The Emerald City Ride is back! 2026 route will take SR-99 and the West Seattle Bridge

My favorite Cascade Bicycle Club event is back after a hiatus in 2025. The 2026 Emerald City Ride will start in Pioneer Square early on Saturday, April 25. The route will take over the SR-99 elevated freeway south of downtown, then cross the West Seattle Bridge before returning to land and making a loop via Alki, Fauntleroy and Delridge. The ride is April 25, and registration opens February 24. $50 for members, $65 for non-members, $15 for youth. Riders must register in advance.

The 2026 route is very similar to the 2024 route, which was a fun ride. It’s a 20-mile loop that is fairly flat except for one very long climb near the midway point. However, there is no time crunch on the climb because it is after the freeway section, so you can take it as slow as you want. My strongest memory from that hill was a young girl maybe in 5th grade or so leaving me and many other riders in the dust, her dad hustling to keep up. The highlight of the route was definitely having the chance to stop at the high point of the West Seattle Bridge and take in a view you rarely get outside of a traffic jam.

The Emerald City Ride always involves pieces of highway infrastructure that are typically off-limits to bicycling, so even people who bike around Seattle all the time can have a new or at least rare experience. The freeway elements also make it one of the club’s more logistically-challenging one-day rides. After the pandemic shuttered the 2020 ride season, the Emerald City Ride was the last to get back on its feet. There have been several years where the club tried to plan the ride but couldn’t secure all the details in time to pull it off. There were no rides between 2019 and 2024, and the club also couldn’t make it happen 2025. So it’s great to see it back.

Since it started in 2016, the ride has been held in the I-5 Express Lanes, the 520 Bridge, the old Alaskan Way Viaduct, the SR-99 tunnel, and the planned route on SR-99 and the West Seattle Bridge.

The ride starts fairly early to limit the amount of time the two freeways are car-free. Most of the non-freeway sections will be on roads that are open to traffic.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

WA bill would clarify line between e-bikes and e-motos, task state staff with developing enforcement guidelines

A new bill in the Washington State House would make a number of changes to the statewide e-bike and motorcycle laws in an attempt to address the growing problem of very powerful and fast electric two-wheelers sold and operated with somewhat confusing and unclear legality. While many of the bill’s measures are common sense, bill writers may also want to explore what they can do to help electric motorcycle riders comply with state law. We will get to HB 2374 – 2025-26 later in this post, but first we need some background.

The core of the problem is essentially an extension of long-standing problems surrounding the use of non-street-legal motorized dirt bikes that are sold for “off-road use only” but are often ridden on public streets anyway. These motocross-style motorcycles are often missing the mirrors, lights and other requirements to legally license them for use on roadways in Washington State. However, electric motor and battery technology advancements have made electric versions of these bikes (“e-motos”) much more easily attainable, and in some cases they are even sold as electric bicycles (“e-bikes”) even though they are capable of power and top speeds far exceeding the existing electric bicycle classes defined in state law. Electric motorcycles are also much more easily disguised as legal electric bicycles, making the infraction much less obvious than someone riding a roaring motocross bike down the road. There are also serious questions about misleading marketing, including whether parents might think they are buying their child a regular electric bicycle when in fact they have bought them an illegal motorcycle disguised as an electric bicycle.

I see and hear people who are confused about the difference between these devices all the time. Current state law meets national standards by defining an electric-assisted bicycle as a bicycle with working pedals and an electric motor that can provide power up to a limit of 750 Watts that fits into one of three classes:

• Class 1: Pedal-assisted device that stops providing assistance beyond 20 mph
• Class 2: Throttle-controlled device that stops providing power beyond 20 mph
• Class 3: Pedal-assisted device that stops providing assistance beyond 27 mph

Different agencies and local jurisdictions can create their own rules based on the classes, such as Seattle’s rules that allow Class 1 and 2 bikes to use sidewalks, trails and bike lanes but not class 3 (except for certain cases in which a path is the only practicable option, like many of the city’s bridges). The state also limits the use of e-bikes on soft surface trails like mountain bike trails. But in most cases, Class 1 and 2 e-bikes are treated under the law the same as regular bicycles because 20 mph is a top speed that is within reasonable reach of many pedal bike riders.

