Seattle Bike Blog

Bike Works is turning 30.

Registrations are open for two very different Bike Works annual events: Their whimsical Tour de Fleurs alleycat around South Seattle and their exceptionally fun fundraiser Bikecitement!

Tour de Fleurs is always a good time. Celebrate spring, discover hidden gems around South Seattle, and complete unexpected tasks in an all-ages bike race where “speed is respected” but “will not be rewarded.” I highly recommend Tour de Fleurs to anyone, and it is a great event to bring along a friend who is just getting into biking. Impeccable vibes are guaranteed.

Tour de Fleurs 5 starts at 11:30 a.m. March 29 at a yet-to-be-disclosed South Seattle location. Advanced registration required. Donate what you can.

Tickets are also available for the organization’s annual fundraiser Bikecitement! The these this year is “Bike Works is forever,” and you are encouraged to wear futuristic styles. Bike Works fundraisers are fun even for folks who don’t normally like fundraisers.

The event is 4 p.m. April 26 at Washington Hall. Get tickets online.

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Bike advocates in Washington State won a bit this legislative session while also avoiding funding cuts and the kinds of anti-bicycle laws under consideration this year in other states.

Preserving funding for safe streets programs is always an important goal, especially as budgets face crunches, and Washington Bikes celebrated that the state remains on track to invest $150 million into safe streets and and walk/bike access programs this year. Much of this funding was from the 2022 Move Ahead Washington funding package, but advocates have to keep an eye on the funds every year to make sure legislators don’t raid them to close budget holes elsewhere.

The biggest successful bill on the WA Bikes to-do list was Senate Bill 6110 – 2025-26, which clarified the legal definition of an e-bike to specifically exclude higher-power and higher-speed two-wheelers that are often referred to as “e-bikes.” We reported about this bill several times during the session. The bill should secure the current legal status of class 1, 2 and 3 e-bikes, preventing the kinds of clumsy bans and restrictions other places in the country have put in place in an attempt to stop the proliferation of higher-speed devices. As of press time, the bill is sitting on Governor Bob Ferguson’s desk waiting to be signed into law. Once he does, any two-wheeler with a motor that can output more than 750 Watts and provide assist beyond 20 mph with a throttle (or 28 mph with pedal assist) cannot be considered a legal e-bike even if it has a lower power mode that does comply with the limits.

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Tonight (March 13), MOHAI is hosting a screening of the Edward Norton-narrated PBS documentary From Rails to Trails at their South Lake Union museum.

From 6–7 you can check out their Seattle cycling history exhibit. The film screening starts at 7.

It’s a great film! I’ve had a partial draft of a review of it written since it first came out, but somehow I never finished writing it. Oops! There’s a whole segment on the Burke-Gilman Trail, but it also does a great job of putting Seattle’s trail effort into historical context with all the other work around the country. There’s even a 1980 fight between a young Howard Dean and Burlington Mayor Bernie Sanders over a development that was going to block a trail (Dean was on the side of the trail and won).

Definitely worth a watch! If you can’t make the screening, you can watch it online for free from PBS.

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People biking between Georgetown and downtown were surprised yesterday to find construction crews tearing up the concrete barrier protected the bike lane on Airport Way S between S Alaska Street and the bridge. There was little to no notice about the work, though at least there is a sidewalk to help folks get around the closure.

We asked SDOT what was happening after receiving several notes from readers surprised by the work. All of this work is to move the bike lane barrier one foot, reducing the width of the two-way bike lane, to “correct a design error” at a skinny point in the street, according to an SDOT spokesperson. “The center lane needs to be wider so that large trucks and buses have room to turn without hitting the bike lane barrier.”

Rebuilding the barrier will require dry weather, so it is not yet clear when it will be complete though SDOT is hoping to finish next week. The bike lane “will remain at least 8 feet wide,” which is about the minimum width for a two-way bike lane.

