How Seattle is Removing Car Lanes for Safe Bike Infrastructure | MLK Jr Way Safety Project Tour

[@BestSideCycling]

What do you think of the results? Have you ridden this area before the changes? Will you ride it now? Where else needs changes like these?

[@readyplayer2]

I ride and drive through this area all the time, and this is win for both bicyclists and drivers. Linking the Mt. Baker station, Mt. Baker transit center, tying in to downtown and Eastside via the Mountains to Sound Trail, and providing safer journeys to each for residents in between, is a huge win. This isn't "bike lane on Rainier (the only relatively flat route to downtown)" transformative for the south end, but it's big to see any infrastructure in the south end, let alone some of the best protection for cyclists in the city. Now... we need to connect it to more routes. I would love to see a connection to the Rainier North / South Greenway via McClellan so that people can more easily reach Mt. Baker station and the Mt. Baker transit center. The greenway is the only relatively safe (if inefficient), mostly all-ages bike route from Rainier Beach to Mt. Baker. "All" it would take would be a really good protected two block section on McClellan from 31st west to MLK Jr. Way S.

[@BHFFS]

Seattle's investments in bike lanes has directly led to me changing all my commuting from single driver in a car to cycling. And I know lots of others who have done the same.

[@maureen4056]

Love the concrete lane separators. Wish we had those where I live.

[@YosukeMatsumura]

This was a great improvement. That section of MLK never had enough traffic to justify 2 lanes and caused people to constantly speed, as you pointed out. I really hope they extend this in the future further north all the way to Madison. That would provide a great north-south cycling corridor for eastern Seattle, as the only other popular/usable route in that area is Lake Washington Blvd, and there's no bike-specific amenities there.

[@fogethereal]

Yeah it always seemed weird to me how that one section of MLK had two lanes in each direction and never any traffic. The bike lanes are a much better use of space!

[@Alistair_Spence]

The concrete dividers are a serious upgrade to what we currently have when it comes to bike lane safety. I'm impressed that the city made this level of commitment to this project. Respect!

[@SeriesShower]

Good to see SDOT keeping up the pace. Hoping this continues with the new levy.

[@LimitedWard]

Wow this is a MASSIVE improvement. If I had to nitpick (I'm a bicyclist, so of course I have to!), I'd say that very first intersection is very confusing. The fact that you had to continue straight and make a U-turn onto the sidewalk was super unintuitive. But that's the kind of thing that can be fixed later on.

[@TheRoamingHazard]

I feel the flex posts are just a cheap stop gap to get drivers used to the traffic change on a road but aren't substantial enough to encourage much more bike use. The concrete curbs are much better but I still feel that ultimately these paths need real division with planters, tree, street posts/lights.

[@allanohlsen7729]

Encouraging, indeed. I would like to see this on Airport Way, from Dearborn way all the way through Georgetown to the Boeing access road at the south end of the airport.

[@PeteLorimer]

Wow! This is a night and day difference from just a couple weeks ago. This route is less than half a mile from my house, but I’ve always avoided it due to the car gutter feel it gave off. I might have to reconsider my routes now.

[@GarbageLegs]

Wish that they would have been able to do these improvements all the way to Madison. You can already see some flexiposts have either been hit, removed, or not ever installed. Would be nice to see concrete barriers throughout, the ones they've used so far are very nice but the concrete wheelstops used in parking lots are ubiquitous and easy to install.

[@sklegg]

Super awesome infrastructure. The “before” pictures made this area look very unwelcoming to bikes and pedestrians.

[@BestSideCycling]

Haha I just have to recall my experience last year. It was so trippy to see it like this

[@OGchickentnt]

Amazing improvement! We need this everywhere

[@braedenvandeynze4494]

I think one part of why they used a lot of flex posts is because the bids came in over budget. My hypothesis is they cut a bunch of concrete to get it done. Optimistic they will go back and finish it with an SDOT crew-led project.

[@schubajo]

I'm so glad the city is starting to recognize that a painted line is not bike infrastructure.

[@derekjolly3680]

As much as "painted bike lanes" are panned by many, meaning without any "protections" from car traffic in the same direction, I think there is a rather respectable difference between both B&W painted bike lanes or inside line only bike lanes and those like these where there is a great deal of color at points. That color stands out, looks different than before, and will catch the driver's attention in a good way. The B&W style can be ignored being so much like the ordinary markings for the road traffic. Secondarily, there's more to maintain with new solid colors put in and that means a city can't neglect it. If they did, it would look quite shabby in a short period of time. Too often cities have a minimum effort mentality to all of this.

[@DanielLoveReel]

Good. The more they build these, the more logical cycling becomes.

[@cyclingxventures]

doing awesome work as usual, man! ty for all the updates!

