Budgeting for a safe, connected Seattle

Imagine. You live in far North Seattle but you need to get to SoDo with your eight-year-old daughter for her indoor soccer game on a Thursday evening. Do you ride a bike?

If you're like many parents in Seattle, you wouldn't. You're bound to have to navigate dangerous roads that fail to protect bicyclists from motor vehicles, and that's simply something you're not willing to jeopardize your daughter's life over. Luckily, that's quickly changing. 

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Not only is bicycling the fastest growing commute mode (it has grown 152 percent over the last decade), the City of Seattle is planning and building safer infrastructure like bike lanes that are physically protected from car traffic, and neighborhood greenways on low-volume, low-traffic streets that are safe for families to ride on.

But we can only create a safer, more connected city as fast as we have the resources to do so.

That's why we're advocating for funding in the city's 2014 budget. The mayor proposed a$10.5 million budget for bicycle infrastructure. We think that's great --- it'll fund many projects, like the Westlake Cycletrack and the 23rd Avenue Neighborhood Greenway.

There's also potential to do better -- to get a fairer share. The percentage of money for bicycling in the budget is still just 2.5 percent (relative to the total amount for transportation), far less than the percentage of commute trips made by bicycle. The city has a goal to triple bicycle ridership in the next decade.

We need to put our money where our city's vision and priorities are. That's why we're working with city councilmembers to identify a few other projects to fund in 2014. For example, we could expedite the design of protected bike lanes from 30 percent to final design on:

- Second and Third Avenues downtown, - S Dearborn St from the I-90 trail to downtown, - S Rainier Avenue from Rainier Beach to Seattle's city limits with Renton, and - Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, connecting the Mount Baker Light Rail Station to the Central District.

These are all great projects, and this is our opportunity to make it happen. Here's the upcoming schedule for the city council's decision-making:

- November 6, 2 - 5 p.m., Presentation & Discussion of Budget Options
- November 7, 9:30 a.m. - noon, Presentation & Discussion of Budget Options
- November 7, 2 - 5 p.m., Presentation & Discussion of Budget Options
- November 8, 9:30 a.m. - noon, Presentation & Discussion of Budget Options
- November 8, 2 - 5 p.m., Presentation & Discussion of Budget Options
- November 18, 10:30 a.m. - noon, Final Decisions and Votes
- November 19, 9:30 a.m. - noon, Final Decisions and Votes
- November 25, 10:30 a.m., Budget Committee Meeting
- November 25, 2 p.m., Full City Council Adopts 2014 Budget

Learn more on the City of Seattle's budget webpage.

We can do this. We see time and time again how caring neighbors can make change happen. Together we can make it safe for families to ride across the city no matter the distance or time of day.

If you'd like to get more involved with our effort to get more funding for bicycle infrastructure, contact Emily Kathrein, Cascade's Field Programs Manager, at emily.kathrein@cascadebicycleclub.org.