Last night at about 10:20 p.m., a bicyclist was struck and killed by a car taking the Dexter Way North exit from Aurora, says Queen Anne News. The police arrested the car's driver after "an evaluation showed signs of impairment." more ›

The Seattle Times says "between 4 and 9 a.m., the Washington State Patrol logged 52 accidents, including five with injuries, on major highways in King County." But you'll only read on Seattlest how dangerous the corner of Broadway East and East Aloha was. That's where our bike slid out from under us and we still somewhat sleepily glided along the road for a few feet. Ironically, we'd been checking for ice farther up the hill, but there we were in the sunshine and the frost had melted. A shady corner in the flats was our undoing. We've been biking around the Hill for almost three years now and that was our first spill. Sort of anticlimactic. more ›

Last week, a ten-year-old from Issaquah told the police a story that mirrored one of our worst nightmares: she was abducted, she said, by a stranger while she was riding her bike in rural King County. She fought back and he dumped her (and her bike) out on the road. Today, it turns out the girl was crying wolf. Phew! It's a relief to know that we don't have such considerate, stereotype-defying kidnappers running around in Issaquah. If her story had been true, it would have wreaked havoc on everyone's bullshit detectors. Stranger things have happened, though, so we--and the cops--were ready to give this kid the benefit of the doubt. It's much better this way, though. Ten-year-olds will be ten-year-olds, and it's a time-honored kid tradition to make up giant, irrational stories when real life just isn't as exciting as you want it to be. more ›

Thanks to these high, high temperatures (OMFG!!1! 80 degrees?! *pantpant*), the P-I reports, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency is close to calling a smog alert. The shame! The agency's Dave Kircher says to do everything possible to keep from driving the next few days: "Stay home, have an iced tea or whatever, and don't mow your lawn." Here we just laugh! As bicyclists, we're gonna pack extra water, but otherwise, Kircher, we'll do whatever the hell we want and go wherever the hell we want. (Okay, and shower much more often.) Don't worry, we'll keep an eye on the air quality for those of you trapped in cars. If there's a good reason to be wheezin', we'll let you know. more ›

The other day we asked if there was anything special you could do to set off the arrow for turn-only lanes if you're on a bike. And yes, there is. (See also comment #9 by eldan.) more ›

We spend a lot of time here at Seattlest bemoaning the fate of bicycle riders in Seattle. It's a hard-knock life for us, we like to say, living in a city that likes to tout itself as green to the nth degree while also putting forward a Master Bike Plan that leaves something to be desired in almost every neck of the woods. more ›

Our bike route to work from Magnolia to Capitol Hill takes us down a short hill on 20th Ave W to the Pier 91 bike trail. That little street runs right along a ton of train tracks leading into the train yards. (It's on the back side of the Interbay Golf Center.) Generally it's filled with locomotives connected to empty cars or lines of containers waiting to be shipped one place or another. Noting terribly exciting, though if you're lucky, a train whistle will blow as you go by and scare the beejesus out of you. more ›

If you ever ride your bike outside your neighborhood, you're going to want to have a copy of this map. We can tell you that over the years since we started commuting by bike, we've relied heavily on ours. With all the new lanes being painted and the new pieces of the Burke-Gilman Trail, staying up to date on the most bike-friendly routes is going to be key. more ›

We were impressed by this morning's Times article about the need to increase bicycle safety on the city's streets. more ›

WSF is still dead to us, but Governor Gregoire could make our "holiday card" list if she keeps it up. First the viaduct course correction, now she's scrounged up $100 million to pay for three new ferries. Budget, schmudget! She's all action! Plus, the Port Townsenders, come January, will be reunited with their cars on ferry trips, says the P-I:

Pierce County has agreed to loan one of its boats to the Washington State Ferries, beginning in January, to resume car service between Keystone and Port Townsend.

Thanksgiving doesn't allow for us Seattlesters to partake in our usual rock and roll lifestyles. Instead it's friends and family and mellow times about the house. Our drinking's liable to be more restrained and coordinated with a heavy meal of rich food. (Seattlest Geoff offered some choice beer recommendations earlier this week for those who've got a pit-stop planned on the way to grandmother's house tomorrow.) And according to the weather report, it's going to be cold but clear tomorrow, with morning to afternoon sunshine to make that drive a little more pleasant. more ›

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... more ›

When we sat down to do our endorsements we reached a disturbing conclusion. We cannot, in good conscience, vote for anyone. more ›

There is something seriously wrong in this city right now. The fight between drivers and bicyclists has been brewing for years, but recently it seems to be reaching a boiling-over point. It pushes what we consider to be sane people, on both sides of the argument, into a state of rage that we honestly find a bit frightening. more ›

