Valley Street at the south end of Lake Union )has a ton of old bits of rail track all going nowhere, with no possibility of a train ever using them again.

It would have been really nice if they’d been removed during the construction of the SLUT lines.

And no, I’ve never had trouble on the either the old lines or the SLUT lines while cycling through the area. I rode most of the length of the SLUT from Denny to Fred Hutch on my bike (hybrid tires, 1 3/8″) with no problems a couple of months ago. Admittedly it was dry then.

There’s a few reasons cyclists are angry. In all of this, it’s important to remember that must of us aren’t opposed to the SLUT (though it would have been nice if it actually went faster than walking and/or covered enough ground to get anyone out of their car) – this is all about a design decision made against the advice of bike advocates and in spite of the experience of Portland. The general complaint is that the tracks should not be in the right-hand lane. If the streetcar had been put in the centre of the road, like most streetcar systems anywhere else, or fully separated from the road (like it is on Valley Street), there would be no problem. Sure it would sometimes be necessary to cross tracks, but like you say the new tracks are much less troublesome than the old railway palimpsests all around the city. The trouble is that these tracks run parallel to the course a cyclist would normally take, creating a situation where one has to either run the gauntlet of being stuck between tracks, or move into the left lane infuriating drivers.

The other reason why people are protesting about these and not the old tracks is that it’s a recent decision a supposedly bike-friendly city government took, that makes a major bike thoroughfare (and let’s face it – there’s no alternative to Westlake Ave south of Denny that doesn’t also have problems) significantly less bike-friendly, and didn’t have to be done. A properly designed streetcar can coexist quite happily with bikes, as happens in many cities around the world.

I did say south of Denny. Westlake is a lot more important [to all modes of travel] where it runs diagonal to the rest of the grid. Even north of Denny there is a general point of principle that there was just no need to build the streetcar in this particular way, so it’s a completely unnecessary hazard, but it’s south of Denny where it really creates a practical problem.

I must admit I haven’t yet tried the SLUT myself (I will do soon – I’m still excited about the prospect of any improvement to our public transport infrastructure, and I hope I’m wrong about the slowness), but this was my source: http://www.horsesass.org/?p=3937

Having actually ridden the bus to the T-birds in the Key Arena, I can say that anything would have been better. We had to leave every game ten minutes before the ending, or wait an hour in a bus “shelter” that sheltered nothing.

As for the feeling that “they could have put the tracks anywhere, and they chose here, of all places”, that I doubt very much. It is very rare to find a random decision in building a modern streetcar.

The cyclists need to get with the program and demand a corridor for cycling. That entire neighborhood is going to be rebuilt in a very short time and it won’t be long before pedestrians are complaining about cyclists. Just look at the U of W campus and their widespread “walk your bike” areas.

In fact, it would not be forward to say that cyclists need to organize and mobilize on the bike parking issue also- there’s plenty of evidence that street planners will drop the ball on that if you don’t prod them with sharp sticks once in a while.

Between REI and the Center for Wood Boats, you have two very strong people-powered vehicle organizations anchoring the neighborhood. Both of them suffer from parking shortages and should be natural allies in encouraging cycling as a way to visit their facilities. Visit them, meet your friends, and talk it up- there should be some sympathetic ears.

Having had about 40 years to study out this problem (and having become somewhat less brisk in that period), there needs to be a balance of providing bus service and trolley service.

Take for example the old #11 that ran out Madison. For all of foreseeable time there will be transit on Madison. That should have been made a streetcar route years ago. There are easily a dozen bus routes in Seattle that should be streetcar routes.

So I don’t have too much sympathy for the idea that bus money was stolen to build the streetcar. I’m not too inclined to argue about it, although a little informed inquiry might not be out of place. Maybe somebody should post and address the question directly.

I’m not actually sure where the idea of rubber in the grooves comes from – I’ve not seen it in use anywhere, and it sounds to me like it would be a major maintenance problem and make the streetcar much less efficient.

The “experience of Portland” to which I was referring was that they have a lot more than 1.3 miles of streetcar, and what they’ve found is that putting the tracks on the right (e.g.:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brian_macster/2120996074/in/set-72157603493571085/ ) causes cyclist injury blackspots, whereas giving cyclists space to the right of the streetcar (e.g.:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brian_macster/2120996464/in/set-72157603493571085/ ) is quite safe, with or without rubber filler. That ought to be something Seattle can learn from.