September 8, 2008
Watch for Bicyclists in the Green Zones
"Why is that green thing in the street?" Little Miss Seattlest asked us recently. "It's for bicycles," we replied. But we'd have been mystified (putting green? guerrilla ad?) if we hadn't read Erica C. Barnett's lament about how they weren't working. Today's "Getting There" column in the P-I repeats our daughter's question. "They signal to turning motorists that bicyclists might be in the bike lane," explains Eric Widstrand, Seattle's traffic operations manager. Of course, a signal only works if people actually understand it, and even Widstrand admits people don't know what the mats are for. Next on the city's honey-do list: Install signs to explain. Brilliant! You're driving, you're confused by the weird green thing in the street, you search for a handy explanatory sign, you figure it out, and you rear-end the FedEx truck in front of you because you've been looking everywhere but where you're going for the last 30 seconds. Even if we hadn't just read Traffic, we'd have to question exactly how a sign is going to clarify anything.
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If there were a prize for half-assed, bass-ackwards policy, I feel sure Seattle would be a perennial contender. The City is willing to do everything it takes to help bicycling take off except infringe on any way with car traffic's business as usual. First the inane let's-pretend-it's-a-bike-lane signified by "sharrows," now we get green mats instead of bike boxes.
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That's because the second you try to actually do something useful that is transit related in this city, a loud minority pipes up and does everything it can to get it killed. The irony is that all these groups against more highways, more transit, more light rail, bike infrastructure and the like are all just strong enough to get each other's ideas killed, but not strong enough to get their own ideas passed.
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Right again, MvB
Typical bonehead city move. Nickels was on KUOW today, bragging about these things.
I've been a bike commuter for over 15 years, and couldn't figure out what the damn things were. I thought perhaps a miniature golf course was being added.
Instead of painting these little blotches green, why not figure out how to fix the SLUT tracks?
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Not only do they not help anything, theyre ugly as hell. I thought it had something to do with the 5th Avenue paving project. This city just likes to throw groups (like cyclists) a bone every now and then just to say "hey...re-elect me."
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The only reason I knew what they were is because I saw them in (wait for it...) Portland last month.
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Dumb idea. I'm a regular bike commuter, and also had NO idea what these things were.
But they will go down as another bike commuting "improvement". Along with the aforementioned 'sharrows', and my own personal favorite, the bike signs, which helpfully inform you it's 2.1 miles to downtown, or 0.4 miles to Fremont. What a waste!
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I thought it was some art installation.