Duff McKagan wants to be Seattle’s bike czar

Since little else has worked to alleviate congestion on Seattle’s streets, maybe it’s time to turn to the gentle touch of rock ‘n’ roll.

Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver bassist Duff McKagan told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson that he wants to be Seattle’s bike and pedestrian czar.

“I want to take this job. I’m only half-joking. I’m not really joking,” he said. “I wrote the email to WSDOT. I wanted to send a picture of some ripped guys’ abs and like a microphone dropping and say, ‘you need this.’ But I’m the guy. I’ll fix it. I travel the world, I see how it’s done.”

McKagan said he heard about the bike czar job from his sister, who listens religiously to Dori’s show. The legendary rocker said he’s a bicyclist, runner, rides a motorcycle, and drives in his native city. He said he used to laugh at the traffic in Los Angeles when he lived there in the 80s, but that he started to get alarmed by Seattle’s traffic in the 90s. The last few years, he said, the road issues have become dire.

“I go back-and-forth to LA and Seattle a lot,” he said. “Seattle’s traffic is worse than Los Angeles. I never thought it would get this bad.”

McKagan mentioned a few main points while pitching his candidacy for the czar role, namely that he would add dedicated right-turn lanes for cars downtown, sync up the street lights for cars (“the lights are aimed to make more traffic”) and move bike lanes off the arterials to side-streets.

“I ride the side-streets anyhow,” he said. “It’s kind of simple. Don’t put them on the main arterials. There are plenty of parallel streets in the city. It makes sense, it would lighten up car traffic.”

He’s also not opposed to eliminating bike lanes all-together.

“I never take a bike lane when I bike anyhow, I bike like a city biker,” he said. “You get from point-A to point-B, don’t get in the way of cars. Take side streets and go. That’s why you’re on a bike, maybe you’re going to get there quicker and avoid traffic.”

He also criticized the bike stop lights.

“No. 1, they’re confusing,” he said. “Meanwhile all the bike delivery guys are just whizzing past that kind of stuff so it was a waste of money.”

McKagan also pitched some ideas to crack down on texting and walking.

“If you’re texting while crossing a street downtown, you get a ticket,” he said. “Maybe even texting downtown while walking, you get a ticket. How about that? If you’re a pedestrian, look around. You also probably drive too, so don’t be an idiot. So maybe some learning to do for pedestrians.

“Seattle, I’ll fix it.”

Welcome to the jungle.