Seattle should have learned her lessons by now.
We have the South Lake Union Streetcar that sits in the right hand lane where bicycle riders are expected to be. As a result, the city is facing a class action lawsuit from cyclists who have been caught in the tracks and have suffered injuries like shattered elbows.
We have the Ballard Shortline Railroad tracks that cross the Missing Link at a slight angle, garnering hundreds of signatures on Cascade’s petition including several fingerprints in blood drawn from the pavement. SDOT has made several sets of changes to try to remediate that particular problem.
So why in the world haven’t we learned? Why are we proposing to put a set of streetcar tracks along Boren in the right hand lane merging at a slight angle onto 12th Ave at the bottom of a hill no less. Take a minute to look at the map here:
http://seattlestreetcar.org/about/docs/alignment/Alignment%20Figure%203%20Dec%2011.pdf
And the other proposed First Hill streetcar route documents:
http://seattlestreetcar.org/firsthill.asp
Then go take a look. Think about bicycles with their 1/2″ wide tires traveling at 35 mph or more by the time they hit that intersection.
Feel the inertia of your bike pushing against you, resisting the turn to avoid slipping in the tracks. Feel your stomach sink with the split-second feeling of helplessness as your bicycle is wrenched out from under you and your body is slammed sideways against the pavement, shattering your bones and twising your body up in your bicycle frame as you skid for the next 40 feet as the flesh of your face and shoulder and legs provides the road-rash friction that brings your battered flesh to a skidding stop.
It won’t be the cyclists in a class action lawsuit against the city.
It will be the families of the dead cyclists who can’t have an open casket funeral who will be suing.
If the streetcar is worth doing, it is worth doing right.
Tuesday 12/15, 6-8pm, Seattle Central Community College
Wednesday 12/16, 6-8pm, Yesler Community Center
Thursday 12/17, 6-8pm, Union Station
The city has this project on the fast track, the public forums are all compressed into the week before Christmas and we will live with this nightmare for the next 100 years or more if it isn’t done right. Please go ride the route and speak up at the forum. Otherwise, we can just park the ambulence hearse at 12th and Boren.