Yes, this update is long overdue but to my knowledge there is not exactly a vast readership clamoring for more information about the status of the cycling/pedestrian facilities on the approaches to the Fremont Bridge. There should be, granted, and I'm doing what I can to cultivate that level of interest, but it's slow going.
The week of July 12 I sent letters to Councilmembers Conlin, Rasmussen, and Godden regarding the FNC's concerns about the lack of adequate (actually, any) disruption planning for cyclists and pedestrians during construction. More importantly, we also expressed our frustration that there did not seem to be any planning for bikes/peds after the bridge project is completed. This is a much bigger deal, because although the disruption due to construction will be a headache for about 18 months, we have to live with the completed bridge for decades.
I also managed to get myself invited to a July 22nd meeting organized by SDOT and PB with the "Seattle Bike/Ped Community." This was an interesting and eye-opening meeting. Due to the overwhelming public support for bike/ped facilities, PB revised many of their plans to address all of the shortcomings identified by FNC, Cascade Bicycle Club, the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board, Bicycle Alliance of Washington, and others. They got it about 90% right, with one major exception--no bike lanes on the bridge approaches themselves, no queuing areas for northbound bikes, and no striping or signing at the Fremont & 34th intersection. Emily Allen (of SBAB) and I eventually fell into a good-cop/bad-cop routine (I think I was the good cop) and eventually got the engineers from PB to agree to put in the lanes, Denver arrows, and other signage improvements we suggested.
Shortly after this meeting I heard back from Richard Conlin, and he said he is also concerned about the project and offered to meet with me. I told him that we are satisfied with the efforts the City is making and that we did not need to meet at this time. I also heard back from Tom Rasmussen's office, and conveyed the same message to them.
Just today I heard from SDOT via email that they are finalizing the revisions that came out of the July 22 meeting and they are scheduling another meeting for sometime after September 7. Hopefully they got it right!
More news when I have it.
1 comment:
Just thought I'd let you know, there is someone here who has been paying attention to your blog, although not quite for the reason you apparently intended.
When I first found your blog on Blogger.com, you had just written the post entitled Why I Love Fremont" which caught my interest because it reminded me of the days when I myself used my bicycle as my primary means of transportation.
Other posts that I had particularly noticed of yours, while visiting, were "Dinosaur vs. Mammal" and "Pay it Forward", both which offered some interesting insights on some of your views on life, and some views from a bicyclist's perspective in general - which, from past experience, I could relate to.
I did notice that your original intent for this blog was to document the Fremont Bridge Project, which does hold some interest to me, albeit more vicariously than appiclably, since I live halfway across the country from you. However, I was hoping that in some of the lull-time between Project Updates, there might be other interesting posts as the aforementioned.
So, I have been somewhat disappointed to see the blog stay idle for quite some time, and was starting to wonder if you'd just let it die due to lack of readership. I guess I would have been a bit disappointed to see that happen, since blogging can be a quite fulfilling experience in itself, even without readers, if you put some of yourself into it.
Just my two cents.
- Iszi
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