I was in Seattle in May, for Northwest Folklife, and am back again at the moment, reminded that I had not posted about transformations happening in Seattle. Seattle is, on the whole, a very traffic-y city with sparse bike facilities, but what is interesting is what they are doing with re-allocating roadway space to better use than motor vehicles. Bus lanes, wider sidewalks, protected bikeways, removal of parking. It is inspirational.

I have not been able to pin down whether it is official policy, but I can say for certain that the city is no longer installing paint-only door-zone bike lanes. Anywhere. All of the bike facilities are separated, some by car parking, some with planters, some with substantial vertical delineators. Almost all the new ones are either at roadway level and protected by hard curbs, or raised to sidewalk level and therefore separated from the roadway by curb and buffer strip.

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