Arterial street in Seattle to become more bicycle friendly

In spite of objections from some users, a east-west street in Seattle will be undergoing a road diet this summer.

Seattle's bike-riding mayor, Michael McGinn, said the re-striping of West Nickerson Street should encourage bicycling and walking and slow down speeding motorists.

Currently the mile-long section of Nickerson between Warren Avenue and 13th Avenue West is a four-lane street with on-street parking. It will be reduced to two traffic lanes in each direction with a center turn lane. A bicycle lane will be added on up uphill portions, and sharrows on the downhill portions. The on-street curb parking will remain.

Other road diets

It's similar to street rechannelizations on Stone Way and Fauntleroy Way in the past couple of years.

The Nickerson Street changes were proposed a couple of years ago under a different administration but shelved because of opposition from businesses and community groups whose members drive on the street. Publicola said the city's transportation department took another look at the plans and determined traffic would flow efficiently.

The cost of the upgrade will be about $200,000.

Walk Bike Ride

The mayor's Walk Bike Ride initiative calls for improvements to pedestrian, bicycling and transit facilities throughout the city, which has been dubbed a silver-level bicycle friendly city by the League of American Bicyclists and the fourth best city for bicyclists by Bicycling magazine.

Although funding doesn't currently exist for all the changes, some bicycling upgrades can be paid for with funds raised by a 2006 tax levy. They are:

Columbian Way Bicycle Lanes — Between South Oregon Street and Beacon Avenue South; and Beacon Avenue South to Martin Luther King Avenue South

Lake City Bicycle Lanes — On NE 125th Street from Roosevelt NE to 35th Avenue NE

Roosevelt Bicycle Lane Couplet — Roosevelt Way NE from NE 75th Street to University Bridge and on 11th Avenue/12th Avenue NE from University Bridge to NE 75th Street

7th Avenue Buffered Bicycle Lanes — Between Denny Way and Virginia Street

Greenwood Bicycle Lanes — Greenwood Avenue N between N 87th Street to N 103rd Street; and on NE 130th Street from Linden Avenue N to Greenwood Avenue N

Bicycle Signal — Fremont and 105th

More at Seattle Times and Post-Intelligencer, as well as the blogs Publicola and Queen Anne View.