An important detail that I see people get wrong or gloss over all the time (such as this video from the Berm Peak YouTube channel) is that people look at any e-bike that looks like a dirt bike as though it is an e-moto. Styling has nothing to do with it. There is nothing wrong with someone who wants a Class 2 e-bike that looks like a motocross bike. I don’t personally want a bicycle with a non-adjustable seat and poorly-functioning pedals, but to each their own. If it meets the power and speed limits of a Class 2 e-bike, then it’s a Class 2 e-bike. Of course if someone is riding one irresponsibly then that’s an issue, but you could say that about any non-licensed wheeled device from pedal bikes to skateboards.

However, if a bike is sold as a Class 2 e-bike but those power and speed limits can be easily bypassed, that is a serious problem. Motorcycles are not themselves bad, but they are regulated and licensed for very good reasons. Every bit of extra weight and speed makes a vehicle significantly more dangerous to both riders and others. People often do not understand that the impact force of an object quadruples when its speed doubles. So a person operating a vehicle going 40 mph not only has half the time to react to avoid a collision compared to a person going 20 mph, they also have a much longer stopping distance and quadruple the kinetic energy in the occasion that a collision does occur. So switching a mode on a 20 mph e-bike so it can go twice as fast is not a trivial action. It has turned the device into something very different that needs different rules and regulations.

HB 2374 – 2025-26 contains several actions. First, it clarifies the difference between legal e-bikes and e-motos, including a section that specifically defines vehicles that do not count:

(2) “Electric-assisted bicycle” does not include:

(a) Any vehicle capable of exceeding 20 miles per hour on solely its electric motor; or

(b) Any vehicle that is designed, manufactured, or intended by the manufacturer or seller to be easily configured in order not to meet the requirements of an electric-assisted bicycle, whether by a mechanical switch or button, by changing a setting in software controlling the drive system, by use of an online application, or through other means intended by the manufacturer or seller.

I am not a lawyer, so I have no idea if this is the best legalese to achieve the goal, something I imagine will be considered as the bill moves through the legislature, but the intent is to close the loophole that e-motos can be marketed and sold as e-bikes and then easily reconfigured by users to bypass the speed and power limits.

The bill then adds a new legal definition for an “electric motorcycle” (basically stating that it exceeds the e-bike limits) and adds them to existing sections in the law related to motorcycles. It also clarifies that “foot pegs are not considered pedals.”

Finally, the bill adds a new section that tasks the state Department of Licensing with convening a group of transportation, traffic safety, local government, and active transportation nonprofit representatives to develop a report addressing enforcement of these rules as well as the regulation of vehicle modifications and marketing. There are no teeth in this new section, but the group’s report could form the foundation for future action whether at the agency or legislative levels. It could be the basis for police crackdowns, for example. Or perhaps it could lead to lawsuits against companies marketing e-motos deceptively. These are details the group would figure out.

One of the more difficult tasks is how to determine whether a bike has illegal power limits or not. As we noted earlier, stylings mean nothing. It’s a simple matter of free speech, much like clothing. If someone wants their Class 2 e-bike to look like a motocross bike, that’s their right. So how, then, would a police officer know who to stop? This is going to be very tricky to get right since leaving too much up to officer discretion often leads to inequitable enforcement. Writing enforcement best practices that can be implemented without introducing new channels for biased policing will be challenging.

The bill is also missing efforts to support responsible e-moto riding. The bill reads as though e-motos are entirely bad, but don’t we want more people to get around our state using electric vehicles? While legislating against behaviors and outcomes we don’t want (like kids riding motorcycles!), perhaps it’s also worth figuring out how to support what we do want. Stay tuned for more.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

Saturday: Group will bike to the three new light rail stations to celebrate opening day

Link Light Rail is getting three new stations in South King County Saturday! While you might think that riding the train to those new train stations would be the most obvious way to see them, you would be wrong.