The bike lane was created as part of the Georgetown to Downtown Safety Project, which officially opened in September.

The full statement from SDOT:

We are adjusting the bike lane and center turn lane on Airport Way S between S Alaska St and S Edmunds St to make room for buses and trucks. Our plan is to rebuild the concrete curb protecting the bike lane by the end of next week, but this work requires dry weather. We will then return to this area when there is warmer and dryer to put the finishing touches on the striping. 

This work is to correct a design error at a narrow section of the street. The center lane needs to be wider so that large trucks and buses have room to turn without hitting the bike lane barrier. 

The rebuilt bike lanes will remain at least 8 feet wide. Flaggers will be on site during construction to direct people biking and driving. We will tidy up the work zone so people may use the bike lane with caution when we aren’t actively working.

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It was a lovely evening, and my kid was with a babysitter. Kelli and I were biking happily along, when someone flung their door wide open just before I got to their car. It was timed so perfectly that there was no way I could have reacted in time to avoid hitting it, yet I was safe because I never ride in the door zone. Instead, it merely surprised the crap out of me and missed my bike by a few inches.

The experience was a clear example of how important it is to stay out of the door zone when biking, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot since it happened. With so many people choosing to start biking around Seattle in recent years, I thought it would be good to make sure you all know what the door zone is and how to avoid it. I don’t often write posts about bicycling tactics, but maybe I should.

The door zone is the space next to a stopped or parked car that the car door can reach when opened to its widest point. As my close miss illustrates, you cannot rely on any warning signs before someone opens the door, and a lot of people are in the habit of recklessly flinging their doors fully open without first checking if it is clear. It is the legal responsibility of the person opening the door to only do so if it is safe, but the real world consequences fall to the bike rider who is hit. Running into a door is bad enough, but getting knocked into nearby traffic is much worse. Even if a rider doesn’t hit the door, it is dangerous to suddenly swerve toward traffic to avoid one.

The best solution is for the local transportation department to always build a safe bike lane that is clear of door hazards. But the best solution that you can implement yourself today is to never ride within the door zone. Don’t even let your handlebar hang into it. Often, this means occupying the full traffic lane next to the parked cars since there is likely not enough room for people to pass safely within the same lane while you also keep clear of the door zone. On streets with outdated painted bike lanes located within the door zone, I often find myself riding near or on top of the bike lane line. On streets with very skinny bike lanes or extra-wide parked vehicles (more and more common due to car bloat), the safest place to ride is in the traffic lane as though there is no bike lane at all. Washington State does not have a law requiring people to stay in the bike lane, and instead states that people shall bike as far right “as is safe.” The presence of painted bike symbols does not make the door zone safe.

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The City of Bellevue has released a plan to reduce the speed limits on nearly every city street where limits are currently higher than 25. Most streets would see their limits dropped by 5 mph though a couple, including NE Bellevue-Redmond Road and NE 20th Street, would drop 10 mph from 35 to 25 while 148th Ave NE would drop from 40 to 30. The entire downtown grid would be reduced to 25.

The plan joins an existing measure already passed and ready to go into effect this year that will lower nearly all non-arterial residential street speed limits in the city to 20 mph. The city also piloted speed reductions on sections of four arterial streets starting last summer, and those results are informing the larger speed reduction plan.

You can learn more on the city’s project page and from this interactive map of the proposed speed limit changes. An online survey is open until March 30. The Bellevue City Council is set to discuss the plan this summer.

While the plan is bold in places, such as setting a 25 mph speed limit for Bel-Red Road, the effect of these changes will be limited without also changing the designs of the streets. A street with too many lanes that are too wide encourages faster driving regardless of the number on a sign. Hopefully the Council’s new membership will reconsider some of the body’s previous resistance to safe roadway designs on roads like Bel-Red.

It’s also not clear why some street segments would keep their 35 mph speed limits, such as Coal Creek Parkway, a bike route with painted bike lanes and traffic that is far too fast.

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