It’s not just for cyclists, but for anyone who uses the sidewalks and streets of Beacon Hill, whether it be on foot or any type of wheels. Survey results will be shared with the Seattle Department of Transportation and Seattle Police Department to contribute to future policies.
Beacon Hill and Friends –
Summer is fast approaching and Greenway completion is hot on its heels. If you think it ends there, allow us to prove your thoughts incomplete! Because it’s time to celebrate, take a peek into the future of how we move around Beacon Hill and get to the soul of the transportation picture up here. These aren’t pipe dreams; this is what draws us out to meet friends on the street, get to where we want to go, and invites us to go further with active transportation. It’s simply better living.
Join us at the Beacon Hill Library Resource Center from 6-7:45pm on Thursday, June 27th to discuss:
- Greenway updates and improvements
- BeHi walking plan update ideas
- Beacon Rocks! (July 28th concert is transportation-themed)
- (PARK)ing Day
- El Centro Plaza Maestas walk and bikeability audit
As always, we promise light refreshments and good company. We can only make this happen together, Beacon Hill, so we look forward to seeing you on the 27th!
Hello Friends, we have some exciting news!
Christine Cole and Ryan Harrison have accepted the passing of the torch as co-chairs of Beacon B.I.K.E.S.! from our distinguished founder, Freddie Merrell and the hardest working man in Greenways, Dylan Ahearn. We seek to not only continue the development of our planned network, but to make sure that it is enjoyed by our immediate neighbors as well as adjoining communities.
We are not however going this alone as we have a vast pool of enthusiastic, action oriented people in our community that share our goal of healthy and safe self-propelled travel to the many great destinations on Beacon Hill. So, we ask for your support going forward and want to make sure that you see us as a resource of experience as well as partners in helping connect our community to itself!
As warmer weather comes, keep and eye out for ways to be engaged in and enjoy all our Greenway has to offer!
Stay in touch…
Christine Cole christine@beaconwalksbikes.org
Ryan Harrison ryan@beaconwalksbikes.org
The Beacon Hill Family Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan, a project of Beacon BIKES and the City of Seattle, has won a 2012 VISION 2040 Award from the Puget Sound Regional Council. Vision 2040 Awards honor real-life examples of sustainable growth and improvements to quality of life in Puget Sound communities.
The Beacon Hill Family Bicycle and Pedestrian Circulation Plan has been designed as a ten-year plan to develop a network of pedestrian and bicycle routes to connect important and well-used locations with neighborhood greenways, cycle tracks, intersection improvements, and other solutions to increase safety for walkers and cyclists of all ages. Among the proposals is a crosswalk and “median refuge island” at South Spokane Street and Lafayette Avenue South, a location that leads directly into Jefferson Park from a neighborhood greenway but is currently very dangerous to cross.
Hello Beacon BIKErs,
This is a call to anyone who is on this list that lives on Beacon Hill and wants to see our Greenway be built.
SDOT had a community open house on July 19, I saw many of you there. They collected public comments, many of which were positive. However, there have been a few individuals that have been very vocal in their opposition and their voices are drowning out the broad-based support we have for this project in our community. Please take 5 minutes to write an email showing support for the project to SDOT and Council. I have spoken with key individuals at the City and they say these emails are the single most important thing we can do right now. If you can, add why the project is important to you personally. They have heard from me and a couple other active members many times, to have a really powerful effect it would be wonderful if those of you who have not been very active could write an email.
The details of SDOT’s plan can be found here:
http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/beaconhillgreenway.htmAddress to: Brian.Dougherty@seattle.gov
CC: sandra.woods@seattle.gov, dongho.chang@seattle.gov, sally.bagshaw@seattle.gov, Douglas.Cox@seattle.gov, tom.rasmussen@seattle.gov, dsahearn@gmail.com, and anyone else you want…Thank you for your help in making Beacon Hill a safer and more livable neighborhood.
The proposed greenway would follow 18th Avenue South from the I-90 trail south to South Hanford street, where it would zigzag over to Lafayette Avenue South, then along the edge of Jefferson Park to South Dakota Street, then south on 12th Avenue South to South Lucile Street. The greenway route would have improvements and repairs to make the street safer for cyclists, drivers, and pedestrians alike, including new signage and street markings, crossing islands at certain intersections, a new left turn lane on South Spokane Street, and others. As mentioned above, details may be found here.
View Beacon Hill Neighborhood Greenway in a larger map
A Seattle city-wide neighborhood greenway organizers event will be held on Beacon Hill at the Beacon Hill Library next Tuesday, January 10, from 6-7:45 p.m. Beacon Hill currently has a new greenway in progress along 17th/18th Avenues South, between Jefferson Park and the Mountains-to-Sound Trail. For more information on what neighborhood greenways are all about, see this video about Portland’s greenways project.
Here’s the announcement for next Tuesday’s meeting:
Seattle’s Neighborhood Greenways movement is attracting many newcomers to bike advocacy who are eager to transform Seattle into a city where everyone can bike and walk safely. Come join us to learn about the history of bike advocacy in Seattle, and how our growing Neighborhood Greenways movement can complement the hard work that’s already been done to make Seattle one of the nation’s most respected cities for bicycling and walking.
