Cycling issues and advocacy
An unworthy episode obscures historic deliberation and progress for safer cycling routes. In August 2023, a closely divided Eastlake Community Council board of directors approved a letter calling on federal and local officials to cancel funding for both the RapidRide J Line and for protected bicycle lanes on Eastlake Avenue.
In response, four dissenting board members, as individuals, sent their own letter to the same recipients, expressing support for the RapidRide J Line and for protected bicycle lanes on Eastlake Avenue. A few days later, five board members by the barest of majorities voted to remove from the board their four board colleagues who had voted against the anti-letter, and who had written their own unofficial letter supporting the project.
These inexcusable actions by a narrow board majority were an unprecedented departure from ECC’s 52 years of fair and open process, and its former tolerance for the diversity of board and neighborhood opinion. The urgent need to reform the current ECC board is fully discussed on another page of this web site (click here).
Fortunately, the ECC board majority was not successful in blocking funding and plans for protected cycle lanes and RapidRide on Eastlake Avenue.
The present web page on cycling issues and advocacy, and a related web page (click here) on bus access and advocacy show that for much of its history, ECC has strongly advocated for cycling and transit. The board’s recent opposition is hopefully a temporary aberration.
Protected cycle lanes are needed on Eastlake Avenue. Although Eastlake has a high rate of cycling by residents, workers, restaurant patrons, and riders who are simply passing through, it also one of the most dangerous places for them. One-way protected bike lanes on Eastlake Avenue are the best and safest way to accommodate them. As planned in the RapidRide J line project, each one-way protected bike lane will be located just off the curb, and will run between each bus station and the curb.
The new protected cycling lanes will bring more cyclists to and through Eastlake on their way to or from such places as downtown, South Lake Union, the Burke Gilman Trial, and the University District. Many will stop to spend money in Eastlake. Cars will still be the most visible and numerous users of Eastlake Avenue. But bus riders, pedestrians, cyclists, and other rollers will at last easily and safely move along and across Eastlake Avenue.
A three-year construction project, which will temporarily sacrifice most of Eastlake Avenue’s on-street parking, is needed mostly for other reasons than the bus and cycle improvements. Pavement, sidewalks, curbs, and gutters need replacement, as does the main water line.
When the project is done, about 350 current parking spaces will no longer be on Eastlake Avenue. More than half of these are already unavailable every weekday at commute time – for two hours on the inbound (south) side and then for two hours on the outbound (north) side, with vehicles immediately violating ticketed and towed. This peak-hour parking prohibition has been in place since 1987.
The bike and bus projects would simply not be possible without eliminating this on-street parking. Buses will no longer face the delay and danger of pulling in and out of traffic for each stop. And cyclists will no longer face cars crossing in front of them on the way to parking places, nor will they risk crashing into open car doors.
ECC collaboration with SDOT in early planning for protected cycle lanes on Eastlake Avenue. The August 2023 vote by a narrow majority of the Eastlake Community Council board to oppose protected cycle lanes on Eastlake Avenue was taken contrary to years of collaboration with SDOT by previous ECC boards to explore the alternatives for cyclists. These deeply researched efforts had led ECC earlier to conclude that there is no feasible alternative to such protected cycle lanes as a way to provide safe passage for commuting bicyclists to move through the Eastlake neighborhood.
As also discussed in the related web page on transit service and planning (click here), a challenging issue in the period 2015-2018 was SDOT’s proposal to eliminate Eastlake Avenue’s on-street parking to clear the bus lanes and stops and to make room for protected cycle lanes. ECC officers conducted a very public dialogue, fully reported in successive issues of the Eastlake News, pushing the SDOT planners and their consultants for every possible option that might make it possible to get cyclists through the Eastlake neighborhood without needing to sacrifice parking on Eastlake Avenue.
ECC and SDOT worked together to explore every possible route and format for cyclists to move through the neighborhood. SDOT produced in October 2018 a 92-page report (click here) which exhaustively analyzed every serious alternative, concluding that there is no alternative for safe passage of cyclists through the Eastlake neighborhood that is as effective as protected bicycle lanes on Eastlake Avenue. The alternative bicycle routes would not only be less convenient and effective, but would also sacrifice as much on-street parking, closer to people’s residences.
Those who came onto the ECC board in 2019 and the ensuing years quickly reopened the demand for on-street parking not to be removed on Eastlake Avenue. They showed little interest in the previous board’s years of well-documented struggle with the choices which brought its acceptance that cycling through Eastlake could not be safe without protected cycling lanes that would require giving up most parking on Eastlake Avenue.
Early advocacy. In the 1970s, the Eastlake Community Council worked with the newly formed Seattle Bicycle Advisory Council to improve bicycle access and safety around Lake Union. [more text will be added here]
Eastlake Neighborhoood Plan. This ECC-managed plan was adopted by the Mayor and City Council in 1999 with praise for its unexcelled outreach. It was conducted under City contract and oversight, emerged from years of consensus-building among residential, business, and other stakeholders. Goal T-4 of the Plan is the Improve Bicycle Conditions. Following are some excerpts from page VI-16, and then background on a bicycle improvement that resulted from the Plan:
“Located as it is between the University District and Downtown, the Eastlake neighborhood receives many pass-through visits from bicvcles. … Bicyclists riding through Eastlake do not all follow the same route. Some bicycle slowly along the scenic Fairview Avenue E. shoreline route, undeterred by its narrowness and the large number of people walking in the street. Others take the more direct route of Eastlake Avenue, sharing the road with fast-moving buses and commuter traffic. A growing number of bicyclists take Boylston or Harvard Avenue to connect with the Lakeview/Melrose bypass on the east side of I-5 just south of where Lakeview crosses over the freeway. And some bicyclists take Minor Avenue [E.], which has a parking prohibition on the east side of its flat four-lock length. The multiplicity of bicycle routes through Eastlake should not be discouraged; it satisfies the needs of different bicyclists, while spreading the load across several Eastlake streets.”
A specific cycling-related proposal which the Eastlake Transportation Plan designated as a key priority, and which soon came to pass as a result of follow-up by neighborhood vollunteers in working with the Seattle Department of Transportation, was Objective T-4.2, “Redesign the intersection of Boylston Avenue [E.], Lakeview Boulevard, [E.] Newton Street, and the I-5 on-ramp to facilitate safer conditions for local traffic, bicyclists, and pedestrians.”
As a result of these efforts, SDOT installed a curb bulb which prevents motorists who are heading south on Boylston Avenue E. from speeding directly onto the I-5 on-ramp. The curb bulb has the effect of requiring motorists to slow down in order to make a slight turn onto the I-5 on-ramp. The result is to increase the safety of cyclists who are riding south on Boylston Avenue E. and making the gradual left turn in front of the I-05 on-ramp as they proceed onto Lakeview Blvd. under the I-5 overpass.