SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
SDOT cutting 33 percent of car capacity on Second Ave. to make room for bikes
Aug 26, 2014, 1:14 PM | Updated: 2:33 pm
KIRO Radio's Dori Monson loves urban biking, but doesn't think it requires cutting car capacity by 33 percent on a major downtown thoroughfare. (Seattle Department of Transportation)
(Seattle Department of Transportation)
Taken from Tuesday’s edition of The Dori Monson Show.
I will tell you that I love urban bike riding. One of my favorite routes from the radio station here is I go through South Lake Union, across Denny and then just bomb down Second Avenue to the stadiums, loop around the waterfront, through Myrtle Edwards, up to Interbay, up Queen Anne Hill and back to the radio station.
I’ve ridden on Second Avenue for 15 years with zero problems. Of course, you’ve got to be a super-defensive rider anytime you’re mixing with cars. But as we’ve seen, bicyclists in Seattle tend to be the wimpiest, ill-prepared riders because they have this entitlement mentality.
The latest move to shelter these riders: Second Avenue will soon go from three car lanes down to two car lanes to make room for bicycles.
“Rather than relying on just a few inches of white paint, SDOT is preparing to demonstrate a modern two-way protected bike lane in Downtown,” they say at the project’s webpage.
“This could be a game changing project to help Seattle better understand how to build and operate great protected bike lanes. People can experience riding in the protected bike lane and learn what it is like to park and drive next to it.”
So they’re reducing the car lanes by 33 percent on one of the major north-south thoroughfares in the city so they can put in this stupid bike lane.
We told you this was coming when the new Seattle director of transportation was hired by Seattle Mayor Ed Murray a few months ago. His name is Scott Kubly and his job, before becoming Seattle department of transportation director, was running a bike share company. So of course, when he first got hired, all he could talk about was bicycles and transit.
“It’s not really about a war on cars at all,” said Kubly. “That gets used a lot, tossed around a lot and it makes for a good headline, I suppose. But that’s really not what it’s about. It’s about giving people choices, right?”
So our choice is get out of your car and decide if you want transit or bicycles because we’re going to just create gridlock in downtown Seattle.
Taken from Tuesday’s edition of The Dori Monson Show.