Seattle's infamous Bicycle Hobo(TM) tipped us off to this cool Halloween scavenger hunt thing going on this weekend that we hadn't heard of previously, evidently called the Mess-Man's Messquerade. Here's the run down from the site: more ›

We start things off this weekend with a simple two words from Donte: Muthafucking Justice! more ›

Well Dan, I guess you don't even need a bike and a mountain anymore. Here is a RedBull biking event in Budapest--I guess if we can build mountain bike trails under the freeway, they can race their bikes in the subway. more ›

Kim is off to see Susan Werner at the Triple Door Sunday night. more ›

It’s been hard for us to admit this, greenie that we are, but a vote for Prop. 1 is in order, at least from this Seattlest's perspective. more ›

The operative word, of course, is "considering," because by no means is a bike park at Stevens Pass a done deal. But the plans are surprisingly detailed and specific, which gives Seattlest hope. The local biking community is all a-twitter about the prospects. Each year we trek up to Whistler repeatedly for our downhill biking fix (that's a friend pictured on a black diamond Whistler trail at the right), and we'd much rather spend less time in the car and more time on our bike. No, the sad irony of driving long distances to ride bikes is not lost on us. more ›

Two UW marching band saxophonists know their bulky instrument cases can get in the way as they walk to school down the Burke-Gilman Trail. They don't want to be obstacles to the notoriously chippy bicyclists. So one, "Geekybandbabe", asks Seattle's Live Journal community for advice:

Is there a certain undesignated place where we should be walking on the trail so as to ensure that we, and all other trail patrons emerge unscathed? more ›

That headline was designed to hector Seattle because we know how awful it is for this part of the world to be compared to New York City. But showing Seattle how New York does something better seems to produce results (the M's notwithstanding). This time they're creating truly bike-friendly streets. more ›

The Seattle Times has a quickie little snippet about some ski resort ownership swapping, namely that Boyne USA has bought the Summit at Snoqualmie from Booth Creek. At first we were a little concerned, namely because Booth Creek has a great track record from a customer service perspective, especially when they extended our season's pass for free after the disastrous winter of 05-06. But after a little more research, we're very excited because this is excellent news for mountain bikers. more ›

The weekend arrived, along with all 40 of our bike clinic clients. Everyone was giddy at the thought of a heli-drop bike ride on Sunday, and the bike clinic was going off without a hitch. Until Sunday, when we ended up again at 9,000 feet, with the sun replaced by snow. Blowing snow, to be precise. And we had a freelance journalist writing for the London Sunday Times riding with us. You know, something like the second largest paper...in the world. We were supposed to show him a fantastic time, and once the flakes started falling we knew everyone was in for an adventure, but not the kind they had signed up for. We'll let our intrepid journalist tell the rest of the story, in the meantime we'll revel in the glory of going down in print as the mountain biking guide who led him astray. And yet we will continue to insist that you're only truly lost if you don't know where you are--we knew where we were, it just wasn't where we wanted to be. more ›

Admittedly, Seattlest is a bit late on this one, but hey, we gotta pay the bills too so please, forgive us for being a couple of days behind the news cycle on the Flexcar story. more ›

Late summer is berry season, which means it is also bear season. A 51 year-old man mountain biking in Banner Forest (near Port Orchard on the Kitsap Peninsula) was attacked by a male black bear last week. His dogs were running ahead of him, and he heard them barking. He turned a corner, and was face-to-face with the bear, which then attacked him. Attacks by black bears are remarkably rare, which makes the situation all the more puzzling. Miraculously he survived and is in good condition, and both dogs are alive and well. Every mountain biker, hunter, hiker, random person that Seattlest knows seems to have their own opinion: he shouldn't have had his dogs off leash, shouldn't have been riding by himself, he was in a freaking "Forest" what do you expect...and so on. more ›

Seattlest's heart's cockles always get warmed when we see a bunch of people who choose to ride their bikes to get around get together, so we were predisposed to love Northwest Film Forum's Second Seattle Annual Bike-In last night. (Almost getting slammed by a driver opening her car door while riding over probably added to our joy at making it there.) more ›

With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. more ›

After all, the Seattle P-I's got a story on the recent street violence, the Seattle Times has coverage of the war zone and the thug factor. And although three of the four incidents since June occurred after 10pm, it's easily worth the $500,000 the city will spend over the next four months to keep lunch hour safe in Westlake Park. We were there, and we've never felt more secure -- which was great because we couldn't find any bike racks in front of Westlake Mall and had to lock our bike to a trash can. more ›