[@baddriversofcolga]

Wish we could get this kinda infrastructure in my city...

[@SnapDash]

Looks pretty impressive! My city has a bunch of lovely plans for better traffic separation, but they're very slow in implementing it... Funny, considering how quick they are at adding motor vehicle parking at the drop of a hat... :-\ I noticed that along your route, the concrete barriers were in places with woods, whereas the flex posts were in built-up areas. That could be to allow for fire trucks to get closer to the buildings in the event of an emergency.

[@eroscoe92]

Another awesome vid!

[@readyplayer2]

One correction, I think, towards the end of the video - northbound on MLK, the protected bike lane doesn’t turn into a paint lane; having ridden this route several times, I’m pretty sure the bike lane disappears entirely here. You’re left with a travel lane and a parking strip which always has cars parked there. So this is a pretty jarring exit to the awesome new protected bike lane. Hopefully they will extend the protected lanes all the way north to Madison, eventually.

[@BestSideCycling]

@@readyplayer2 good point! Thanks for the correction. It's definitely jarring and thus why I decided to end at the I90 trail 🤣

[@yasminehentati3911]

Yeah, it's scary. I regularly ride from this area (near MLK) to north of the ship canal and go out of my way to take LW Boulevard because MLK/23rd are too sketch. Would be amazing if they continued this project all the way up to Madison!

[@kailahmann1823]

That "line" on McClellan St. almost looks like a guide line for blind people, which is what we put in the same spot (if enough space…) here in Germany. I am only a bit skeptical around the intersections, there is a very very large gap in the protection, where it is most needed.

[@kailahmann1823]

About "needed car lanes": From what I have heard, American cities tend to add a second one with just 5000 cars per day. Here in Germany we often keep one per direction (or even *remove* the second) up to about 20,000 cars…

[@michaelarnold2728]

Stupid question... You didn't point it out, but I'm thinking basically that this new secured bike lane will take you from the Mount Baker Station to the new Judkins Park Station?

[@BestSideCycling]

Not directly completely: You need to turn on the I90 trail westbound for one big block to reach Judkins Park Station but yes effectively now connected by bike lane!

[@michaelarnold2728]

@BestSideCycling Hey, close enough...lol! By the way, thank you for your channel, you're always going by everywhere I go and am always looking to see if I make it into the background of one of your videos...lol!

[@BestSideCycling]

​​@@michaelarnold2728haha there's a way to guarantee an appearance in my videos. Come out to my next meetup or rides 🤣 thank you for supporting the channel

[@michaelarnold2728]

@@BestSideCycling I will most definitely try to come one of your meet-ups, my friend! 😉

[@MegaDecker69]

Are they making the bike lanes wide enough so that an e-bike can safely pass a regular bike? When the lanes are empty it's not a problem, but as more people use them there needs to be extra width to allow passing. Maybe not in all sections, but at least with some regularity. In cars we generally sit side-by-side, when cycling with a friend side-by-side should also be encouraged. If another cyclist needs to pass they can ring their bell and the cyclist on the left can pull ahead to the right, to allow another cyclist to pass (on the left.)

[@PeteLorimer]

How do you find out when these projects are done? You always seen to ride on them in the first day or two of them opening.

[@BestSideCycling]

😅 I'm a web crawler of government websites and twitter (not a necessarily fun thing to do). I definitely have a list of "must cover" projects I actively track in advance and love showing them off as soon as they're available. This one is no exception :D

[@john-draftanimal]

Thats tons better than the horrible treatment they gave to Delridge ave in West Seattle to make way for the H-Line or the squeeze things at intersections they put onto 16th ave SW at the intersections. Made my commute much more dangerous.. Wonder why we in Burien White Center-West Seattlegot the sucky treatment while MLK is much improved

[@johne7345]

Looks like Right Hook City to me.

[@Murmuringbirds]

Great for bikes, but that’s not why this infrastructure is put in place. You can see there were no other riders in the entire video. And having cycled in Seattle for 35 yrs, I have not seen an increase in bike commuting or cycling in general. It’s not cycling driving all this. The goal is to reduce car lane and parking capacity to force people out of cars

[@TheAwsomeSawse]

And yet bikers STILL block traffic

[@memyselfundeye]

Umm,seattle will NEVER be safe for cyclist. Have you seen how people “drive” in this town? 35 in the left lane on I-5, rolling through reds making right turns through pedestrian crossings, leaving 5 car lengths between vehicles at red lights. Making left turns from the right lane.. I could go on, but enough about my wife.🤣 Seriously, I’ve lived all over the US and i used to think the drivers were bad in Floriduh, but at least their excuse is that they are old. Here, they just are clueless.