, it provides little for anything besides huge highway expansions.
Cascade will continue to push for greater funding for safe places for people to walk and bike, as well as for transit, road maintenance and managing the polluted stormwater runoff from roads, in both the transportation budget and any revenue package. We will also call for rethinking the highway expansion projects that suck up so much of our public transportation dollars, often result in more sprawl, and usually merely shift traffic congestion from one place to another.
Please contact your legislators today and ask them to support additional transportation funding for people who bicycle and walk.
Your participation is needed to build a bikeable South Snohomish County
As you may have read in your April and February Couriers, Cascade was awarded funding through the Verdant Health Commission to build on the great work underway in South Snohomish County to establish bicycling as a safe and attractive transportation and recreation option for families, commuters and tourists alike. With the Commission’s support, over the next two years, Cascade will work with city planners, elected leaders, businesses and the community to lay the foundation for each jurisdiction to make bicycling available to people of all ages and abilities throughout South Snohomish County.
We’ve officially kicked off our work in South Snohomish County, specifically in Edmonds, Mountlake Terrace, Lynnwood and Bothell. We’ve met with city staff to learn about the efforts in each jurisdiction to improve people’s ability to travel by bike, and we’ve been impressed with what we’ve learned.
In Edmonds, for example, the City is working to create a safe bicycle route connecting from the Interurban Trail into the heart of downtown Edmonds with key projects underway to realize this connection. Meanwhile, among other bicycle projects, the city of Mountlake Terrace (recent adopters of a Complete Streets ordinance) is working to complete the Lakeview Trail, connecting to the Mountlake Terrace Transit Center and future light rail station. And Lynnwood is working to complete two critical missing links in the Interurban Trail network.
While progress is taking place, there’s still work to be done to realize the potential bicycling has to offer in these communities. The first phase of our Verdant work is focused on building relationships with city staff, community organizations and the business community in addition to learning from the community about key barriers to bicycling and opportunities for improvement. So, if you live, work or play in South Snohomish County, we wanted to let you know about upcoming opportunities for you to get involved in helping to build a more bikeable community.
SOUTH SNOHOMISH BIKES SURVEY
First, in an effort to better understand the bicycling environment, we have launched an online survey to learn from you about barriers to bicycling, important bike routes and destinations, and the types of bicycle improvements that would encourage you to bicycle more.
If you have ten minutes, we’d love your insight.
BIKEABILITY TOURS & ADVOCACY LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE
In addition to the online survey, this summer we will be conducting community bikeability tours in Edmonds, Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood, offering community bike rides to evaluate existing bicycle routes and identify future opportunities for bicycle improvements. The bikeability tours will be followed by a discussion focused on bicycle infrastructure and opportunities to help advance bicycling as community members. The bikeability tours will provide a foundation for Cascade’s two-day Advocacy Leadership Institute offered this summer to community members in South Snohomish County interested in building bicycle advocacy skills. Stay tuned for additional information about each of these events.
POLICY WORKSHOPS
We are also in the process of developing a workshop series focusing on bike-friendly transportation planning, policy and design for elected leaders, city staff, and community stakeholders, which will kick off this summer.
SUPPORTING EMPLOYERS
And last but definitely not least, we are continuing our work with employers throughout South Snohomish County to elevate the importance of bicycle commuting as key to a better business and bottom line. If you work in South Snohomish County and would like your business to increase its level of support for bicycling, please respond to the survey linked above and contact Stephanie Frans, Cascade’s Commute Programs Manager: stephanie.frans@cascadebicycleclub.org
As we move forward with each element of our Verdant work, we want to emphasize the importance of community involvement in helping to advance bicycling in the communities of South Snohomish County. We have a number of exciting opportunities coming up this summer and hope you can be involved! We will provide additional information about events like the bikeability tours and our two-day Advocacy Leadership Institute through upcoming email communications.
In February we caught up with our lobbyist Matthew Green to see how he spends his days in Olympia.
