31 Replies to “Sunday Open Thread: Bike Security”

  2. STB bloggers are always lecturing us on benefits of efficiencies, so I’m rather surprised to see this inefficient bike lock system being endorsed. It only allows one bike per pole.

    2. It opens up a whole new avenue for bike thieves. Lock a chain around a pole so that the lift can’t go down and put your phone number on it. You want the chain off? It’s going to cost you!

      I’m a fan of those bikes coming out of design houses where the frame has hinges to become the lock. I have to say that locking and unlocking my bike is one of my least favorite things about cycling, why oh why can’t people just be good?

      1. There’s nothing stopping me from locking someone else’s bike with my own lock now–pole or no pole.

        Or do what the PE teachers taught me in Jr. High–wait for someone else to set their lock down on the bench and swap them. They’ll unknowingly lock your lock to their locker, providing you access to all of their goodies.

      3. Nope, Federal Way. It was part of the first day orientation; the teachers lectured us to not leave our locks on the bench for that specific reason. They should’ve just left it at that and I would’ve been none the wiser.

    3. People, you do realize that this is a humorous advertisement? Conrad is an electronics store like RadioShack with a strong DIY business.

      2. But I think you are right, this is to grab attention for the web site, not a commercially available product. Interesting idea, however.

    4. You’re right, Sam, it’s only practical for one bike per pole (and hah I’m using practical pretty loosely). But since the poles are already there, you’re not building any new infrastructure for these bike parking spots. Of course, in most cases you should build more bike parking than this anyways.

    5. Can you please find a different reason to criticize the STB bloggers?

      “The neat little tidbit STB put up on this week’s Sunday open thread didn’t exactly fit with the pro transit community’s point that transit is more efficient than cars” argument hasn’t been tried before, but it is just a little sad.

    1. I thought I did. First parker comes along, runs his bike up to the top of the pole. Another person comes along, putting his bike on the pole below the first bike. A third puts his bike below one and two. The first can’t be taken down until the third and second take their bikes away. As shown in the video clip, there’s nothing preventing someone with a similar device from parking their bike under the bike of the guy in the clip.

      Also, even if the device is novel and there is only one in existance, people with conventional chain locks can tie up their bikes at the bottom of the pole without interfering with the clever fellow from retrieving his bike.

  4. VMT’s and Roads.
    I was a bit startled (I startle easily), when I looked at the PSRC report on vehicle miles traveled (VMT’s).
    http://www.psrc.org/assets/810/t2oct10.pdf
    Fewer than 20% of the freeways and arterials carry over 80% of the VMT’s. So that means 80% of the rest of the roads are grossly underutilized. “No Shortage of Pavement around Here”. Freeways at 2.7% carry nearly half of all traffic.
    Also interesting is that total miles traveled resulting from recession was less than 3%, and much of that has now rebounded to pre-recession levels.

    2. I’ll have to look for a breakdown on the distribution of the gas tax revenue.

      It would be a great way to see whose gas tax pays for whose road.

      1. Hope you can find it. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised with just freeway lane miles actually broke even with 3% of the lane miles, carrying 42% of the traffic.
        If that’s the case, keep it to yourself.

      2. If you just apply what is the average $.02 per mile of gas tax that gets burnt up on any given lane mile of roadway (based on daily counts times 365 times 30 years), you generally come up with those folks paying about 30% of the cost on freeways.

        That leaves the rest of the drivers in the area filling in the rest.

        The Evergreen Point bridge comes out really bad, at about 3%.

        I would say the local/collector streets are severely underfunded, and that arterial drivers are paying somewhat close to the cost.

        However, it would be nice to see a public document outlining that the same way they did this VMT report.

    3. this seems to confirm what i often say, that puget sound has a severe shortage of highways. this, more than anything is the source of our transit woes.

      1. Piffle. The Puget Sound area has an overabundance of cars (and aggressive transplant drivers) Case Closed.

  7. Suppose this might more aptly belong in yesterday’s post, but since this post is newer and open, here it is.

    I went through SPD’s blotter page looking for pedestrian deaths in 2010. Given the release of the fatality map, several recent pedestrian fatalities in the region, and the Pike Place incident, it seemed like 2010 was setting up to be a pretty bad year for pedestrians. But if my count is accurate, it appears to’ve been better than most. Assuming no new deaths in the next five days, it looks like 5 pedestrians died on public streets in Seattle in 2010, the lowest number since 2002. And as far as I can tell, so far no cyclists have died on Seattle streets this year. The following are the dates & locations of this year’s deaths:

    • Jan 28th Aurora Avenue North approaching 4500 Block.
    • May 3rd at Harvard Avenue East and East Thomas Street.
    • May 3rd 16th Avenue approaching East Jefferson Street.
    • Oct 9 near the James Street exit of Interstate 5
    • Nov 17th 7th & Cherry

    Also, on Apr 26th a pedestrian was killed in the McDonald’s parking lot in Ballard, and on Nov 25th a ped was fatally struck by the Empire Builder in Blue Ridge. However, as both these incidents occurred on private property, they aren’t included in SDOT’s pedestrian fatality counts.

    It is, of course, impossible to know if this year’s low count is due to Bridging the Gap, increased driver & pedestrian education, brighter LED streetlights — or if it’s just happenstance. But either way, it’s good news. Here’s hoping for even fewer deaths in 2011.

    Seattle pedestrian fatality counts for the last few years:
    2001 – 12
    2002 – 5
    2003 – 11
    2004 – 10
    2005 – 8
    2006 – 10
    2007 – 6
    2008 – [Can’t find a # for Seattle. 19 in all of King County.]
    2009 – 8
    2010 – 5

  9. U Link has gotten a payment from FTA for its New Starts committment.

    http://www.fta.dot.gov/news/news_events_12241.html

    http://www.fta.dot.gov/news/news_events_12243.html

    “Seattle – University Link
    Advanced Payment: $22,686,000
    Sound Transit is extending its existing Central Link light rail transit line from its northern terminus at Westlake Station in downtown Seattle to the University of Washington, 3.1 miles to the northeast. The University Link corridor is the most densely developed residential and employment area in the Central Puget Sound region and the state of Washington. The extension is expected to serve more than 40,200 weekday riders by 2030. The project is estimated to cost $1.947 million, with a federal New Starts share of $813 million.”

  10. Has anyone else noticed that the Renton Transit Center park and ride in the garage is eliminating 50 spaces as of the first of the year? I think it’s going from about 200 spaces to about 150. This follows a reduction in parking spaces they did last year.

    That park and ride is currently a bit underutilized, as folks taking the 560 and 565 to Bellevue and Redmond increasingly park in the big Boeing lot next to the Renton Landing. (It’s vastly more convenient if you’re grabbing one of those buses to catch the bus just before it gets onto the highway.) It’s not surprising that Metro would choose to reduce the number of stalls they’re leasing from the city of Renton, especially since nobody wants to park on the rooftop.

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