Category: Uncategorized

So last night as I was walking home from PNA I got hit by a car.  I was crossing Phinney at 65th, in the crosswalk, with the light, when a guy in a white SUV came up fast to the intersection and made a right turn without stopping.  He  knocked me down but  I got up, yelled at him , and banged on his hood – so he gunned his motor and hit me again.  I jumped sideways and as he went past he stuck his fist out the window and hit me in the face knocking off my glasses.  I was kind of shaken up but only my jaw hurt.

It was just over a month ago that I got hit on my bike crossing Blakely, in the crosswalk, by a woman in a minivan.  This is after years of riding lots of miles with no incidents.

Sometimes when it seems like everyone around you is an asshole, you have to ask whether or not it’s you.  I wasn’t being aggressive in either of these incidents, and both times I was paying attention.  I was wearing highly visible clothing both times (although that really shouldn’t have mattered.)   I don’t know – maybe it’s me, but I kind of think it’s just luck.

So it turns out that if you link your Strava to the bike everywhere site once, you continue to post there in future challenges.  Unknown to me I was the high-mileage male rider for the UW in November ‘s ride-in-the-rain and I was third overall.  I wasn’t affiliated with a team.  (Extraordinary Least Squares ws there but didn’t post so many miles this time.)

This month makes one year that the new trail has been open over the 520 bridge.  Here’s a link to several routes that have morphed to take advantage of my ability to ride across 520.  The big difference that the new trail makes is that my default ride has shifted to segments of the Lake Washington Loop route either north or south of the bridge.  I’ve rediscovered some of the rides in the old bike guides because I don’t have to drive to the trailhead any more.  A lot of the rides on the eastside that I’m used to doing have now become loops and a lot more interesting.

This is not to say that there aren’t areas for improvement:

• The elevated plates over the expansion joints are an abomination – we’d be better off if they were uncovered like on the I-90 bridge
• The crossing at Evergreen Point should have been an underpass at the level of the tennis courts
• The segment on Northup between 108th and the trailhead on 24th is really disappointing – the City of Bellevue needs to step it up.  Guys, there are two major pieces of bicycle infrastructure here and they don’t connect with each other!
• The west-bound intersection at 108th is really a bad design.  There should probably be a pedestrian bridge here, (but then you’d need a MUP on the south side of Northup to connect it to.)
• The trailhead on 24th is a blind crossing that’s going to kill somebody.  It’s made worse by the steep hill you come up approaching it westbound.  You have to keep up your momentum to get up the hill, but then you risk popping out in front of a car you can’t see.
• The crossings further east on the trail continue to be irritants – particularly the one at 148th.  I thought Microsoft had gotten State money to improve those crossings, but maybe that was just the one on 36th?
• The 520 trail needs to start at the Avondale / SR 202 intersection and the Redmond Central Connector and the East Lake Sammamish Trail need to thread under those ramps and feed into the 520 trail.

I can’t wait to see how the plans for the segment on out to I-5 get realized and I’m even more eager for the second Montlake Bridge.  (Like either of those will happen in my lifetime!)

I rode up the hill in Golden Gardens today and came back on 85th.  That took me by the place where we crashed last year and Odette’s pelvis was fractured.  Since the last time I rode that way they’ve repaired the sunken paver.

now it looks pretty benign

I figured out

1. how to upload the import files (kml files) from cyclemeter into ridewithGPS
2. how to convert those kml files into routes so the ridewithGPS does queue sheets for them
3. how to append one route to another so that I can show the whole trip one one map
4. how to embed a ridewithGPS map in an html page (on a wordpress site)

Voilla:

I read online that the Maple Street underpass at Swamp Creek would reopen the evening of October 31 (after eight months of construction) and I thought I’d take a look the morning of November first.  The first thing I came to was the Interurban Trail crossing at 212^th street.  This was the first time I’d ridden the trail there since April when it still detoured and went by the tennis courts.  I was skeptical about the new design since it looked like a long stretch protected bike lane going against traffic, but they did a great job and despite negotiating a couple of driveways the trail segment is short and set way back from the street.  Won’t miss that chicane we used to have to get through!

The next development was less positive – the trail is now closed at 52^nd (where it runs next to the school bus lot.) There’s no detour, no indication how long it will be closed, just a sign and a fence.  I rode over to 200^th and then back through the transit center parking lots only to find that the bridge over 44^th was closed as well!  Light rail comes to Lynnwood in 2024 but it is going to be a long five years.

The trail behind Target was open (and even blown clear of leaves.)  The new underpass has a bike lane.  I don’t understand why it took eight months but now that it’s done it’s nice.

The bonus came where you take Filbert (SR 524) to get from Larch to Locust.  Since the last time I was there they’ve inserted two traffic circles – one before and one after the 405 underpass.  We’ll see how good oncoming traffic is about yielding to a bike in the roundabout, but this morning traffic was light and it worked really well.

New system going in on Burke-Gilman Trail will alert drivers to pedestrians, bicyclists
By: KIRO 7 News Staff

Updated: Oct 29, 2018 – 8:59 AM

A cutting-edge system is coming to one of the area’s most popular trails.

The goal is to alert drivers to pedestrians and bicyclists.

The new system, which will rely entirely on solar power, will be installed along the Burke-Gilman Trail next week.

University of Washington researchers will place smart sensors on light poles that will be exposed to the sun, so they can be powered independently and will function as a warning system for areas where the trail meets the road.

The reason for the system on the trail is borne out of other technology.

Warning systems for cars can often sense other cars but may not be able to sense pedestrians or cyclists on trails.

STAR Lab researchers from UW are going to put up the small solar-powered sensors, called “Smart Road Stickers,” to send safety warnings to both pedestrians and drivers via their cellphones, alerting them to one another.

The stickers will only detect cellphones that have the star labs detection app installed, but they also can communicate with vehicles. The app will send safety notifications on users’ phones and drivers will receive the alerts through their vehicles.

I got hit by a car on the Burke last week – traffic was stopped when I approached the fancy new crosswalk on Blakley so I proceeded and when I was in the middle of the crosswalk a woman in a blue van gunned her motor and ran right into me.  Since I was only a couple feet in front of her she didn’t have time to pick up much speed so I just got knocked down, bruised, and my front wheel got tacoed.

Somehow I don’t think a text on my phone would have made any difference…

To:  PRC@seattle.gov

Project # 303274-LU / 150 NE 116th St

here is the narrative