Bob Svercl is leading a free group bike ride from Angle Lake Station, the current southernmost 1 Line station, to Kent Des Moines, Star Lake and Federal Way Downtown stations. The group will ride the 12-mile route at a leisurely pace (Bob’s an excellent and welcoming ride leader) and will be a great way to tour the communities connected by the new stations. At Federal Way, folks can choose to either bike back or take the train.

The ride meets starts with a mandatory briefing at 11 a.m. in the plaza outside Angle Lake Station. More details from the event listing:

Join us for a one-way transit tour from Angle Lake Station to Federal Way Downtown Station on a 12 mile route at a Leisurely (10-12 mph average on flat ground) pace to celebrate the opening of the Federal Way Light Rail Extension!

We will meet at the parking garage plaza in the upper area outside the north entrance to the Angle Lake light rail station (19955 28th Ave S, SeaTac, WA 98188). Bicycle access is from the nearby Lake to Sound Trail a quarter mile away. Parking can be found in the light rail station’s parking garage. Transit access is from Sound Transit’s 1 Line light rail (Angle Lake Station) and a variety of King County Metro Bus routes including the RapidRide A.

Please be ready to ride at 11:00 AM. We will start with a required safety briefing, and roll out when that’s done. All riders must attend the safety briefing to participate.

We will visit a total of 3 brand new light rail stations on this ride at which we will pause briefly to observe them before ending at the south end of the light rail elevated tracks near the Federal Way Downtown light rail station. Riders have the option to take the 1 Line of the light rail to return to the start or ride back on their own. There are restrooms near the start at the Chevron gas station and at the end at the Federal Way Downtown station.

The route is mostly on paved roads and trails.

Please note: this ride is expected to last around 1-2 hours (estimated finish before 1:00 pm) and will end near the Federal Way Downtown Station.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

Holy Turkey! Seattle Cranksgiving 2025 riders clobber records, bike 6,540 pounds of donations to food banks

With food insecurity issues getting national attention, I had a feeling Seattle’s 16th Annual Cranksgiving could attract more people than usual. But I can still hardly believe the final totals from Saturday’s ride.

410 people participated (385 riders and 25 volunteers), absolutely clobbering the previous record set last year, which was itself a huge increase over previous years. The final haul? 6,540 pounds. That’s 3.25 tons all purchased from local food sellers and hauled by bike to four area food banks: Byrd Barr Place, Rainier Valley Food Bank, U District Food Bank and White Center Food Bank.

Big thanks to Bike Works for hosting the Rainier Valley Food Bank drop off point and Conscious Eatery for hosting the White Center Food Bank drop off. Thanks also to Central Cinema for hosting the afterparty.

Most of all, thanks to everyone who participated. Even as food costs rise, Cranksgiving riders responded in kind by increasing the total weight of donations by 55% over 2024. Even though registering to ride is free and I did not increase the number of items on the list compared to previous years, prices have increased a lot thus making participation more expensive (based on rider feedback, I am working on some adjustments for future years to lower the baseline cost for participation). We don’t have a way of tracking total rider expenses, but 6,540 pounds of donations at 2025 grocery store prices is a lot of money. Thank you all for investing in your communities.

Though the week before Thanksgiving is the busiest week of the year for food banks, their services are needed year-round. So if you have the means, please consider making cash donations to one or more food banks. They have many costs that can’t be funded by cans of soup. Food banks also have special access to discount food purchases to keep their shelves stocked and fill in gaps in food donations.

