May

15

Great City Spring Movie Night at Thornton Place Tonight

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Come one, come all to Great City’s Spring Movie Night. Enjoy an evening under screen and stars at  Thornton Place, recently called “Seattle’s first real transit oriented development”, and site of the innovative Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel. In addition to celebrating this pioneering development that is leading the way in Northgate’s rejuvenation, we will also be heralding the arrival of Joshua Curtis as Great City’s new Executive Director and wishing our founding ED and recently-announced mayoral candidate, Michael McGinn, best wishes on his new pursuits. After mingling on the red carpet, you’ll enjoy an introduction by Bruce Lorig, tours of Thornton Place and the newly landscaped green water channel and a free viewing of a movie at the new theater (movie choices will include IMAX: Dark Night, Marly and Me, Horton Hears a Who, Rocky, The Express, and He’s Just Not That Into You.)

Date: Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Time: 5:30 pm
Location: Thornton Place Sales Center, just south of Northgate Mall (www.thornton-place.com)

Suggested Individual Donation:

Supporter – $35
Advocate – $50
Friend – $100

Please RSVP to Allison.

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR HOST:

May

13

Great City Pedestrian Master Plan Brownbag Lunch May 14

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Pedestrian Master Plan Brownbag Lunch
Thursday, May 14th
12:00 – 1:30 pm
GGLO Space at the Steps (enter through door located about ¼ of the way down the Harbor Steps)
1301 First Ave, Level A
Last week Mayor Greg Nickels announced the release of Seattle’s draft Pedestrian Master Plan.  The plan aims to establish Seattle as the most walkable city in the nation through its goals of safety, equity, vibrancy, and health. The plan looks at the needs of pedestrians across the city and helps to identify and prioritize projects in areas with the greatest need. The plan provides direction for City staff, private developers, and individual property owners.  Seattle’s Pedestrian Master Plan is a web-based plan, available at http://www.seattle.gov/mostwalkablecity.htm. To give you a chance to learn more about the plan, Jennifer Wieland, Associate Transportation Planner at SDOT, will join us to present the plan and answer your questions.
Great City’s brownbag lunch forum series is generously hosted by GGLO

May

12

Built To Last

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Here is the winning video from the Congress for New Urbanism’s video contest. Great for a little inspiration when things get challenging :)

May

11

Euro-style bike lane on 12th

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So a few weeks back, I explained why a streetcar would function better on 12th Ave compared to the Broadway alignment. Most people seemed to agree that this would be a much better route due to the opportunities it would provide for a healthy, lively community. But one worry I have heard repeatedly is that a streetcar down 12th would interfere with an integral bike corridor, connecting South Downtown to Capitol Hill. Its a legitimate worry. As anyone who bikes regularly knows, the SLUT tracks wreak havoc for those on two wheels. 12th Ave, with its well-marked bike lane and gradual slope, would be an irreplaceable route to lose.

But it is very important to understand that the problem with Westlake is a design flaw, not some inherent problem with sychronizing streetcars and cycling. In fact, many of the world’s most bike-friendly cities use streetcars as an essential part of their transportation infrastructure. Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and even Portland all use streetcars effectively without limiting accessability for bikers*. Here is an example from a street in Amsterdam:

Perhaps the most interesting item of note here is that the bike lane is raised from the street. This is because in most of Europe bikes are considered a form of soft traffic along with pedestrians. They have found that the risk of serious injury to citizens is much lower when bikers are with walkers instead of when bikers are with cars. Although a biker/walker collision might be painful and annoying, its almost never life-threatening. In addition, the added comfort provided to bikers significantly improves the accessability of cycling.

Well, its about time that we here in Seattle went a little Euro-style, and there’s no place better to start than on 12th Ave. Here’s a little self-made image representing how this might work out:

If I’m not mistaken the roadway here is 60ft wide. Vehicle lanes are typically 10ft wide and there would be four lanes of traffic, one car-only in each direction and one car/streetcar in each direction (grey and black). Instead of parking the sidewalk would be extended out another 10ft (blue and green) with your standard 5ft bike lane painted on top. Near the streetcar would be a 5ft section of pedestrian sidewalk for easy loading/unloading onto the rail line.

What I love about this design set up is that its really a benefit for everyone. Vehicles still have an extra lane to avoid traffic from left turns, pedestrians get a shorter crossing distance to walk across the street, and bikers get to relax a little and stop worry about car doors. Oh, did I mention there is also an awesome streetcar!

Now, I’m sure there are some challenges here that I’m overlooking and I would love for you all to point them out in the comments. But my main goal is simply to illustrate that through thinking a little differently about how we manage transportation, both streetcars and cyclists can thrive in the same corridor.

May

5

The Wheels on the bus go round and round

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Rapid ride is getting closer!

And for those of you who’ve forgotten, bus rapid transit should be a vast improvement because:

1. There should be dedicated bus lanes for buses only.

2. Buses should load and unload at ground level allowing for faster on/off.

3. Riders should pay before entering the bus at the bus stop.

Who knows what metro will actually end up doing, but they are promising buses every 10 minutes during peak hours.

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