Since there isn’t much traffic on 124th Avenue and it doesn’t generally go anywhere useful, Bellevue decided to put a bike lane on it. That isn’t quite fair. There numerous houses in that neighborhood, so if you live there and are commuting into downtown here’s the baffling situation which will greet you as you approach 8th Street. Rather than do something logical, like put up a sign that says “bike lane ends” and simply stop the lane marker, they chose to instead force cyclists towards the curb, twice! Since the bike lane marker doesn’t end properly, car drivers get no indication that they may actually need to expect bicyclists to merge with traffic in order to get to the intersection with 8th St, so they zoom right past blissfully ignorant of your plight. So really, this bike lane translates to “get off the road”, but that title would get monotonous.
Translation: Prepare to lose your lane… twice!
May 21st, 2009Translation: Thin cyclists only, beyond this point
May 18th, 2009
NE 8th Street is pretty frightful place to ride, with the worst part being the I-405 overpass which I generally call a “wrongful death lawsuit waiting to happen”. Fortunately for the inevitable victims, Overlake Hospital is right next door. But once you get to the other side of the freeway there are fragments of bike lane! One helpfully appears on the westbound side at 120th Ave, right as you begin scaling a steep hill. But once you get to the top, around 123rd, the bike lane gradually loses about 1 foot of its width, which means you’re just a hair’s breadth away from the Mercedes SUVs piloted (to use the term very loosely) by the gesticulating, bluetooth enabled maniacs.
Something tells me that with my bike buckets and produce box (see photo), I’m wider than that lane. Retreat to the sidewalk!
Translation: Turn Right!
May 15th, 2009
Our oh so brief sojourn down 106th Ave comes to an abrupt end at 4th Street. Of course it isn’t enough to simply bring the bike lane to an end, but to re-assert the God-given supremacy of the automobile. Rather than just paint the line straight to the crosswalk, they swerve the line over, squeezing cyclists and making it rather hard to continue up 106th Ave. The implication is that you should instead, turn right… though watch out for the Hummer taking advantage of those extra couple of inches to accommodate their bulk as they proceed around the corner.
Translation: Inhale! Exhale!
May 12th, 2009
As we labor up the hill on 106th Ave NE, towards 4th street we are presented with this odd situation: for no readily apparent reason, the bike lane briefly shrinks to about 1 foot wide, and then back again. I suddenly remember yoga class. Inhale! Hold! Exhale!
Translation: For your next trick, make a bicyclist disappear!
May 9th, 2009
We continue south on 106th Ave NE towards Main Street, and here we are greeted an opportunity to do a magic trick! Make a bicyclist disappear, which is the apparent intent of this bike lane as in gradually narrows into nothingness.
It is too bad the bike shop moved from the storefront on the right, as they were conveniently located to commence repairs on bikes whose riders did not succeed in the vanishing trick, and instead ended up in the lane with the drivers, who, around here, don’t tend to notice cyclists until they bounce off their windshield.
Translation: Remove Panniers and Duck!
May 6th, 2009
More so than the rest of Bellevue, downtown has almost no bike facilities. However, on 106th Avenue between 4th and 2nd something resembling a bike lane can be found! Something unique in downtown. But, like so many of the other bike lanes I’ve been talking about, I think this one was another “accidental” bike lane: there was extra space on the pavement so they painted lines which resemble bike lanes and lull us into a false sense of security, for we shall soon be disappointed.
In this case, what starts as a nice bike lane slowly loses about 1 foot of it’s width, with the narrowest being right where a tree encroaches onto the street. The tree has been pruned in an odd structure, which ensures that car drivers will pass unmolested, but cyclists will need to duck at the moment traffic is forced closest.
Annexing the Sudetenland
May 3rd, 2009This is the latest capitulation to the automobile taking place in Bellevue: They have decided to widen NE 8th Street, for two blocks! I am uncertain how these two blocks will do anything for the unfixable traffic situation, other than move the head of the traffic jam two blocks farther along.
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| From Bellevue |
Also, look closely at the building in the middle of the picture and the distance between it and the new curb. Somehow, I doubt a usable sidewalk can be put there.
A long time ago, city hall made the decision to only include half the streets in downtown Bellevue. So unlike the gridlock that occurs in most cities, in Bellevue it has to happen with half as many streets. There is no fix other than getting people out of their cars. So adding an extra lane for two blocks is useless at best. It is just another futile attempt to appease an insatiable tyrant (hence the title).
World’s Newest Vegan
November 6th, 2008
The world got one more vegan yesterday (5-Nov-08) at 6:14pm when Madeleine Helen Marie Fisher was brought into this world. She was 7 lbs 1 oz and 20 inches long. As can be seen in this picture she quite liked laying on her front with her butt up in the air. Contractions began just after Obama’s acceptance speech, so obviously she was waiting for that before gracing us with her presence.
Both mother and daughter are doing well.
Update: photos are now online here.
Translation: Dead End?
November 2nd, 2008
While riding down 114th Ave NE, near SE 2nd St, I spotted this amusing juxtaposition. Just in case you can’t tell from my terrible photography, there is a sign helpfully indicating that the bike route for the Lake Washington Loop is straight ahead. But from this angle, directly ahead of that sign is a “dead end” sign. Maybe this is a different definition of “loop” than I am accustomed to.
But the bike route actually does go down that road, which is only a dead end for cars, a short bike path connects the end of that street with 112th Ave right before the nightmare of 8th Street (more on that later).
However, in a city that considered bicycles real vehicles, there would be a sign below “dead end” which said “except bicycles.”
Translation: Bicyclists use even more caution
October 21st, 2008
Here we are at 118th Ave SE, approaching SE 8th Street. The “motorcycles” warning sign wasn’t there last time I rode through here, otherwise you could more easily see the irony here. The small sign is a route marker for the Lake Washington Loop bike route, which helpfully indicates that the route is straight ahead. Of course the temporary warning sign is not just blocking the bike lane, but also obscuring the fact that it narrows down to nothing. Nothing says “bike route” like vanishing bike lanes.