Biking Bis gives a great recap of the Seattle-to-Portland double century.

Jacquie Phelan is riding and writing her way across the country, as only Alice B. Toeclips can.

Experienced cyclist Bruce Rosar, 56, a safety instructor and by all accounts a careful rider, apparently made a fatal wrong turn, according to a preliminary police report. See comments. I got some pushback for saying the car “mowed down” Rosar, an expression I meant to be descriptive rather than accusatory, but I understand the reader’s point. The war is not between cars and bikes, it’s between staying alive and not. Nonetheless, I’d like to see the final report. A lot of variables enter into a vehicular collision, and police, experienced more with 4-wheelers than 2, can draw incorrect conclusions.

Cyclelicio.us reminds us that you don’t have to be hit by a car to die on a bike.

Nor do you have to be riding on a road.

You can even be standing in a bike shop, as the folks at my LBS, BikeSport, found out. Although no one was hurt, you really have to wonder how a car happens to pick on the most prominent bike shop in Ballard.

From a shop e-mail:

July 12th 5:12pm Ballard’s BikeSport to get into head-on collision with some dumb dude. A younger male driving a “borrowed” older white Ford Bronco that wasn’t insured hit BikeSport’s storefront on Saturday around 5pm. After hitting a mini van about two blocks north on 24th, suspect drove south on 24th then running (driving) from the scene and proceded to hit three more cars in a domino order in front of Aster Coffee. He then lost control and ran into the front of BikeSport. An employee and a test rider were just a few feet away from him on the sidewalk. Employee ran to the car and kept him from leaving the scene. He was very out of it mentally and denied being drunk when witnesses were asking him if he was ok. Driver didn’t remember doing anything and was asking what had just happened. Witnesses had to tell the man over and over to shut the car off and how to do the emergency brake. He also had no remorse or acknowledged any wrong doing. Police said there was no sign of alcohol and it was possible “he was just that dumb”. No one was hurt inside the store though James, an employee, had to jump out of harms way. Police are positive the fellow will go to jail for his hit an run accident.

PS: Feel free to park in BACK of BikeSport.

When faced with this lemon, you make lemonade: A Door-Buster sale!

Sale, yes. Door prize, no.

Fixing what's broke

The Cascade Bicycle Club’s victory in the Burke-Gilman “missing link” case today represents something big for the cycling community.

Cyclists are used to losing in cases like this. Used to losing in court when it comes to a motorist’s or cop’s word against theirs. Used to losing bike lanes, as on Stone Way North, in deference to truck traffic and “business concerns.” Used to losing on bills in the state legislature enforcing vehicular assault in bike accidents, 3-feet-please traffic buffers and bike-friendly transit stations.

But in the post-Obama electoral climate, where change is something you can believe in, hope still reigns. And as much as bike access through Ballard, hope is what won in Hearing Examiner Sue Tanner’s decision rejecting business interests seeking to block trail completion. Hope that the tide has shifted in favor of diverse forms of transportation, in favor of bicycling for human health, well-being and environmental protection, and in favor of cyclists as more than second-class, fringe citizens.

If you ride the Burke-Gilman northward from Fremont roughly paralleling Leary Way, you eventually find yourself dumped into a brutal no man’s land of storefronts, potholes and crowded streets in Ballard. There are maybe 15 different ways to proceed, none of them particularly efficient or safe. For bike commuters and recreational riders alike, a major conduit through the city terminates in chaos.

Assuming no further court appeals, the go-ahead gives a green light to work on removing railroad track hazards under the Ballard Bridge and configuring Shilshole intersections at 17th Avenue and NW Vernon Place for safer crossing. Signs and a safe route also will be designated through the Ballard business district.

For the past 20 years, fixing the notorious Missing Link has been on the city’s to-do list after it began plans to take over rail right-of-way from Burlington Northern. When the moment came to begin actual work, a coalition of business interests including the Ballard Chamber of Commerce, Salmon Bay Sand and Gravel and Ballard Oil, filed a permit appeal last December seeking to stop the project.

Hearing Examiner Tanner discounted several appellant arguments, the most noxiously contradictory being the claim that improving the trail would create a “traffic hazard.” The whole point of connecting the Missing Link is to reduce traffic hazards created by bikes and cars forced into incompatible configurations.

