Bike to Work and School Day!

Well, folks, it's Bike to Work Day and Bike to School Day today. I hadn't realized it was bike to school day until I got to the West Seattle Water Taxi dock in West Seattle and started chatting with a dad taking the boat with his daughter who was riding to school today. I'm really happy to see so local schools embracing the day for encouraging children cycling to school.

As I was heading out the door today with my bike, my neighbor across the alley was pumping up his tires.  He'd finally purchased the new tires he'd been meaning to buy, just in time to ride in to work and hit a couple commuter stations (I think he mentioned something about a station at Starbucks headquarters).

My bike commute these days is shorter, although where I live and work hasn't changed in a few years. My route to work, if I ride the entire way, goes through some industrial areas that are sketchy at best.  So, I do a real multi-modal commute:  Bike to the Water Taxi, then transfer to a bus for the rest of the trip.  Rather than the 12.5 miles one-way, I'm riding only about 2.5 miles.  It's all good though.  Any time on the bike is good time! 

Anyway, today was a neat trip in.  There were a few of the usual suspects with their bikes on the water taxi this morning.  There were also a few new faces with their bikes.  As I mentioned, we had the father and daughter going to school. We had a gentleman riding an old Trek (we're talking probably late 70s or early 80s vintage, US Made) and a couple others riding riding bikes that looked a bit like they'd not seen much time on the road in quite a while.  I also noticed more folks riding the Alki trail towards the West Seattle Bridge. Once downtown, where I usually see a good flow of cyclists, I saw many more today.

I did make a stop at a couple of commuter stations.  I stopped at the Bicycle Alliance of Washington office where I  said good morning to Barbara Culp (holy cow!  she's retiring?) and picked up a new, hot off the press, 2012 Seattle Bicycle Routes map.  Next stop was at Union Station (right across from my bus transfer to Tukwila) where Sound Transit was giving out patch kits (you can never have too many of them, right?) and Bike Month bandanas.  They were also having a drawing for a new bike.  Hmm...wonder if I'll win ;-)


The one disappointment was the bike cage at work.  Was I disappointed that I didn't get "my spot" at the bike rack?  Hardly.  In fact, I think I'd have been pleased if that were the case.  There were three other bikes there. Sigh...maybe next year I'll have to look for a spot to squeeze my bike in.  ;-)

Water Taxi saves the Commute during Alaskan Way Viaduct demolition

OK, so maybe the demolition of the Viaduct isn't quite like this (why, oh why can't we import Godzilla to do the job?), but those in Seattle have been feeling the pinch of traffic caused by the closure of the southern section of the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

Since August, King County, the City of Seattle and the State Department of Transportation have been pushing us to look to alternate commute options.  Well, since April I've been taking the West Seattle Water Taxi in the mornings, and just added it in the evenings to avoid sitting on a bus on the West Seattle Bridge.

Well, Monday morning, I was joined by 149 other eager riders.   The numbers have dropped off somewhat since Monday, likely as people shift commute hours, or find other means, but the numbers are still good.  I'm hoping that they stay somewhat high so that the King County Ferry District can add more runs and routes.

Let's face it, taking a boat across the sound is a great way to commute!

Here are the ridership numbers for this week.

Morning commute addendum:  After three days of the media crawling all over Seacrest park in the morning, it looks like they've decided we're old news.  Not a camera or reporter in sight.