New bike lanes have finally been added to E Union, making this route connecting Capitol Hill and the Central District a little safer for everybody using the street.
Crews finished installing the new markings, parking areas, and lanes this week after years of planning and back and forth with the community.
Seattle Department of Transportation said the project was originally scheduled to be constructed in fall 2020 but was delayed to accommodate King County Metro’s work to realign overhead trolley wires along E Union per the agency’s “safety protocol.”
SDOT responded to community feedback with a plan for E Union that created unbroken protected bike lanes from 14th Ave to 23rd Ave. The city’s original proposals drew criticism for trying to maintain area parking and existing traffic lanes by routing a portion of the planned bike lanes onto the sidewalk.
The final designs removed some street parking, shifted a school bus loading zone, and consolidated Metro bus stops to add the “parking protected bike lanes” to both sides of E Union between 14th Ave and 26th Ave, and then transition to an uphill protected bike lane and a downhill sharrow lane from 26th to Martin Luther King Jr Way.
CHS reported here of another street project coming to Melrose Ave with plans for a summer start of construction to overhaul the street with a raised crosswalk, speed humps, curb ramps, curb bulbs, and protected bike lanes.
Pike/Pine’s streetscape will also see major changes including changes to one-way traffic but those significant changes are a ways off. The Pike/Pine streetscape project is currently in a State Environmental Policy Act-mandated comment period until Feb. 25. Construction is slated to begin Fall 2022 and wrap up in late 2023.
In 2019, temporary protected bike lanes were added to Pike, to help riders and drivers stay safe in the meantime.
There is also a new greenway between Lowell Elementary and Meany Middle School that looks to calm traffic and increase visibility for students walking and biking to school.
And the Central District’s Stay Healthy Streets designations are set to become a permanent part of the neighborhood after implementation during the pandemic’s social distancing restrictions.
The E Union bike lane project was paid for by the Move Seattle levy to create an alternate for bicyclists away from the coming Madison Bus Rapid Transit corridor. The city now plans to start construction of the Madison project this fall.
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With Melrose starting, and this bike path continuing, I hope SDOT will turn their attention to the treacherous intersection of Bellevue and Olive. Some cars turn in front of the oncoming traffic, some turn behind it, and pedestrians always feel like they’re playing frogger there.
Yes! I live nearby and this is by far the place I’m most likely to get killed by a car.
The way the bike lane ends suddenly (going eastbound, at around 25th or 26th) and forces bikes back into traffic is a serious or fatal accident just waiting to happen. Just yesterday, a dad with two kids on the back of his back merged back in right in front of me. He had no mirrors and he didn’t even look. I expected him to merge in and I gave him plenty of room, but other drivers won’t be as attentive or cautious, and will hope they can “squeeze” through. Many drivers won’t know that the dedicated bike lane just ends like that.
Badly done bike lanes that encourage dangerous car/bike interactions are worse than no bike lanes at all.
Using the downhill side of Union at all is now suicidal….. all they’ve done is very effectively block the motorists view of cyclists and the cyclists view of motorists. Add in the drivers on the side streets who will pull right out into the bike lane so that they can see up and down Union and it’s even more awesome. Anyone who thinks this design is in any way safe hasn’t ever ridden a bike more than 5mph on a flat road….. avoid this if you value your life – use the lane.
Use the whole general purpose lane, that is….. it’s downhill you will be going fast enough.
Yay, glad this finally got done. To those who say it’s dangerous going downhill and that you should just ride in traffic, I say that’s fine if you’re a confident bicyclist, but if you’re not so confident and don’t feel comfortable riding in traffic, then this is a great alternative, as long as you take it slow and safe.
Just because it makes you feel better doesn’t mean it’s safe. It will be a novice who gets hurt because they think they are protected, not an experienced rider who knows it’s really dangerous.
Agree 100%. I get the impression that all the design manuals assume flat streets, and no one who draws these things for SDOT actually rides a bicycle in the city. A bicycle is a very different vehicle downhill at 20 mph vs, uphill at 4 mph, and the designs need to reflect that. If a “protected” bike lane for downhill riders is to be safe, then it needs to be quite wide. If we can’t make it wide enough, then it would be better not to build it at all.