Seattlest Pix 09Nov22
Manifold Motion's Miscellenea II Wraps Up Tonight
Around The -Ists This Week
Seattlest Pix 09Nov23
Can't Miss It: Monday
Seattlest has found a reason for everyone to welcome bicycles on the city's streets. The origins lie in Virgin Vacations' (has anyone asked The Name Inspector to do a write up on Richard Branson's desire to cater to virgins?) naming of the world's 11 most bike-friendly cities.
Unfortunately, Seattle didn't make the list (Portland came in at number 2), which uses five criteria created by The Bicycle Friendly Communities Campaign to judge a community's bike friendliness: Engineering (Are there enough designated lanes, signals and other infrastructure?), Encouragement (Does the city promote bicycle use?), Evaluation and Planning (Deliverables people, you've got to have deliverables), Education (It's not just about bike maps.), and Enforcement (The community has to use "enforcement to encourage cyclists and motorists to share the road safely.").
But Seattlest isn't going to use this as an opportunity to rant and rave about the rights of cyclists on the roads or the need for the city to actually pay for the implementation of the recently passed Master Bike Plan in order to make the thought of riding bikes more attractive or, dare we dream it, safer in this city.
Instead we'll just point you to The Bicycle Friendly Community program. It says that communities that are bicycle-friendly increase the perception that the city's residents enjoy a high quality of life, which increases property values, business growth and brings in more tourism dollars. See? When Seattlest rides our bike (in today's head-wind driven, driving rain), we all benefit.
On the bright side of things, there are three Bicycle Friendly Communities in Washington (one is even within riding distance of Seattle): Vancouver, Bellingham and Redmond.
Picture is courtesy reverendkomissar who put it, yup, in Seattlest's Flickr Pool. Thanks!
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Biking in Seattle sucks sucks sucks unless you live in Ballard and work at the UW, in which case its good. But if you work anywhere downtown that's not second ave (north to south only!--better walk home!), you're screwed/dead.Ugh.
Bikes belong on bike paths and should only be driven on city streets if they have a motor. The tax payers built the trail at great expense to take bikes off the road, the trails are where they belong and nowhere else- use bicycles in the privacy of your own home.
I call Bullshit, LCS. Roads are built with general funds, which we ALL pay into, and are intended for the use of all. If we had a gasoline tax that exclusively paid for road construction and maintenance, I think you would have a point. But we don't. Sorry, thanks for playing.
Doesn't Redmond have a sign on it stating it's the "bicycle capital" of the world or something? Some capital if it cannot make it on the top 10 list. What's up?
Why is San Francisco on that list? It is not any safer to ride a bike in that town than it is here.
I never did understand why Redmond is the Bicycle Capital of the World. That sign's been up there as long as I can remember.