http://clevercycles.com/products/stokemonkey/

Such a bicycle literally renders a car unnecessary for in-city travel of any sort.

http://www.carfreeinbigd.com/2010/04/thirsty-thursday-linkages_22.html

With only 14,000 people and all those extra roads, I imaging biking would be pretty easy except that the roads are wearing out!

Well yes, but Capitol Hill and First Hill form a ridge, so once you get to the highlands you can ride N-S along it without difficulty. For E-W, Pike and Pine Streets are pretty gradual from Pike Place to 14th, and Pine/Madison will take you to 23rd.

Beacon Hill also forms a ridge, so you can go from Jackson to Cloverdale pretty easily, and there’s a cute bike trail in the middle part. Beacon just needs more business destinations to ride to. :) And if you ignore the hill from Jackson to James, Capitol/First/Beacon almost forms a single ridge.

Are there similar flat-ish routes in West Seattle? I don’t know that area well enough.

And besides e-assist bikes are becoming better and cheaper every year – the Chinese and European markets are driving both innovation and volumes like crazy. The numbers are amazing. 20M bikes sold in China last year alone. In Holland one out of eight bikes that are sold are e-bikes – over 150k e-bikes in 2009 (out of a population of 16M – equiv to selling 3M e-bikes in US!). (Most Chinese bikes are more scooters than e-assist bikes, but the Euro e-bikes are increasingly fun to ride bikes that just can help you climb.) As lots of posters have pointed out e-bikes do a pretty good job of neutralizing hills.

Seattle has tremendous upside to gain from more biking. A modest investment in infrastructure would pay big returns in improved health (more exercise, less bad air & childhood asthma), lower congestion (big win for drivers), more resilience to upcoming oil price volatility, and overall just make Seattle a nicer place to be.

Refs:

Chinese e-bikes have caused lead prices to increase 50%:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601012&sid=agg8UO2s03Lo

Dutch e-bike sales:
http://www.bike-eu.com/news/4030/in-holland-one-out-of-eight-bikes-is-electric.html

While it’s an abomination to the “shining city on a hill” types, many industrial workers would *love* affordable apartments within manufacturing complexes.

For many years in many cities, zoning purists banned residential-over-retail and residential-over-office before rediscovering the value in these mixed-use combinations. I’m not suggesting living in a foundry or over a chemical plant, but many light manufacturing operations would be entirely compatible with an added story of residential use.

Zoning for mixed use can prohibit exclusively-residential use while encouraging residential over compatible industry. Given the cost of housing elsewhere in the city, residential developers could well subsidize low-rent light industrial space to create market-rate worker housing. More industry and more housing with fewer commute trips.

It’s hard to beat just walking down stairs as a commute.

Hills may be slower than flatland riding, but they really aren’t a barrier to utility cycling. (This morning on my way up to Beacon Hill to get on the I-90 trail, I was passed by a rider old enough to be my father, riding a sit-up-and-beg three speed.)

Throw in the booming market in electric-assist bicycles and hills really aren’t the barrier they may seem.

An air horn, so I can alert buses that are loading/unloading that I’m coming around.
http://www.amazon.com/Delta-Airzound-Bike-Horn/dp/B000ACAMJC

A class 3 highway reflective vest. So people can see me at a distance and make a lane choice adjustment before being right on top of me.
http://www.westernsafety.com/britethreads2009/britethreads2009Surveyors.html

A set of lights that is visible from mars.. no kidding, but they are the brightest things I could afford.

http://www.dinotte.com (400L/400R riders package)

Now when cars approach me they roll down their windows and say “Hey! Those are incredibly bright lights! I saw you a mile back.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j1PgmMbug8

it’s not about the hills… it’s about the rights of bicyclists to be on the road and not be run down.

“Can’t get rid of hills” ah we tried that. One only needs to look at an old map of Seattle to see the hills that used to be here.

I started a companion map of bad (i.e., unsafe) bicycle routes.

Can we wish for a water-creation machine too? Eastern Washington would need more water if it’s to support a large population.

ttp://www.thelandinginrenton.com/

http://www.thelandinginrenton.com/apartments.php

The brand new town square mall in Renton (near Fry’s and the old Boeing plant).

If they can build this type of planned community then they can build “bike communites”.

In face, something like this, will a “town center” that has lots of little streets, open air shops, traffic calming devices like circles, proves to me that rebuilding can make a town better than many exsiting Seattle neighborhoods.