Why Seattle Is the Best Bike City in America
Seattle ticks all the boxes on cyclists’ wish lists. Scratch that, the Emerald City doesn’t check the boxes, it crushes them. Crazy smart infrastructure? Definitely-you can ride a protected bike lane from the Space Needle nearly two miles to Pioneer Square, with features like bike-specific traffic lights to make your cruise even safer. The most passionate bike advocates in the country? Absolutely-elected leaders have actually taken DOT staffers to task for not building lanes fast enough. An awesome community? Of course-there are thousands of events throughout the city designed to satisfy any inclination a rider could have.
But one of our favorite qualities of Seattle is its hunger to keep improving. In 2016, Seattle embarked on a massive bike and pedestrian safety assessment. Parsing through seven years of cyclist and pedestrian crash data, the study scrutinized every variable while also examining the intersections where no crashes ever occurred. From there it devised an algorithm that could identify hazardous spots before an accident happened.
“I’ll never forget the engineers going out to look at one intersection and saying that within a few minutes they’d seen three near-misses,” says Mike O’Brian, a city council member and nearly 20-year bike commuter. Today, the city is using statistical models based on its 2016 study to build safer, smarter infrastructure.
The timing of the research is excellent, as Seattle is the second-fastest-growing U.S. city. Officials know they need to get creative with how the city moves people, and bikes have been at the forefront of conversations.
“We want to give people choices,” says Dongho Chang, a senior transportation planner for the city, adding that beyond bike lanes, engineers are also working to make mass transit and pedestrian facilities more efficient and robust. And it’s working: A 2017 commuting survey found that only 25 percent of Seattle commuters drive to work alone, down from 35 percent in 2010. That number is even more impressive compared to the national average of 76 percent.
And the bike routes connecting those smarter lanes keep getting better. There are currently 60 miles of low-stress neighborhood greenways in the works, and connecting existing protected bikeways is a major priority, says Chang. The Vision Zero initiative has also been taken seriously. “We timed all 300 traffic signals downtown for 25 miles per hour,” says Chang, adding that this move-and reducing speed limits to 25-has significantly reduced speeding, a major tenet of preventing bike and pedestrian deaths. The city has also narrowed lanes and inserted speed humps and traffic circles-all of which calm vehicular traffic speeds. Tom Fucoloro, an advocate and author of Seattle Bike Blog, even says that the public was nearly in agreement about the need to reduce speeds.
The result of all these bike innovations? A 2017 survey completed by Commute Seattle found that workplaces with the highest proportion of commuters arriving via two wheels were all within a few blocks of a protected bike route. If you build it, they will ride. And Seattle is doing just that. Here's how the city is becoming better for bikes.
From 2010 to 2017, Seattle added 60,000 jobs downtown. In the same period, the city also managed to reduce single-occupancy car trips by 9 percent. This shift was thanks in large part to a well-used public transit system. What does that have to do with biking?
First and last mile bike commuting, where you ride to or from the bus stop, helps cut down on car traffic around transit stops. It can also help cities develop more infrastructure for bikes in high-transportation areas. For many riders, riding to and from a stop is an end unto itself. But it’s also how many bike commuters get their start. First, you’re just riding a mile. Soon, you’re going all the way to work on two wheels.
The city has some of the best lanes in the country, thanks to super smart features. For example, there are barriers that protect riders from traffic. Whether that’s a concrete block that weighs hundreds of pounds or a raised row of planters, these physical separations defend cyclists against out-of-control drivers, or those trying to sneak through to park in the bike lane.
Lean rails provide a way for cyclists to stop at an intersection without putting a foot down. Plus, some of them have buttons that trigger traffic signals, like those found at crosswalks.
Braille signage helps alert vision-impaired people that they’re near a bike lane. That’s safer for both riders and those trying to cross.
And cycling-specific signals help riders get through the intersection safer and faster. For example, on the city’s 2nd Avenue lane, cyclists get a green light while left-turning cars have a red arrow. Then, cars get to go while cyclists wait. That way, riders don’t have cars turning in front of them-a major cause of collisions.
One of our top metrics for ranking cities was the percentage of women commuting by bike. Why? Because more women ride when cities are safe for cyclists.
First, a caveat: There are many women and female-identifying bike messengers and downhill shredders who are adrenaline fiends. But with a large sample size, like an entire city, “the research shows that women are more risk-averse in general, and more concerned about safety,” says Jennifer Dill, Ph.D., a professor of urban studies and planning at Portland State University. “So where there’s better bike infrastructure, there are more women riding.”
Look at the Netherlands and Denmark. Protected cycleways are the norm, and women make up about 55 percent of bike trips. In the U.S., only 25 percent of all bike trips are made by women.
Having an abundance of women cyclists may also indicate a network that allows for efficient travel. A 2015 study published in Social Science Quarterly found that, in heterosexual couples, women still spend more time running household errands than their male partners. If a woman is going to commute via bike, she also needs to easily get to the grocery store, the drug store, and the dry cleaners. If connectivity is an issue-and a city’s pathways only go into the city and out to the ’burbs, but not through retail areas-biking just isn’t as feasible for many women.
Finally, a robust population of women on bikes can also indicate an inclusive bike culture. “Outreach programs with group rides, skills training rides, and women-only rides help women enter and feel comfortable on bikes,” Dill says, adding that having bike shops that cater to family and cargo bikers is important, too. That warm, welcoming vibe means that people who wouldn’t necessarily ride-like many women-can join the community. And when more people ride, everyone wins.
As of March 2017, Pronto, Seattle’s original, city-funded bike share program, was done-zo. “We killed a bike share, which felt like a huge loss,” says Tom Fucoloro, author of Seattle Bike Blog. But with that failure came an unexpected success: a new model of bike share, which offered residents more bikes and greater access to them.
Pronto started small, with only 50 stations with 10 bikes each. That proved to be inconvenient for residents. With low ridership numbers, political support for the program crashed, leaving Seattle as one of the largest American cities without a bike share.
Not having a system, however, turned out to be a good thing when private, dockless companies like ofo and LimeBike were looking for cities to test their for-profit model. “It was the perfect place for an experiment,” says Fucoloro. “From day one, there were bikes everywhere.” While Spin, ofo, and Lime were the first three companies to enter the city, Spin and ofo have both since pulled out. But there are still 6,000–8,000 Lime bikes on Seattle streets, and two other companies, Jump and Motivate, may enter the market.
Nearly all American infrastructure is built for cars at the expense of other modes of transportation. But Seattle's chief traffic engineer Dongho Chang is trying to change that. We talked with him about what he’s doing to make the city better for bikes.
B: What’s changed in how you design for bikes?
DC: Bicycle design historically served riders comfortable mixing with vehicle traffic. We heard from many people that they would ride if the bike lane was separated from traffic. Now we focus on building infrastructure that does that.
B: What are some of the most interesting pieces of infrastructure you’ve built in Seattle?
DC: Facilities that work for everyone on the road, like bus islands. They eliminate the need for buses to pull into bike lanes or merge back into traffic. We’re also working on intersection projects that slow cars using curb bulbs, and give cyclists and walkers their own space and signals.
B: How are you solving one of the biggest headaches for cyclists, vehicles loading or unloading in bike lanes?
DC: We need to create curb space for loading or unloading where it’s needed. The other part is protecting the bike lanes by keeping cars out.
B: Do you ride the infrastructure you design?
DC: Yes! I ride them multiple times to experience them and also observe and gather input from people that are using them.
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