About this blog

My name is Bill Hirt and I'm a candidate to be a Representative from the 48th district in the Washington State legislature. My candidacy stems from concern the legislature is not properly overseeing the WSDOT and Sound Transit East Link light rail program. I believe East Link will be a disaster for the entire eastside. ST will spend 5-6 billion on a transportation project that will increase, not decrease cross-lake congestion, violates federal environmental laws, devastates a beautiful part of residential Bellevue, creates havoc in Bellevue's central business district, and does absolutely nothing to alleviate congestion on 1-90 and 405. The only winners with East Link are the Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington and their labor unions.

This blog is an attempt to get more public awareness of these concerns. Many of the articles are from 3 years of failed efforts to persuade the Bellevue City Council, King County Council, east side legislators, media, and other organizations to stop this debacle. I have no illusions about being elected. My hope is voters from throughout the east side will read of my candidacy and visit this Web site. If they don't find them persuasive I know at least I tried.

Saturday, May 25, 2019

Bellevue Bike Lanes Didn’t “Work”


The May 23rd, Seattle Times front page article, “Downtown Bellevue’s bike lanes will stay put as expanded network is planned,” typifies the Traffic Lab failure to “dig into the region’s thorniest transportation issues”.    

The article fails to recognize the “thorny issue” in Bellevue Mayor Chelminiack’s claim:

“This demonstration project has proved its worth. It’s done in a way that’s had minimal, if any, effect on traffic. It’s a protected lane. People who are in the bike lanes feel better about it. People who are driving feel better protected from a bicyclist.  There’s a point at which you just have to accept the fact that it works. And this works,”

No one can rationally conclude eliminating a lane doesn’t reduce the roadway capacity.  While there is “ disagreement” as to the current impact of the lost lane on congestion, it’s impact is surely going to increase with future growth.  Drivers are also far more concerned about hitting a bicyclist than the “need to be protected from one”.

However the mayor’s most dubious claim is “this works”.   One would think Chelminiack was referring to how many bike riders were added by the separate lanes.   From May 1 to June 11, before the lanes, there were 92 average daily bike rides.  Daily trips for the rest of June, July, August, September, and October were 126, 121, 138, 134, and 104 respectively.  (The March 2019 PDF “neglected” to include later bike rides)

The 125 average bike rides with the separate lanes from June through October did represent the reported 35% increase in bike rides with separate lanes.  However, assuming those riding bikes did so in both directions, the 62.5 who did so with the lanes were only 16.5 more per day than the 46 who did so before; about 1.5 per hour during work day.  And that was during the summer.

Apparently Mayor Chelminiack thinks spending $137,000 of levy money to take away a roadway lane for bikes with that benefit is a project that “works”.   However, those who claim “We’re excited for the bike lane. We think it’s a bellwether for what Bellevue initially indicated that the area could be,” might reconsider spending additional money doing so.

Those reported in the article as being “involved in the design process through Bellevue Downtown Association “REI, Microsoft, Overlake Medical Center, Seattle Children’s and Bellevue Chamber of Commerce” may also wish to reconsider their support in view of the results.   Especially since “Amazon has also announced plans that would bring thousands of workers to downtown Bellevue by the end of 2023.”

Again Mayor Chelminiack’s claim  “This works” for bike lanes replicates his previous advocacy for East Link.  He’s been one of the primary enablers of Sound Transit spending billions on a light rail expansion that should never have been allowed to proceed and will inevitably be rated as one of the biggest boondoggles in public transit history.  He later justifies Sound Transit’s huge maintenance yard near Spring District with the “dubious” claim it will be a “magnet” for transit oriented development.

Meanwhile the Traffic Lab article goes into great detail about how the project “survived and succeeded” because of  “positively approaching projects in an iterative process”.   While conceding, “not everyone is supportive” the Times again failed to “dig into the actual bike lane benefits”, 16.5 additional bike riders a day, during the summer.
 




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