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.

Bike Master Plan Keeps Rolling With 7th Ave Buffered Lanes

News   June 29, 2010 at 10:59 am Josh Cohen

On Friday, the Seattle Department of Transportation finished installing buffered bike lanes along 7th Ave. between Denny and Virginia. I reported on the buffered bike lane plans in detail a few weeks ago, but to recap: The new lanes are six feet wide with a two-foot painted buffer between the bike lane and the car lane. In addition to installing the lanes, SDOT will have to restripe that section of 7th Ave. from two lanes in each direction to one.

SDOT also recently installed new buffered lanes on 130th St., and has plans for new traditional bike lanes on Roosevelt and 11th Avenues in the U District, and a cycletrack on Dexter.

It’d be easy to take the cynical view of SDOT’s Bicycle Master Plan. The 130th St. and 7th Ave lanes, combined, are less than one mile. In 2010, the plan calls for around 20 miles of new on-road facilities plus signage and maintenance—not a whole lot in the grand scheme of things. At the current pace and funding level, it will be many decades before the city fully implements the bike master plan. Progress on every semi-big infrastructure project is marred by hand-wringing and fear. Things could be better.

On the other hand, SDOT’s bike program is limited right now by a slim budget in a bad economy, so it may make more sense to focus on the quality of the new infrastructure, rather than the quantity, for now. And the new buffered lanes, short as they are, represent a step in the right direction. Rather than paying lip service to bicyclists with sharrows (which give the city bragging rights about the number of miles of on-road bike facilities but don’t do much to keep people safe), SDOT is (finally) building pragmatic, well-designed infrastructure in worthwhile places.

Seventh Ave., along with Dexter, 11th, and Roosevelt Aves., has some of the highest bike traffic in the city. 130th St. connects the Interurban Trail to Greenwood. The bike infrastructure being built right now is part of a larger network. A quality bike network is the key to getting more people on bikes—if people can’t get where they want to go safely and easily, they’re not going to ride.

Buffered bike lanes and cycletracks are a huge step up from half-assed sharrows. It seems like a little momentum is building for alternative transportation in Seattle, and it feels good.


  • http://www.joeszilagyi.com/ Joe Szilagyi

    In before people complain about SOV drivers being discriminated against.

  • frogola

    “focus on the quality of the new infrastructure, rather than the quality” — typo in your post.

  • Eddiew

    SDOT should reconsider the plans for the Roosevelt couplet.

    Brooklyn Avenue NE could be a bicycle priority street between NE 65th Street and the Burke Gilman; it has signalized crossings of the east-west arterials, is wide, gentle, and quiet; will serve the NE 45th Street Link station; and connects with the Ravenna Boulevard bike lanes and Cowen and Ravenna parks.

    On the couplet, instead of right hand bike lanes, SDOT could consider left hand side bike lanes and eliminate the parallel parking; bus bulbs could be added to the right hand side; half the bus stops could be closed. the planned right hand lanes conflict with bus stops and the UW Physcians building at NE 42nd Street and its cabulance traffic,

  • http://spifflines.blogspot.com/ John Bailo

    Insanity.

    Pure insanity. Historic question — when were the water pipes laid in Seattle…any lead?

    Here's where you should ride a bike. Here and here alone:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/47446064@N00/47398…

    Imagine if all the reasons for being in the Puget Sound — jobs, schools — moved somewhere else, and we could turn the whole thing into a national forest.

    That would be….sustainable!

  • http://www.dougunderground.com DOUG.

    Brooklyn may connect to the Burke Gilman Trail, but it doesn't connect to the University Bridge. Cyclists would still take Roosevelt in order to get downtown.

  • MudBaby

    You are kidding, right? The “pragmatic” part I get. It's pragmatic to slap some paint on a road and call it a bike lane. But what's “well designed” about a bike lane right smack out in the middle of traffic where cars can pass cyclists with four inches of clearance, just like they do when do when we ride our bikes in sharerows? Did the “three foot rule” ever pass? If so, it's a joke with zero enforcement.

  • pedal cranker

    big deal, you shift over to roosevelt to hit the bridge.

    not a biggie.

    the general concept of taking less used streets and fostering bike populations on them instead of concentrating bike usage on major arterials is a good one. we have lots of streets, why not use more of them for through routes for bikes? especially those that are straight, gentle and have a bit less traffic pedestrians etc. than the most major arterials. Roosevelt is a huge busy avenue, brooklyn, not so much. There are similar routes just a block west of stone way and a block north of 45th and a block to the (west? east?) of 35th in W Seattle.

    In addition, the bike master plan honchos need to start just designating major through routes for bikes so that one trying to bike from N Seattle at 130th has a well defined route to go all the way downtown.

    What is the suggested route? dunno. Is it on a map? Nope. Should I go on 15th and Ballard or thru green lake then BG to Fremont bridge? Dunno. Should someone living nearer the freeway shoot for the Univsersity Bridge? Is Roosevelt really the best choice? It's rather busy and scary, why not use Latona from about 65th to the south and also Brooklyn?

    It seems like cyclist advocates are so intent on using arterials they're neglecting the option of taking side streets that are not so arterial-ish and making them into bike arterials thru the cheap, cheap cheap process of drawing lines on maps and putting up a few signs. On many of these streets you don't even need to take away parking, build buffers or paint stripes.

    The notion that it's okay if it takes decades to produce change and we should congratulate ourselves for the baby steps being taken is pathetic btw. so typical of seattle. gain broad consensus for the smallest step possible, and enact change at a glacial pace so that our granchildren one day will have a continuous bike route from n seattle to the university bridge out of traffic and with a special bikes only lane attached to the side of the bridge in the year 2150.

    Woo hoo by then bike commuting will have risen from 4% to 8%!!!!!!

  • Konacross