Viva La Cola!

Founded in January 2009, PubliCola is a blog about Seattle written by journalists who are dedicated to non-partisan, original daily reporting that prioritizes a balanced approach to news. Started by longtime local editor and award-winning reporter Josh Feit, PubliCola is the first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol.

PubliCola was off and running. In June 2009, PubliCola hired another award-winning journalist, super-sourced Seattle city hall reporter Erica C. Barnett.

People were afraid that blogging would change journalism. Instead, we believe journalism can change blogging. Twenty-first century journalism may look and feel different, and yes Erica isn't afraid to get cranky, but we're committed to making sure online news still delivers independent, reliable, even-keeled coverage. And most of all, we're committed to making sure the coverage sparks honest civic debate.

Bringing you cola for the people, PubliCola is named after Publius Valerius PubliCola, the alias for the authors of the Federalist Papers—the original bloggers.

x close
The first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol and Seattle city hall, PubliCola has been called a “must-read” by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a hot “New Media Mover and Shaker” by Seattle Magazine—which also cited our own Erica C. Barnett as the city's No. 1 news nerd.

City’s Bike Work Plan Shows Promise and Problems

News   May 17, 2010 at 4:39 pm Josh Cohen

With the almost endless discussions of the Bike Master Plan’s budget shortfall and political and legal impediments to it  progress, it sometimes feels like Seattle’s bicycle infrastructure is frozen in time. But, despite its pitiful budget, SDOT is inching forward on the implementation of the BMP.

SDOT sent me a copy of the 2010 BMP work plan which calls for a little over 20 miles of new on-road facilities (roughly a 50-50 split between bike lanes and sharrows), 35 miles of signed routes, and some maintenance work on existing infrastructure. There are too many small projects to list (most of those 22 miles of facilities are projects less than a mile long). But, there are some that are worth mentioning and seem like intelligent investments.

A Few of the Good:

11th Ave (which becomes 12th above Ravenna Blvd) is getting 1.79 miles of bike lanes between Eastlake and 75th St. 11th is a major corridor because of the University bridge (and the University of Washington, for that matter) and because it’s a fairly wide one way street, traffic is often fast. Bike lanes should help improve safety for cyclists (assuming the lanes don’t put cyclists right in the door zone like the one on 2nd Ave through downtown). Paralleling 11th in the other direction, there are plans for bike lanes on Roosevelt Ave between Eastlake and 75th as well.

It isn’t quite as good as getting a cycletrack, but 7th Ave is getting a buffered bike lane from Denny to Virginia. Buffered bike lanes, like their name indicates, have a painted buffer between the car-travel lane and the bike lane and as such, are generally safer than non-buffered lanes. It’s a shamefully short stretch of buffered lane proposed for 7th (.38 miles), but it’s also the most heavily traveled stretch of 7th since it connects Dexter to downtown.

SDOT has a few plans in South Seattle that are exciting from a multi-modal transportation standpoint.  S. Columbian Way is getting bike lanes from S. Oregon St to MLK as part of the Columbian Way road diet. Those lanes, along with planned lanes on S. Alaska St. and lanes and sharrows on 15th Ave S., will help facilitate multi-modal transportation by making it safer and easier to bike to the the Rainier Beach light rail station.

The (Potentially) Bad:

Almost half of the on-road facilities in the work plan are sharrows—short for “shared lane arrow.” Streets with planned sharrows projects include Taylor Ave. and Boston St. in Queen Anne, Fremont Ave between 34th and 36th, and Western from Blanchard to Broad, all heavily traveled commuter routes.

I have mixed feelings about sharrows. When they’re done well they help guide cyclists out of the door zone and help raise driver awareness of cyclists’ rights to the road. A 2004 study done on San Francisco’s (then) trial sharrows found that while placed and highly visible sharrows significantly reduced sidewalk riding and riding in the door zone and that drivers gave bikes more room when passing.

The key to that, of course, is the sharrows need to be well done. Seattle has some unfortunate examples of half-assed sharrows (the most glaring of which might be the ones on the Missing Link skirting the far-right side of Shilshole Ave. as Seattle Like’s Bikes’ Michael Synder points out).

If SDOT’s planned sharrows are implemented correctly—i.e. the big, highly-visible chevron with bike symbols placed outside of the door zon—it will likely be money well spent.  If not, it will be money spent making Seattle look better (look how many miles of on-road facilities we have!), without any benefit to cyclists.




