Billy Duss, a volunteer at Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, bikes from Hillman City to Belltown every day. The most direct route would be down Rainier Avenue, but fast drivers weaving in and out of traffic and the lack of marked bike lanes force Duss to take a detour.
“I add probably an extra two miles in a seven-mile ride to stay on the right lanes and the safe streets,” Duss said. He bikes all the way up Beacon Hill, drops down into downtown, and then takes the protected downtown bike lane on Second Avenue. “It would be a lot easier to stay in the valley and down Rainier, but that’s unsafe. I’ve biked Rainier a few times and I feel like I’m taking my life into my own hands.”
Fred Quarnstrom, a dentist on Beacon Hill, would prefer that cyclists like Duss stay off of Rainier and out of the way of drivers completely. “I was on Seward Park Drive and Henderson one Sunday morning, and I watched 105 bicyclists run the stoplight and the stop sign. They were passing cars on the right and left, and it scared the hell out of me,” said Quarnstrom. He imagines a catastrophe: a driver turning right and failing to see a bike passing on the right, leading to a dead cyclist — and a driver in jail.
These views provide just one example of the polarized debate around bike infrastructure in Seattle. As collisions and fatalities continue to occur (there have been at least two cyclist fatalities in the city this year), the city faces an uphill trek trying to make the roads safer for all, while quelling the angst the "car vs. bike debate" is causing.
In February, city leaders launched Vision Zero, a campaign to end all traffic deaths and serious injuries on city streets by 2030. The plan focuses on three categories of improvement: street design, policies and regulation; education and public engagement; and enforcement. The city is also working to install seven miles of protected bike lanes, 12 miles of neighborhood greenways, over 40 crossing improvements and 14 blocks of new sidewalk in 2015 as part of the Bicycle Master Plan.
Should Seattle voters approve the Move Seattle transportation levy this November, the project proposes to build up to 50 miles of protected bike lane segments connecting through downtown and new neighborhood greenways in the next three years. Other strategies for improving Seattle’s “bikeability” include installing 1,500 bike parking spaces, encouraging businesses to install bike racks and enhancing bicycle commute programs available to employees.
Through these programs and changes, the city aims to improve safety on Seattle’s busy streets. Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) Traffic Engineer Dongho Chang said officials are looking at what they can do at Seattle's most frequent collision spots.