For the fourth year, Seattle Bike Blog partnered with Cascade Bicycle Club’s Pedaling Relief Project to organize and host Seattle Cranksgiving. Once again, Cascade’s Landon Welsh was a great partner, doing a lot of the behind the scenes organizing, event logistics and volunteer coordination. PRP is another great no cost way to get involved in helping reduce food insecurity in your community by using your bike to rescue food or make food bank deliveries. It’s also fun, and you are guaranteed to meet some great people.

Seattle did not crank alone. There were also locally-organized Cranksgivings in Everett, Sequim, Port Angeles and Tacoma. Cranksgiving started in New York City in 1999, and organizers open sourced the event so local communities could host their own versions. Seattle Bike Blog organized the first Seattle Cranksgiving in 2010 and has been doing it every year since.

Check the #CranksgivingSEA hashtag on your social media network of choice to see some snapshots from riders. Below are some photos by our volunteer photographer Andrew Koved:

#SEAbikes #Seattle

The state of our divided Seattle bike movement

I am writing this post before King County Elections releases the November 11 ballot count, so the result of the Seattle mayoral election is still unknown. It has been torture waiting for the result, but perhaps it is also a unique opportunity for some honest reflection on the current state of the Seattle bike movement as a political force. Voting is over, so there are no more voters to win over, yet without a result the finger-pointing and arguing stage hasn’t yet fully begun.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but the recent Shifter video and the unstated subtext bubbling below the Life After Cars event last week has had me thinking a lot about this odd moment in which the local bike movement is split on the most important political position in the city: Mayor. Seattle Bike Blog and the Urbanist enthusiastically endorsed Katie Wilson while Washington Bikes endorsed Bruce Harrell. It’s the first time since writing this blog we have been fully in opposition about a major election (in 2021 WA Bikes dual-endorsed Harrell and Lorena González while Seattle Bike Blog sole-endorsed González).

When you look back through Seattle’s modern bike history (about 1968-present), it’s amazing what bike folks can accomplish when people are united and pulling in the same direction. But when bike folks are divided, things can get bad. We saw this play out in Seattle but especially across the U.S. during the “vehicular cycling” era in which many “avid cyclists” organized against the creation of bike lanes and even sometimes trails because they were convinced that cycling is safest when people learn to bike on roadways like they are driving a car. The result was that any momentum from the 60s and 70s to invest in bike lanes and develop safe bike infrastructure standards was set back by decades. Why would a politician, even a good one, use any of their political capital to build a bike lane that a bunch of bike riders would protest alongside any upset drivers? Maintaining the status quo is politically easy, and making change is difficult. Political leaders need to know that bike supporters will have their back when the “bikelash” comes.

Seattle’s current split is far less significant than in the vehicular cycling days (documented at length in a recent Not Just Bikes video and touched on in my book). The difference, I’d argue, is more about competing theories of change than it is about competing philosophies about cycling itself. Washington Bikes and Seattle Bike Blog both support investments in safer cycling infrastructure and expanding bicycle education and using bikes for direct action through efforts like the Pedaling Relief Project. The big difference is about whether to seek influence through an existing problematic power structure that has been pretty good for bike lanes or to support a bike-riding candidate seeking to create a whole new path to power filled with potential and unknowns. Should the Seattle bike movement be part of the establishment or part of the change? Does power come from the people or from corporate sponsors? Is this a growing pain for a movement that is getting more mainstream and therefore has a wider range of political affinities, or is it a sign of trouble? Can all of these be a little bit true at the same time?

It’s undeniably good that both candidates courted voters who care about cycling. We did not have a mayoral candidate who was out there campaigning on the promise that they would tear out the bike lanes, and that alone is a sign of the bike movement’s power and the popularity of cycling and safe streets among Seattle voters. It has been obviously beneficial to the cause of increased cycling infrastructure that WA Bikes has had a friend in Mayor Harrell these past four years. If Harrell manages to pull out a close victory as the last ballots are counted (and perhaps recounted), he will absolutely owe some of it to the tens of thousands of dollars WA Bikes spent on mailers supporting him as well as their messages of support to their very large email list. WA Bikes reached significantly into a demographic that you would expect to be strong for Wilson: Bike riders.

