I spent last Saturday pedaling neighborhood streets with two dozen bicyclists in Northeast Seattle. Our goal was to identify a few residential streets that could become part of our first Neighborhood Greenway, much like what we saw in Portland last month. Many of these riders brought their kids, who rode in trailers, wagons, and some in seats in front and behind their parents. This was a family-friendly route!
Paulo Nunes-Ueno is leading Seattle’s Children’s Hospital’s Livable Streets Initiative, and he showed us many of their ideas to both improve walking and biking safety and connect with the Burke Gilman trail. We were joined by Cathy Tuttle from Spokespeople, a bicycle group advocating for “linking people through neighborhoods along secure bike routes” since early 2007.
Also along were Carry Pillo with Seattle Children’s Hospital Transportation Advisory Group, Dylan Ahearn of Beacon Bikes, Dave Rodgers from SvR Design, and Eli Goldberg, who is interested in creating a Greenway through the University District. Julian Davies, a family cycling proponent and the creator of the Totcycle blog was with us, as were Jim Mathieu, Lee LeCroix, Joann Kerr and Denny Kerr, who intend to start a monthly Spokespeople ride from their neighborhood.
All were there because they understand the value of our Neighborhood Greenways and want to see them become a reality. There are so many people advocating for great bike links throughout Seattle!
At the conclusion of the ride, Cathy Tuttle invited me to provide further information about my vision for Neighborhood Greenways. In my next post, I’ll cover a number of discussion points that will require refinement as we move forward toward these mjaor improvement in bicycle and pedestrian safety.