2014 was a great year for bicycling

Here's why (in no particular order): 

Seattle Bicycle Master Plan

In April the Seattle City Council unanimously passed an updated Bicycle Master Plan that set the stage for almost 475 miles of all ages and abilities infrastructure across the city. The plan supports five major goals: safety, connectivity, equity, ridership and livability. When built out, every household in the city will be within 1⁄4 mile of a safe, comfortable bike facility that connects to neighborhood centers and across the city. The plan incorporates new designs such as protected bike lanes, bike signals and neighborhood greenways that will make it much more comfortable to cycle in the city. Cascade worked for years to make this a reality and is now focusing on the implementation of the plan.

Overlake Village Bike/Ped Bridge

In late August, the city of Redmond secured funding for a bike/ ped bridge over SR 520 as part of the East Link Light Rail Station at Overlake Village. The bridge will provide bicyclists and pedestrians with a safe and convenient connection over SR 520.The bridge is scheduled to open in 2020, which is three years before light rail will run through Overlake Village. The city of Redmond is teaming up with Sound Transit to complete this great project.

A huge Bike Month In May

16,000 people participated in the Commute Challenge, logging 1.7 million miles! Enough to offset 1,732,040 lbs of CO2 emissions. and take 144 cars off the road for a year. Thirty-six percent of those commute challenge participants identified as female, which is significantly higher than Washington state’s estimated 20 percent gender split. On Bike to Work Day, we counted 18,580 bike riders across the region.

START THEM YOUNG

In May a record number of 65 schools across nine local school districts participated in the Bike to School Month challenge in 2014. Students spent more than 8,300 hours biking to school! More than 15,000 students received bike education and on-bike practice through the Basics of Bicycling program this year and d hundreds of students learned to ride for the very first time through this program. Three after-school urban cycling clubs were started this year, including one at Brier Terrace Middle School in the Edmonds School district.

Pronto!

In October Seattle joined the ranks of more than 35 U.S. cities with a bike share system when it launched Pronto Cycle Share. Pronto launched with 50 stations and500 beautiful green bikes, and will expand to more neighborhoods in the coming years. In its first month, Seattleites made around 11,000 trips on Pronto bike, and selfies taken while riding these Pronto bikes along the waterfront are quickly becoming a trend.

More people are riding everyday

By the end of the year, more than one million bike trips will have been counted across the Fremont Bridge, which hosts one of nine electronic bike counters in the city. Even on a bad weather day, thousands of trip are still made by bike. At the time of publication, 309 Cascade ride leaders had led nearly 2,000 rides in the region. We suspect this number will surpass last year’s record of 2,200+ rides.

AN AMAZING SUMMER

Mother Nature deserves a shoutout for giving the Puget Sound region one of the best summer in years. In fact, with average daily temperatures of 69.2 degrees in July and August, this summer was a record-setter. According to the National Weather Service, the Seattle area hadn’t seen a summer like this since 1967! And as cyclists, we LOVED it. Most of our rides were held is good weather and the daily bike commute couldn’t have been better.

Leadership

Seattle has taken some momentous strides forward this year thanks to the leadership of Mayor Ed Murray, who started his term in January. From his hiring of the indomitable Scott Kubly as the head of the Seattle Department of Transportation to his announcement—and on-time delivery—of a protected bike lane on Second Avenue, Mayor Murray has shown that he practices what he preaches in valuing all types of transportation on our city streets. With his passionate championing of Pronto Cycle Share, his strong support for the visionary Bicycle Master Plan, and his collaborative approach to improve Westlake Avenue, Mayor Murray is setting the bar high for 2015.

Cross Kirkland Corridor

Last June the city of Kirkland adopted the Cross Kirkland Corridor Master Plan and construction of the interim trail is now underway and almost complete. The Cross Kirkland Corridor is a 5.75-mile segment of the 42-mile Eastside Rail Corridor which runs all the way from Renton to Snohomish. The corridor will connect to schools, businesses and neighborhoods and contribute to Kirkland’s commitment to being a livable city. The four key goals of the new master plan include: connectivity; fostering a greener city; shaping a place that’s unique to Kirkland; and activating the city while allowing the corridor to evolve over time.

The Second Avenue Protected Bike Lane

In September Second Avenue in downtown was transformed from one of Seattle’s worst streets to bike on into the downtown’s first protected bike lane.The two-way Second Avenue protected bike lane provides physical barriers between moving traffic and bicyclists, and features dedicated signals for cyclists, pedestrians and drivers. Just one week after the installation of the new protected bike lane, ridership increased to an average of 1,099 bicyclists a day - three times the daily number of cyclists that had previously used the former one-way bike lane!

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