Traffic Lab is a Seattle Times project that digs into the region’s transportation issues to explore the policies and politics that determine how we get around and how billions of dollars in public money are spent.
Riding a bike along Seattle’s Central Waterfront just a few short years ago would’ve been a dicey expedition, to say the least.
Either you would’ve been in the cold shadow of a double-decker highway. Or you’d be riding alongside the 110,000 cars that traveled on Highway 99 daily, a frightening, dangerous and illegal endeavor, albeit with a great view from the top deck of that 60-foot-tall viaduct.
Now, the coast — make that, the waterfront — is clear.
In place of the demolished viaduct , which was taken down beginning in 2019, is a widened pedestrian promenade, an elevated waterfront park called Overlook Walk, a quieter yet still busy surface-level street and, basically, a new relationship between this old city and its historic waterfront.
Where ran that highway — which now tunnels underground — lies a milelong stretch of safe, protected, two-way bike lanes, which officially opened Saturday, complete with green paint, bike traffic signals that detect when someone rolls up and a traffic-free way to traverse the city.
As both the city and Washington state burnish their reputations as among the best places in the nation for bicyclists, the waterfront bike path is set to become a prized jewel in an already glittering, two-wheeled crown.“There’s no city in the world that has the uniquely beautiful setting that we […]
Continue reading the original article at: www.seattletimes.com