(Image: Tim Peter from the Capitol Hill Seattle Facebook group)
A portion of a Pike/Pine bar’s pandemic-era streetside seating was destroyed Thursday night as a driver plowed into the structure just west of Broadway.
Nobody was seated in the portion of the patio seating when it was hit and there were no reported serious injuries in the before midnight crash in which a driver in a white van veered across E Pike and the protected bike lane into the seating area outside Capitol Cider.
CHS is still gathering details from Seattle Police who responded to the crash. The driver reportedly passed a field sobriety test at the scene.
Photos posted the Capitol Hill Seattle Facebook group showed some of the damage as police responded and a witness account described the close call for one couple who were seated next to the vestibule that was hit.
Capitol Cider’s custom-built streetside setup and planters were included in CHS’s report from March on the proliferation of pandemic-era restaurant patios across Capitol Hill.
City officials have cleared the way for venues to add and maintain the seating through 2022 — and, perhaps, permanently.
We’re also checking in with Capitol Cider about the space and whether it will be able to be reopened for customers.
UPDATE: Capitol Cider owner Julie Tall says the bar is open for business as usual “both inside and out.”
She said the shelter that was hit is being rebuilt and should be ready by the weekend.
“I am profoundly grateful that no one was injured,” Tall said, “And I’m glad in general that we have a bike lane between the sidewalk cafe seating and traffic.
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It’s about time we get rid of cars in the fun area of town. The whole Pike Pine corrider should be carless.
That would be awesome. Carlees, but just allowing delivery vans works well in cities like Vienna.
oh man, what luck none killed or maimed
please, sdot, some jersey barriers for all such street-side seating
at least facing upstream
seriously, it’s time ban cars from pike. Allow time-restricted deliveries before noon, but otherwise turn it into a pedestrian area. So done with almost being by aggressive drivers.
Would be wonderful to figure out a way to make Pike/Pine carless / reduced car traffic, and turn it into a safe, buzzing, fun center for all to eat, drink, and enjoy each other’s company.
US needs more city centers that make it possible to walk and enjoy being in a city.
I walk by there every morning on my way to work, and homeless people are sometimes sleeping in those structures. This could have been really awful if someone had been sleeping in that shelter when it was hit.
It is *insane* to me how casual everyone is being about this – it’s basically only a matter of time before a bunch of people get crushed but we’re all like oh well. The driver not gotta get charged, barriers will not be put in place, we’ll just rebuild and next time we’ll be devastated instead of thankful and that’ll be it.
And all of this in the context of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle-ramming_attack
CRAY. ZY.
Yes and there’s a very similar issue with car vs. bike road collisions. Bicyclist slaughtered, distracted or driver turning too fast gets no significant punishment from the law, and so it goes until next time.
Sure, ban cars. But what about food deliveries?
Who knows what deliveries will be like post-pandemic, but chances are they’d still be out a sizable chunk of business if all of those restaurants can no longer deliver food after noon.
I mean, this “let’s all go out!” utopia is great when you’re younger, but you’re basically saying, “if you’re older or have a family, you’ll lose access to every restaurant in the area.” Which you might not care about it, but I bet the restaurants would feel differently.
food deliveries happen in NYC just fine by e-bike. And from Domino’s here as well.
Restaurant deliveries by private car are super inefficient and make the neighborhood way worse; they double park, block bike lanes, make illegal u-turns everywhere.
I’m all for food deliveries and I genuinely want restaurants to be successful, but not at the cost of a livable neighborhood when there are clearly other workable alternatives.
I’m pretty sure the neighborhoods serviced by bike in NYC are slightly denser. A four block radius of nyc is probably the entire population of Seattle.
@privilege And you’d be pretty wrong, too!
Just curious, have you actually even lived in NYC?
Also, what I meant earlier by ‘deliveries before noon’ was the food deliveries by truck *to* the restaurants. That’s a far bigger impact on the neighborhood streets.
Finally – it’s also the height of “Privilege” to insist that other neighborhoods should sacrifice their own livability so you can order takeout from your residential one.
If you want guaranteed easy parking right near the restaurant you’re eating at, you can enjoy the many dining options in U Village.
I’m surprised that these on-street stalls were approved so easily. They should have been on a case-by-case basis. There are some streets that are unsafe for these.
If the roads must be open to traffic, perhaps speed bumps would be in order.
If we can’t ban cars from this part of the neighborhood all the time, at least ban them during the evening when the worst driving seems to happen.
Whatever happens should / must have buy-in from residents and businesses along Pike. Far too many out of area zealots and demagogues shove their views onto this area.