World Naked Bike Ride, Seattle
Originally uploaded by jay d

Seattle is a city that loves its naked cyclists: Fremont Solstice Parade, Critical Ass...World Naked Bike Ride? We're there:

It's On! Drop your drawers – Bike Summer is here! Come join the 6th Annual WNBR Seattleride on 11 July 2009! Last year's ride was a huge success, not only in Seattle, but around the world!

Seattle also loves its causes, which makes WNBR twice as popular. The Ride isn't just about exhibitionism - it was created to be a body-positive, car-free, socially-just environmental protest statement.  Which packs a little more punch than your usual protest because it's being led by a crowd of nudists on bikes.

Capitol Hill is getting a piece of the action this year with a ride that starts in Louisa Boren Park, just north of Volunteer Park. Saturday brunch on the Hill is going to be just a little bit more exciting this weekend.

UPDATE: I spoke briefly on the phone with two of the organizers of this Saturday's Ride, Emily Miller and Todd Tollefson. "The three main things that I think of WNBR representing are the promotion of body acceptance, alternative transportation without the use of oil, and increased awareness of bikes" said Emily. On the theme of bike awareness, Emily says that she'd "like to see the City get involved more officially in how we (pedestrians, bicyclists, cars) interact with each other". 

Todd mentioned one of WNBR Seattle's taglines: "Because the Solstice Parade isn't the only time you can ride naked in Seattle". 

We should be able to ride naked more often [than once a year at the Solstice Parade], so we do. We don't have a naked beach in Seattle...besides naked bike rides, we don't have many opportunities to be naked [in public] in Seattle. I wish we could all be less uptight about wearing clothes."

Route map:

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My cycling companion and I spotted this typical pre-sharrow on Sunday. Lots of sharrows are finding their way onto Capitol Hill to advertise the presence of bikes on popular arterials.

Sharrows don't actually *do* anything. The Seattle DOT website states that both motorists and bicyclists should "follow the rules of the road as if there were no sharrows." Got that? Sharrows "do not designate a particular part of the roadway for the use of bicyclists." That said, my guess is that the vast majority of cyclists and motorists DO think that sharrows indicate where cyclists should ride. I did.

This is why the placement of these pre-sharrows, most notably those coming downhill on 10th and Harvard, is terrifying! Note the deep grooves in the pavement on either side of this sharrow -- grooves that no sane road-bike-riding cyclist would go near. Yet some sharrows are being placed near or even ON TOP of these grooves. So now cyclists will: a) ride on top of sharrow and risk crashing, b) avoid sharrow and risk pissing...

Hillku has inspired me to undertake a mapping adventure:  Locate all the cobble paved blocks on Capitol Hill

Here's my first attempt.  I've made it editable to anyone so feel free to add at will.  I know there are some North of St Mark's that I've left out.  So far, Miller Park and I-5 shores dominate, with cobbles especially popular between 18th and 19th Aves.  

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 I suppose this could be useful to cyclists trying to avoid them. On the other hand, my euro-cycling obsessed brother rode all over them when he visited and compared to them to a "Tour of Flanders."  Also, do people living on these blocks enjoy the sound or does it get annoying?  And as a geographer I wonder why these block and only these blocks?

Looks like there was a car-bike incident on Aloha tonight. From Seattle LJ:

There was a hit & run involving a car & a bunch of bicyclists (critical mass folks possibly?) on E Aloha in Capitol Hill about an hour ago - apparently a driver was either trying to back up into the street, go around the bikes, or was just irritated that he/she was stuck behind them and decided to drive straight through them and kept going. No one was killed, but at least one guy was bleeding. Apparently some of the bicyclists took off after the vehicle, but I don't know if they caught him or her.

Seattle real-time 911 confirms a medic response on Aloha around the same time as the LJ report. The account above needs to be corroborated so no rush to judgment about the driver or the bicyclists.

Can judge Aloha, though. Relatively narrow Aloha is a bike/car traffic danger zone so seemed only a matter of time before something like this happened. With the tension between two-wheelers and four-wheelers, expect to hear more about this incident...

July is arguably the best month to live on Capitol Hill. The sun is usually out, summer activities are in full swing, and most importantly -- the Tour de France + Summit Pub. Every day (for 3 whole weeks!) at 5pm, Summit replays the live coverage of the day's stage, and the place is generally packed by 8pm to cheer on the riders to the finish. The folks who work at the Summit are super nice and, if you're lucky, a pub-loving cycling enthusiast will fast-forward through the commercials (thanks, Tivo!). If my dear hillku friend, City Limits, can find a place in his heart for the Tour, anyone can. See you there!

Through a chain of fellow cyclists, I was directed to what may be the greatest post in the history of blogs.  In addition to the brilliant Paint-created graphs, what makes this post extra yummy (and CHS-worthy) is the video near the end from Rain City Fix.  Yes, that's our Rain City.  Yes, those are our hipsters.  And yes, that's our Pine featured throughout.