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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.

The Worst Sharrow In Seattle

2010 Election, Opinion, The C is for Crank   August 30, 2010 at 3:02 pm Erica C. Barnett

(Or: Why letting our roads crumble hurts cyclists too).

Cyclists get a bad rap around these parts for our alleged opposition to road maintenance. For example, Crosscut columnist Judy Lightfoot recently asked rhetorically whether Mayor Mike McGinn, a cycling advocate, would support maintaining city streets if it would also “make driving cars more pleasant.” (The implied answer being: Probably not.)

I can’t speak for the mayor, of course, but I sure as hell would support spending more to maintain our crumbling streets (and less on big transportation projects like the tunnel, but that’s another matter) if it meant the city would actually improve my cycling (and transit-riding) experience.

Here’s how the latter part of my commute goes: Head south on Jackson, in a city-designated sharrow, between the Central District and downtown. Traverse six blocks of tooth-rattling, cracked-beyond-repair pavement. Try to avoid the many potholes while dodging cars that speed out of blind alleys. Also be on the lookout for pavement that’s raised several inches along a seam in the middle of the lane. Scoot carefully around four-inch-deep manholes that will send you flying. If you manage to make it that far without falling or being hit, the only thing you’ll have to worry about between Pioneer Square and Belltown is being hit by left-turning cars in the bike lane on Fourth Ave.

Sometimes, though, it doesn’t work that way, and you go flying. A map of bike accidents produced by the Seattle Times shows a broad band of bike accidents running along Jackson toward downtown, and the accompanying story called the street one of the eight most dangerous areas for cyclists in the city. I had an accident here, too. Heading downhill on my way to work, I swerved to avoid a car that had pulled partway into the road and ran right up against a piece of raised pavement. I got away from that one with a broken wrist, but I’m sure others haven’t been so lucky.

The discussion over things like road diets, as BikeNerd Josh Cohen has pointed out, is often framed as a battle between cars and bikes. But it’s worth noting that road maintenance (which, yes, cyclists pay for) benefits all road users, not just those behind the wheel.




  • Punk Ass Bitch

    My nomination for the worst bicycling signage in the city is on Boylston going south right by the entrance to I-5. There is parking along most of the road so you have to be fairly far out in the middle of the street. The parking ends 20 yards before the entrance to I-5. At the freeway entrance there is a green bike lane painted on the far right hand side of the road that cuts across the on ramp. The city is suggesting that I ride with traffic, hop out of traffic as soon as the parking ends and then cross traffic a second or two later. Zoom in here and take a look.

    http://maps.google.com/maps?q=boylston%20ave%20e%20seattle%20and%20I-5%20seattle&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl

  • scott

    To head south on Jackson is to cross the street. ECB = Erratic Compass Bearings

  • Seriously?

    We need to keep our roads in good condition. This is not a pro-car statement, since roads accomodate busses, street car and bikes, scooters and motorcycles as well as cars. Even if we have hybrid, or all-electric cars, they still need pavement to drive on. In fact, bicyclists are most sensitive to pavement conditions of all users of roads.

  • Anonymous

    and what about trucks? I just weighed my day hiking back pack – appx. 15 pounds.

    how many pounds of junk do each of us need / want a day?

    EVEN if we lived in biodegradable organic tofu pollution free flying carpet nirvana … how are the toothbrushes and socks and cabbage and pencils and shoelaces and toilet bowls … gonna get delivered?

    humming karma waves? we’re all going to be employed peddling pedi-cabs with 150 pounds of non human flesh around to deliver goods?

    roads are a necessity – except for those living in la-la trustafarian-ville OR those living in Mad Max eyeman libertarian bananstan.

    rmm.

  • westside

    I haven’t heard boo from McGinn about fixing our failing streets. I guess it must not poll as well as his fake plan to build light rail to West Seattle and Ballard.

  • ivan

    McGinn’s plan is to slow all traffic to a crawl, so the potholes won’t damage your car so much. He says it’s for “safety,” and the rubes here all believe it.

  • Chris

    What was that, “road maintenance …yes … cyclists pay …”? To frame it that way, so do sketers.

    A large part of road maintenance comes out of property taxes, I presume, so of bicyclists pay for it it is only coincidental.

    With thousands of bicyclists in Seattle it is time for a bike tax. make it and even $20 per bike. After all, they tax cats and dogs. And a lot of bikers are dogs.

  • Ben Demboski

    The point behind that statement is that if you look at where the money comes from for road maintenance, the vast majority of it comes from sources that are paid for equally by all — property taxes, sales taxes, etc. Furthermore, most bicycle commuters also own a car and therefore pay the same excise tax as auto commuters.

    The bottom line is that bicycle commuter pay a lot more than their fair share already, because they pay approximately the same amount in taxes, but “consume” much less of the resource (cause less damage, require less space, etc.). Sure, there are buses and trucks and police cars and ambulances, but car and bike commuters both get roughly the same benefit from these, so it turns out to be a wash.

    So, I think the point of Erica’s statement is that the absence of a bike tax does not indicate that bicycle commuters are not already paying for road maintenance. In fact we are already paying more than our fair share by this analysis. In a sense, there already is a bike tax. It’s called the sales, property, and to a lesser extent, the excise tax.

    And yes, this argument applies equally to people that walk to work or ride a unicorn or whatever, but nobody is proposing a shoe or unicorn tax.

  • Anonymous

    Nice to see I’m not alone in my opinion on the terrible state of the pavement in Seattle. You can have all the road diets, sharrows, bike lanes, cycle tracks etc. you want, but if the pavements sucks (which it does) cycling is unpleasant at best and dangerous at worst.

  • tpn

    Plenty of crap roads on the South End. But anything south of Jackson is considered Tacoma around these parts, so they don’t count.

  • Donolectic

    Biking is something that should be encouraged, it doesn’t need any additional impediments such as a tax. It’s a net positive for the city and community, unlike a dog or cat and to compare the two is ludicrous.