  • alexjonlin

    I'm very excited about the 11th/12th and Roosevelt bike lanes! That's my main way to get from my house in Ravenna to Downtown. Especially going up 11th and 12th where you're up hill most of the way, these will be very helpful.

  • datajunkie

    The close calls I've had or events requiring evasive maneuvers on 7th Ave have been at intersections. Cycle tracks are great for areas with little or no cross intersections. In this instance, I think a bike lane is better than a cycle track. In my opinion, sharing and not segregating is usually the safest urban option when dealing with multiple cross intersections.

  • http://manywordsforrain.blogspot.com/ Mr. Baker

    It doesn't look like there is anything north of N 130th on the list.

  • joshuadf

    Also, along with the current Mercer work they will be replacing a sewer line under 9th Ave N from Republican to Aloha, and when they resurface the road there will be bike lanes all the way–and even better, a new traffic signal that will provide a safe way to cross Westlake Ave N. The 9th Ave N project should be done by mid-2011.

  • anon

    The sharrows on Fremont might actually do some good. Right not you bikers coming down the hill pretty fast (if they hit the green light at 35th) and merging with all the traffic trying to get across the bridge. This makes for quite the traffic jam, especially when there is a bus outside the Pete's/Starbucks. It seems that, in addition to sharrows, a sign or two noting the “merge” would go a long way towards dissuading cyclists from riding on the sidewalk (which has heavy ped traffic due to bus stops) and making cars more aware.

  • onboard

    please no more sharrows

  • easier?

    Here's an idea: pick a few well placed E-W and N-S residential streets. Make them one-way for cars. Turn the opposite lane into a cycleway. Eliminate parkin gon the bike side. Give the homeowners on that side a alight reduction in their property tax assessment as compensation for the loss of on-street parking. Viola, grade-seperated E-W and N-S bike thoroughfares.

  • doug_in_seattle

    I generally like sharrows. They work well in situations where reconfiguring the entire street is impractical or unnecessary. 19th Ave, for instance, is a good example. They are no less “safe” than a dedicated bike lane, which is, after all, just paint on the ground. Smart riders should treat bike lanes as mere suggestions, one of several options and not always the best. Which is what sharrows suggest!

    However, I agree that they are worse than pointless when done poorly. My favorite least favorite sharrows are on the westbound side of Jackson. They are placed directly under the parking lane! Yikes!

  • Do the math

    10 miles of bike lanes is a pitiful achievement this is all phony lip service to the notion we are supporting bikes, and change, and trying to be green.

    We're spending $300 million on the Mercer remodel and hundreds of millions more on spokane etc.

    This is chicken feed.

  • joshmahar

    I'm really excited about the 11th Ave/Roosevelt Bike Lanes! That is definitely the main route to and through the U-District.

    I'm curious though, how will it work? Are they just squeezing a bike lane into the door zone or will they restripe the whole street with skinnier lanes or without one parking/traffic lane?

  • bikefish

    I reluctantly like sharrows. I commute across Capitol Hill to Eastlake, and once sharrows were painted on Lakeview and Eastlake, I noticed a definite difference in the way drivers behaved, giving me wider clearance and just generally acting as if I belonged on the roadway. Of course I would have preferred getting rid of cars entirely and turning the whole route over to bikes (pedestrians also allowed).

  • joshuadf

    I agree and noticed the same thing in the U-District. I previously made fun of sharrows as a waste of paint, but there was no denying that drivers acted differently with the picture of a bike on the street.

  • LouieInSeattle

    I’m glad I don’t drive on Nickerson, with their reduced lanes heading East towards the Fremont bridge. The lines waiting for that intersection stretch back to Seattle Pacific University and beyond. When I took a driving test, bicyclists were admonished to follow the rules of the road; to drive like cars. Now they are encouraged to drive beside cars, and routinely ignore stop signs and lights. And they expect respect?
    P.S. The sharrows on Queen Anne (Boston to Mercer) have been painted right in the door zone of parked cars. They should paint them red for a danger zone.

  • Gretchen

    This articles says “A 2004 study done on San Francisco’s (then) trial sharrows found that while placed and highly visible sharrows significantly reduced sidewalk riding and riding in the door zone and that drivers gave bikes more room when passing.”

    When I see “while” I expect there to be some information, and then some information that is surprising or contradicts the first info. Did you mean “well placed sharrows”?