We are privileged to welcome Blake Trask as our featured speaker for this meetup. Blake is the chair of the Seattle Bike Advisory Board (SBAB) and is the Statewide Policy Director of the Bicycle Alliance of Washington (BAW). He’ll be providing us with the context for Seattle’s current (2007) Bicycle Master Plan: who was involved in it? What was the vision? What were the biggest challenges? And how can Neighborhood Greenways be incorporated into the 2012 update to the Bicycle Master Plan?
Blake brings a wealth of knowledge and many years of experience in improving bike safety “from the inside”. By learning from Blake where we’ve already been as an advocacy movement, we will be even better equipped as Neighborhood Greenways organizers to “work within the system” to make bicycling and walking safe and attractive for all Seattle.
We will also be discussing the upcoming neighborhood project fund grants (deadline Feb 1). This is a great and easy way to get some Greenways built in your neighborhood NEXT YEAR!
Please attend this meeting if you can.
Seattle Magazine has given Beacon Hill some extra love recently, with a neighborhood feature and a review of the new Indian restaurant Travelers Thali House in the current issue. Last month they reviewed Bar del Corso and profiled local bicycle activist Dylan Ahearn.
Beacon Hill was featured in an “Urban Safari” by Patrick Hutchison, which mentioned a collection of Beacon businesses, including Kusina Filipina, El Quetzal, Despi Delite Bakery, The Station, Victrola, NEPO House and Jefferson Park:
“Long treasured for its diversity, Beacon Hill is amassing a trove of new tastes, out-of-the-box art and community music spaces—not to mention the new light rail station that provides quick and easy access for residents and day-trippers alike.”
The review of Travelers Thali House, by Allison Austin Scheff, is pretty darned positive: “For years, there have been complaints about the lack of (and lacking) Indian food options in Seattle. I’m here to tell you: Travelers is the answer to your prayers.” Is it going to become as hard to get a table there as at Bar del Corso?
Not yet, says Scheff in “Rooting for the Underdog, Restaurant Version“: “It’s a bittersweet review for me because the restaurant is so good, so welcoming, and the food is lovely in so many ways. But where is everyone? Travelers was virtually empty on each of my three visits.”
Speaking of Bar del Corso, last month Scheff had more superlatives about that restaurant: “First things first: This place makes the best margherita pizza in Seattle.”
Restaurants are not the only Beacon Hill fixtures that the magazine has drawn folks’ attention to lately. Last month, Dylan Ahearn, chairperson of Beacon BIKES (and BHB contributor), was included in a profile of 5 volunteers who are contributing to positive change in their neighborhoods.
What are Neighborhood Greenways, you may ask?
Neighborhood Greenways are quiet residential streets that are optimized for pedestrian and bicycle travel. The idea is to have routes that connect our neighborhood to itself along streets that are safe for those 8 to 80 years old. The bike lanes on the arterials are only going to be used by a small minority of the neighborhood; Neighborhood Greenways, on the other hand, can be conformably used by anyone!
What does a Neighborhood Greenway look like?
The best introduction to Neighborhood Greenways is this video from Portland. Basically, a residential street that connects neighborhood destinations is outfitted with wayfinding signs, paint markings on the street (like the “sharrows” on 15th), some traffic calming (speed bumps, traffic circles), improved crossing treatments at intersections with arterials, and maybe some trees to spruce the place up.  The result is a street that gives that small town feel in the middle of the big city. Traffic is calmed where people want it calmed (in front of their homes!), bikers are off the arterials where conflicts with traffic are good for no one, use of the public space provides more eyes on the street and thus reduces the likelihood of crime, and you can bike to the park or to school with your kid without worrying for their lives.
The Beacon Hill Family Bicycle and Pedestrian Circulation Plan is basically a big network of Neighborhood Greenways on Beacon Hill.  The first Greenway route (18th Ave South/17th/Lafayette) is currently being implemented.  The wayfinding signs are up (you may have seen them around the library), the paint will be going in within a month, and as of yesterday SDOT planted about 70 trees along the route. I snapped some photos this morning of our new friends on the hill. Its not a Greenway without the Green, so we are excited that the city agreed to help us out with the trees!  Neighbors along the route with a spot for a potential tree in their planting strip were offered a choice of a couple different species of trees or no tree at all.  SDOT planted and will water the trees for 3 years until they are established.  SDOT will also prune for the life of the trees.  The trees planted were paperbark maples, Persian ironwood, “Royal Raindrops” crabapples, “Native Flame” American hornbeam, and “Emerald Sunshine” elm.
If you get the chance, take a stroll down 18th and see how our first Greenway is coming together!
Next Beacon B.I.K.E.S. meeting is Wednesday November 16th, 6-8pm at the library. Â All are welcome!
Dylan Ahearn writes:
The October Beacon BIKES meeting will be held tonight from 6-8 pm at the Beacon Hill Library. Sam Woods from SDOT will be presenting information on our 17th/18th Greenway (currently under construction). Deb Brown (SDOT) will be presenting the tree planting plan for the same corridor (planting to occur in November). We will also be discussing Red Apple bike parking, upcoming grant opportunities, and the city-wide Greenway effort.
Hope to see you there!
BEACON B.I.K.E.S. (Better Infrastructure Keeping Everyone Safe) will be meeting tonight, September 6, from 6-8 p.m. in the Beacon Hill Library conference room. Light refreshments will be provided. The meeting is open to all who are interested in safely getting people of all ages and abilities around the Hill on foot and bicycle.
Tonight’s agenda includes:
See more about Beacon B.I.K.E.S. at http://www.beaconwalksbikes.org/.