“After reading the 20 point (Examiner’s) conclusion, it’s clear that the appellant’s ‘kitchen sink’ appeal was found to be meritless,” said David Hiller, advocacy director of the Cascade Bicycle Club, in a press statement. “We hope this is the point at which trail opponents recognize that this project is going to improve safety and mobility for everyone in the community.”

The trail has widespread support not just in Seattle and King County but throughout Ballard, where Friends of the Burke-Gilman Trail collected more than 460 signatures supporting safety improvements on Bike to Work Day May 15. Over the years Cascade has spent more than $20,000 in legal fees to keep viable the Burke-Gilman Trail.

There’s still lots to be done to put cycling on equal footing with other forms of transportation in the city. Wins like today’s are going to be the exception rather than the rule for the near term. But the trends are favorable, a new order is in motion and a more open consciousness is signaled in everything from stimulus funding to workplace regulations.

Completion of the Missing Link represents the kind of symbolism we’ve been waiting for. Cyclists can be forgiven for savoring this one.

Cascade’s press release

Ballard News Tribune story

My first stop was a return trip to the memorial to Kevin Black, the cyclist who died after colliding with a van in Ballard. The first thing you notice at the intersection of NW 65th St. and 24th Ave. NW is a ghost bike hung on a pole and adorned with a parka carrying an inscription: “A Cyclist Was Killed Here.” At least that’s what I think it says. Vandals have spray-painted it over.

Another rider down

Just south and west of the intersection, two telephone poles are covered with notes of gratitude and appreciation for Black, a molecular biologist at the University of Washington. One of the notes, taped to a non-smiley face with tears, says: “To daddy you were just trying to go to work and pick me up from school that afternoon and that van just ran you over like a speed bump I’ll see you in hevin Love Emily”

A daughter's lament

The poles also carry a photo of Black with his two young daughters, each of whom has written a note. Scores of slips of paper from people who knew Black and others who simply felt moved also adorn the poles.

Scores of tributes to Kevin Black

Black with his two daughters

We don’t yet know the full circumstances of Black’s death. But I hope we eventually do, because without an understanding of what happened there cannot be closure. The police are continuing their investigation; we’ve asked for an update and will let you know what we find out. In the meantime, the moving testimonial is worth visiting for anyone who travels this city as a reminder of the damage that vehicular transport can wreak.

More on Black from the MyBallard blog.

From Ballard I picked up the Burke-Gilman Trail over to Fremont, where I noticed some new directional signs aimed specifically at cyclists.

New bike route signs...for riders!

And when I got home, I found doorknob flyers on my front door emblazoned, “Coming Soon! Bicycle Route Signs!” The Seattle Department of Transportation “will be installing new signs within the next 2-4 weeks,” the flyer read, helping “bicyclists navigate through the city.” In some places a small dot with an arrow will substitute for a sign.

Funded through the $365 million “Bridging the Gap” levy passed in the fall of 2006, the signs are highly noticeable, put about 7 feet high and close to eye level for a cyclist while riding. I like ‘em. But I hope they aren’t sucking funding from safety maintenance. I noticed at the Ballard intersection that the bike lanes are worn to invisibility and badly need remarking.

From Fremont I continued on the trail to the University District, made a couple of shopping stops, then circled around on Ravenna Ave. NE back to Green Lake, climbing the hill to top out on Phinney Ridge before dropping back home. All told, more than two hours on the bike on a glorious day. The season starts just around the corner, but even though it will be months before I can get to my favorite haunts high in the Cascades, I can feel the fever coming. Roll on!

It’s still unclear what exactly happened, and we’ll update you as the police conclude their investigation. Riding in any metro area is perilous, but my observation from years of commuting is that the roads are more dangerous today. A number of factors contribute, but the overall issue is impatience. People are in too much of a hurry and make snap decisions while driving. Partly this is because drivers, especially younger ones, feel invulnerable due to air bags. They know they can walk away from any accident, no matter what happens to the pedestrian or bicyclist or other vehicle they hit.

In general I’ve found Seattle drivers to be mostly courteous and accommodating when it comes to cyclists. But I’ve also had my share of close calls and just plain rudeness. The goal as I once put it: To become uninvisible. Kevin Black fell tragically short on that one.

We could all do with slowing down — cyclists included.