One year in, Seattle’s program to provide tougher protection for bike lanes still has a long way to go.
On July 29th 2022, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) announced their “Even Better Bike Lane” pilot program. Since then Cars in Bike Lanes Seattle has collected over 1,100 reported instances of blocked bike lanes.
The goal of the “Even Better Bike Lane” pilot program is to move away from the plastic posts currently used for separating protected bike lanes from car lanes because of the safety and maintenance issues with plastic posts. Cars can easily drive over posts which poses risks to bicyclists. Also due to cars driving over posts, the posts break, which requires maintenance for re-installation and can pose a hazard until fixed.
SDOT identified four different types of materials to replace plastic posts and installed one kind on NE 40th Street, between 7th Avenue NE and Lincoln Way, in the University District. SDOT then asked the public on Twitter to vote on a new location for installation and to also suggest locations for future improvements. People on Twitter started sharing pictures of cars blocking bike lanes to suggest future improvement locations and also to vent their frustration about cars creating safety hazards for riders. Taking this idea, the Cars in Bike Lanes Seattle Twitter account was created just over a month later to provide a “central repository” of blocked bike lanes.
Every instance of a vehicle blocking a bike lane is documented and viewable on seattle.carinbikelane.com. Compiling reports over the last year has provided a disappointing, weird, and shocking view into all the ways bike lanes and trails get blocked by drivers. Besides the typical instance of a car blocking a painted bike lane or a protected bike lane, numerous reports of cars on multi-use trails, on park trails, or even Seattle Parking Enforcement or SDOT vehicles blocking bike lanes have come in. Unfortunately, there is not equal access to basic bike infrastructure around the city so most reports come in from the downtown core but it is clear just by looking at the map of all reports that the problem of cars blocking bike lanes is widespread throughout the city.
SDOT’s original post was updated on August 19th, 2022 announcing that a location was chosen for updates “in the coming months” along with three additional locations slated for updates in the future. On the one year mark of the program I decided to bike to each proposed location to see what improvements have been made.
NE 40th Street (between 7th Avenue NE and Lincoln Way)
This location was the original location that SDOT made improvements to. This stretch of bike lane runs along the Burke-Gilman Trail which has seen its own share of cars on it. While biking to the next location I took a picture of this delivery truck blocking the Eastlake Avenue E bike lane.
Northbound 9th Avenue (south of Mercer Street)
This was a location slated for future updates and it is clear that no updates have been made so far. This is my local bike lane and I have personally dealt with cars blocking this lane. The issue with this bike lane is that it is next to a restaurant that sees frequent pick ups from food delivery drivers. It is important that delivery drivers can make pick ups or drop offs for businesses, but bike lane safety should not be ignored. There is a load zone just north of the corner of 9th Avenue N and Republican Street but there is also parking available in the same location which leads to the load zone being blocked very frequently.
As seen in the above photos, community members have placed cones in the last few months to dissuade cars from blocking the bike lane but it still is occasionally an issue. Not to mention cars blocking the the bike lane intersection crossing which I snapped a picture of on my ride.
S Dearborn Street (between 10th Avenue S & 13th Avenue S)
South of downtown the bike lane network becomes much less dense and much more hostile to navigate as a bicyclist due to wide roads which encourage drivers to drive fast. I am glad to see that SDOT is planning on making improvements to bike infrastructure in south Seattle but the department needs to follow through on their plans. No updates have been made to this location yet.
S Columbian Way (between S Snoqualmie Street & 16th Avenue S)
When biking to this location I accidentally ended up on Rainier Avenue S, one of the deadliest roads for cyclists and pedestrians in Seattle. My GPS then routed me onto the Beacon Hill Neighborhood Greenway which was a much more pleasant ride. No updates have been made to this location yet.
Westbound S Othello Street (between 45th Avenue S to Martin Luther King Jr Way S)
My final stop for the morning but the first location SDOT planned on updating. SDOT initially said updates would be “in the coming months.” There are no signs of updates to this lane.
Over the course of the year I am aware of two different bike lane improvements that included better protection than plastic posts. 8th Avenue between Union and Lenora and parts of Melrose Avenue. Unfortunately. Melrose Avenue between East Denny Way and Olive Street received “protection” via plastic posts which has lead to predictable results. Any and all progress is good but only protecting portions of bike lanes along a street is frustrating to see.
A few months ago I reached out to SDOT to get an update on the current status for the program. They responded saying that the first two locations to be installed will be segments of S Dearborn and S Columbian, and that both are on track to be delivered this year. The last public update on the pilot program post was August 19th, 2022. It is encouraging to hear that two segments will be delivered this year but remembering the delays from last year it is understandable to take any promises of deliverables with a dose of skepticism. Delays to infrastructure projects are common, but those delays should be communicated to the public so they have clarity into the process.
A few months after I started the website someone asked me how long I expected to run the site. I did not expect this to be a one year project, but I also hoped that I would not need to keep running the site 10 years later. I expected that a few years into making improvements, any new bike lanes to be installed would get better protection rather than plastic posts. I also expected that repairs to bike lanes with plastic posts would come with upgrades to their protection rather than re-installing the plastic posts. I hoped that in 10 years cars blocking bike lanes would not really be a problem anymore due to widespread improvements in bike infrastructure.
This last year has shown me how big the problem is and how slow improvements can take, but it has also shown me that there is a community of people that care about this problem. There are people that will take time out of their day to send photos and even put cones out. In the next year I hope SDOT starts to take this problem more seriously, but I am also looking forward to seeing the bike community continuing to call for improvements.
What’s Next?
Reach out to SDOT’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Program at walkandbike@seattle.gov or at (206) 684-7583 or on Twitter at @seattledot and ask for updates on the “Even Better Bike Lane” pilot program. Join community groups like Seattle Neighborhood Greenways or Cascade Bicycle Club to learn about other bike advocacy measures. Finally, ride your bike around Seattle and send pictures of any cars blocking bike lanes to seattle.carinbikelane.com.
This is a crosspost from Cars In Bike Lanes Seattle Blog.
