This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.
Just to highlight Seattle’s struggling bicycle infrastructure, I thought I’d describe my bicycle experience today.  My wife and I took our 2yr old son on a ride from Gasworks Park to the Lake Forest Park Farmer’s Market.  The ride started off great – the Burke Gilman Trail was packed with bikers, joggers, and rollerbladers.  But when we were close to Lake Forest Park we came upon a sign saying that the BGT is closed in 2.5 miles, and there’s a detour.  Fairly sure the Third Place Commons was less than 2.5 miles away, we continued onward.  But I had miscalculated – the BGT was closed about a mile from our destination.  With a choice between turning around and riding 2.5 miles to the detour and just finding our own way, we chose the adventurous route.  This led us to a push-your-bike grade of hill.  Ok, a few of them.  In the hot sun, but we eventually ended up on Bothell Way NE.  This road (actually a highway), is 4 lanes of unforgiving, high-speed traffic.  It’s no place for a bike with a child seat, even downhill.  So we chose the sidewalk, until it suddenly ended.  We found a side street up and down a few more hills, and we were there.
Arriving at the market, we couldn’t find any bike racks.  I figured the town’s city hall should have at least one, and I finally found it – covered in plants from a vendor.  I asked if I could move some off it (and the vendor agreed, after some passive-aggressive banter about charging me for the spot, and how he’s going to complain to the market’s coordinator), but a recently added ballot box was installed so close that a bike couldn’t fit.  So we headed off and found people leaving the other bike rack we could find.  But another vendor was using the water spigot – located right where our bikes would go.  We eventually found another bike rack at Third Place Books.  We took a bus part of the way home, for fear of having to ride uphill Bothell Way NE.
Overall I had a great time and I love Third Place Commons. Â But that was despite the lack of respect shown for bikes along the best bike path in the region.
Significant observations:
- If I were in a car, there’s no way they’d close the only highway connecting two cities for multiple months without a realistic second option. Â If the BGT really has to be closed for months, do it in the winter.
- If you’re going to just end a sidewalk, at a blind corner with nothing but high speed traffic, at least add “sharrows”. Â Actually, no. Â Get rid of a lane and build sidewalks. Â I can only imagine being a pedestrian – or a pedestrian in a wheelchair – in such an environment.
- If I were in a car, businesses would go out of their way to make sure I had a parking space. Â In fact, they’d devote far more than half of their entire land space to my vehicle. Â Yet despite being across the street from the BGT, they can’t offer more than a handful of poorly designed bike spaces?