But this is also the exact scenario I fear most because I think infighting within the Seattle bike movement would be intense and could leave lasting scars. If the margin for defeating Wilson ends up within the feasible WA Bikes influence range, things could get ugly. People calling out WA Bikes for failing to even dual endorse a bike-riding candidate and longtime transportation advocate has already been a constant buzz in recent months. If it ends up being decisive, well, grievances will be uncorked.

Maybe this is a fight that needs to happen. Hashing out disagreements is an important part of any social movement. In some ways, this is how Seattle Neighborhood Greenways initially came to be. It wasn’t an opposition group to Cascade Bicycle Club (back then Cascade was a political org, but a merger and major reorganization in 2015 turned Cascade into a non-partisan 501c3 org and WA Bikes into a politically-active 501c4 org). But as I wrote in my book, Cascade was in crisis in 2011 over the organization’s political actions. Cascade initially backed Greg Nickels in the 2009 primary, but then backed the anti-establishment candidate for mayor Mike McGinn during the general election (CORRECTION: I initially wrote that Cascade had backed McGinn over Nickels in the primary, but this was not accurate. I regret the error.). This is around the time I started Seattle Bike Blog (July 2010), so one of my first big tasks was to report on the chaos within Cascade and in some ways play the mediator. Several people at the time described it to me as a “civil war.” At one point, the Board of Directors fired the Executive Director because he refused to fire the club’s Advocacy Director, then a bunch of members organized against the Board and all but forced them to resign en masse. To outside observers they looked like the dog that caught the car. Cascade had been building their influence over decades and finally got a bike-riding champion elected mayor, then promptly imploded under the pressure of their own success.

Amid all that infighting, neighbors worried that the bike movement was going to blow its chance to take advantage of a rare opportunity for change started creating their own small neighborhood groups focused on supporting safe streets. They sidestepped the Cascade chaos and focused on the real goal: Safe streets. They were enormously successful, and the groups eventually formed into Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, a bottom-up organization in which the main org exists largely to support the advocacy work of the neighborhood groups. Greenways groups along with Cascade (once it got its shit together) were able to set in motion the foundations for today’s bike network such as the creation of the 2014 Bicycle Master Plan (at the time probably the best such plan in the nation), a pilot protected bike lane on 2nd Ave downtown, and the inclusion of unprecedented funding for bike improvements in the 2015 Move Seattle levy. It’s remarkable in retrospect that the Seattle bike movement was able to so deftly navigate such an awful implosion at Cascade and come of it stronger than before.

Now we have almost the opposite dynamic at play. WA Bikes supported the establishment candidate this time, and many of the people in their base are angry about it. My read is that it’s probably better for WA Bikes (and its sister organization Cascade) if Wilson pulls off the win. WA Bikes is significantly out of step with a large portion of its own base on this one, and I’m sure folks will organize some kind of response. Harrell supporters can get mad at Seattle Bike Blog and no critical bike movement infrastructure will be seriously damaged (this is the power of independent media). But we need WA Bikes and Cascade.

As I mentioned in the Shifter video, it’s a small miracle that Cascade (and WA Bikes) exists the way it does. It has so many more resources to dedicate to advocacy than most other bicycling organizations in the country because its early organizers made the decision to direct the revenue from the club’s hit rides back into the club and its advocacy efforts. It was a volunteer-run organization for a long time, and it kept pumping out hit after hit with its rides. A huge number of people have participated in Cascade events, and Cascade is often a person’s first contact with cycling. It is a powerful presence culturally and politically, and it’s not something that could be created today if we were starting from scratch. It’s a special institution that belongs in part to everyone who rides a bike here, which is why I think people are feeling so angry, hurt and sold out. In a town where corporate profits are constantly prioritized above the people, it’s painful to see that even the bike club is acting on the same side as the ultrawealthy megadonors behind the Harrell campaign and his not-so-independent PAC. If in 2011 they were the dog that caught the car, in 2025 they are the car.

