Seattle Likes Bikes!

After attending the open house today I came away with two major concerns. While the bike lane configuration has some issues the bigger problem with the plan is the transition of the bike lane to Sharrows.

http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/docs/SWAdmiralPlans7_2_10.pdf

Two crucial problems are the pinch points for cyclists at the top and bottom of the hill.  At the top of the hill the bike lane ends and there is a 30’ transition area that dumps cyclists right onto the Sharrowed Street, on the uphill, right before the entrance to the City View Viewpoint and the start of the Sharrow lane.  This is a poor transition since cyclists will essentially be entering the street with traffic traveling much faster and with vehicles potentially making right turns into the viewpoint parking lot.  If the bike lane were extended to just past the north exit of the viewpoint and then transition to Sharrows on the flatter part of the street it would be a safer and more logical route.

The second problem area is at the bottom of Admiral.  Since there was recently an accident at Manning/Admiral this intersection needs more thought as to how cyclists actually use it.

The bike lane transitions to Sharrows, which are located along the curb in the right turn only lane.  The Sharrows continue in the long right turn only lane and down SW Manning Street.  There is no infrastructure for cyclists that continue on Admiral under the bridge to Spokane Street.  This is a major oversight.  The route under the bridge leads cyclists on a route directly to the lower bridge which cyclists use to travel to West Marginal, downtown, SODO, Georgetown, etc.  Misleadingly placed Sharrows could reinforce the incorrect idea that cyclists cannot travel under the bridge and must exit the street grid at Manning.  Worse, it may lead cyclists to travel in the right turn only lane, only to make a dangerous leftwards movement across the lanes into traffic continuing on Admiral.  SDOT needs to take a closer look at this area to rectify the potential problems.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 at 6:49 pm and is filed under Advocacy, Uncategorized, West Seattle, public meetings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.