I know that the bike movement in Seattle is strong enough and cares enough to navigate whatever is ahead. I hope this post can help provide a basis of understanding about what happened last time there was a big disagreement over local politics within the club as well as some of the dynamics at play. No matter what happens (if anything happens at all), we will come out stronger so long as everyone keeps their eyes on the end goal: More people bicycling safely.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

Seattle Cranksgiving 2025 is November 22 + More ways to support community food security with your wallet and your bike

The 16th Annual Seattle Cranksgiving is November 22, but it could be unlike any that came before it. Join us for a day of fun, bikes and community support! Anyone with a bike and a way to carry some food can join for a bike ride scavenger hunt to buy food to donate to four local food banks: Rainier Valley Food Bank, Byrd Barr Place, U District Food Bank and, for the first time, White Center Food Bank.

Cranksgiving is an alleycat ride challenging you and a team of up to four people to bike to as many grocery sellers on our secret list within the time limit, buying items our partner food banks have requested along the way. You score points for each location visited, each item type donated as well as some silly additional challenges. After dropping off donations, riders are invited to join us for an afterparty at Central Cinema. It’s a lot of fun, but it also brings in a huge amount of food. Riders last year broke our all-time record by hauling more than two tons of donations (4,210 pounds) all by bike.

We are once again partnering with Cascade Bicycle Club’s Pedaling Relief Project to host Seattle Cranksgiving 2025. The event is free to register, but expect to spend at least $40 on groceries (or more if you are able). Pre-registration is not required, but RSVP if you can so we have a rough idea of how many people might show up. Invite your friends!

We will be getting everyone registered and set-up between 9 and 9:45 a.m. at Byrd Barr Place. The ride will start promptly at 10, and all riders must be finished by 2 p.m. Teams will get one list that sends them either north or south, then a second list that brings them back to the start. There is no set route, and navigating the city on your own is part of the challenge. This is a great opportunity to show off your bike route knowledge.

The longer routes are 12–15 miles and the shorter route is about 3–5 miles. Bring a bike lock, a pen, a way to carry food (if nothing else a backpack works), and anything you need to handle whatever the weather has in store for us. We ride rain or shine. They laughed at you when you bought that waterproof turkey costume, but you were just getting prepared for this moment. We also have volunteer positions if that’s more your speed.

You don’t have to wait until November 22 to use your bike as a tool for community food support. Check out the Pedaling Relief Project to see if there is a food rescue or delivery time and location that works for you. It’s a lot of fun, and you are guaranteed to meet inspiring people. PRP volunteers take a bunch of transportation tasks off the shoulders of food bank staff and volunteers while also helping to increase food bank distribution capacity.

Cranksgiving in a time of cuts to SNAP

As of writing this post, Republicans in DC appear prepared to allow federal SNAP benefits (AKA food stamps) to stop November 1. 930,000 people in Washington State (about one in ten state residents) currently rely on SNAP to afford food, which is only getting more expensive due to Republican tariffs and Republican abduction raids targeting immigrants working all stages of our food production pipeline. The Seattle Times reports that existing EBT balances will still be usable, but additional funds will not be added after November 1. People can continue to apply for SNAP, but those applications won’t be processed until positions are staffed again.

We do not know what the situation will be like November 22, and I hope SNAP benefits are back before then. But either way, we know our food banks will be pushed hard. Lines at food banks are already getting longer as the cost of living increases, but cutting SNAP will cause a surge in extreme hardship. Food banks cannot cover the loss of SNAP, but they will do everything they can to help feed their communities. So if you have the means, please consider making a cash donation to your local food banks.

You can also check your food bank for more volunteer opportunities. For example, Rainier Valley Food Bank has just opened their Community Food Hub building this month after a lengthy renovation (many Cranksgiving riders helped donate to this project years back!), and they are seeking new volunteers to help operate the space and keep it open more days and hours.

If you are feeling financial strain as each trip to the grocery store feels more difficult to squeeze into your budget, your food bank is there for you. There’s no onerous qualifying process, you just show up when they are open and get food.

Community joy is an act of defiance in the face of cruelty and fascism. These monsters cutting SNAP want the people to be miserable, but we can stand up for each other, support each other and enjoy each other whether they like it or not.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

E Marginal Way bikeway is now open, enjoy the street car-free for 5 more days

This summer, E Marginal Way construction crews maintained a separated bikeway coned off while the rest of the street was closed to most car and truck traffic. The street went from being a stressful and very deteriorated bike route between downtown and the Spokane Street bike trail to perhaps the most bike-friendly street in the city, at least temporarily. Now the project team has completed work on the permanent bikeway, which officially opened today as they prepare to reopen the street to motor vehicle traffic October 14. SDOT, Cascade Bicycle Club and West Seattle Bike Connections are hosting a community celebration at E Marginal Way and S Hanford Street 10:30 a.m. to noon October 25.

Don’t tell SDOT, but I broke the rules and rode the new bikeway a few weeks ago on a family bike ride to a friend’s birthday party in Lincoln Park. It is not only protected from the general traffic lanes, it is often separated by a significant landscaping gap. In most places where there is no gap, a concrete wall protects the path.

The bikeway crosses the street at the upgraded S Horton Street traffic signal, but a future bike connection will also continue on the east side of the street to S Spokane Street, giving riders options while better connecting to some SoDo destinations. That secondary bikeway is waiting on some railroad work and is expected to open in “early 2026,” according to the latest project update.

The street rebuild project was a high-budget $72 million freight project that received a mix of local, state, federal and Port of Seattle funds. It has become something of a demonstration project for how best to mix biking and heavy freight uses, and I hope it will be studied as a model for other projects both locally and across the country. The street is the most important connection between the new downtown waterfront bikeway and the trail nexus on the west side of the Spokane Street Swing Bridge where the Duwamish Trail from South King County and Duwamish Valley neighborhoods, the trail connection to Delridge, and the Alki Trail all converge.

The city is now working to complete the design the segment of E Marginal Way south from Spokane Street to Diagonal Ave S, though leaders need to hear your support for building the planned bike connection. Cascade Bicycle Club put out an action alert you can use to quickly and easily support safe and separated bike access on the rest of E Marginal. You can point to the success of this new bikeway as an example of the kind of connection the Georgetown neighborhood also deserves. The next phase of E Marginal Way work currently has funding for design, but significant additional funding will be needed before construction can begin.

With this opening, there is now a permanent trail connection from South Park to the Ship Canal Trail via the downtown Seattle waterfront. Thanks to recently-opened connections from South Park to Georgetown and Georgetown to (almost) downtown, there is now a nearly-complete 13-mile loop that connects to the stadiums.

By continuing along the recently-opened waterfront bikeway to the recently-opened Alaskan Way bikeway, riders can connect through Myrtle Edwards Park and the recently-improved Terminal 91 Trail to reach the Ship Canal Trail. With a short connection across the Fremont Bridge, riders can then reach the Burke-Gilman Trail. That means you can bike 55 miles from South Park to downtown to Fremont to Bothell to Redmond to Issaquah to Preston to Treehouse Point almost entirely on trails. And if King County would connect the Preston-Snoqualmie Trail to the Snoqualmie Valley Trail, you could even bike to Rattlesnake Lake or keep going all the way to Snoqualmie Pass or Ellensburg or someday maybe Idaho or even Washington DC. OK, maybe I’m getting a little carried away.

Most importantly, this project creates a permanent, quality connection through an industrial area that used to be a barrier to cycling across Seattle and the region. I hope that it also keeps everybody safe from now on. Rest in peace, Lance David.

#SEAbikes #Seattle