Riding around town today



C

Claire Petersky

Guest
Warning, rambling, blog-like post follows, but considering how dull most
posts are right now on RBM (boring recumbent debates, feh), I hope you'll
indulge me here.

First off, the meeting was at City of Seatac's city hall at 8:00 AM. I
didn't quite have the time to ride all the way there this morning, so I
drove my bike down to the South Bellevue Park-and-Ride, dumped the car, and
took off from there.

The odometer's on the fritz again, so I don't know how far it was. Fifteen
miles, maybe? I got lost as usual trying to figure out how to get from the
Lake Washington Loop route to the Interrurban Trail, but not as bad as
usual -- I only had to turn around twice. I've done it a few times now, so
it gets easier each time to find the way. And, as I was whipping down the
Interruban -- I just love that thing -- flat, broad, straight, and very
little traffic -- the sky was brightening. The sun hadn't quite slipped over
the horizon yet, but Mt. Rainier was glistening, and the dark slate clouds
were tinged orange and pink.

I turned off the trail, climbed up out of the valley, and made it to City
Hall just around 8:00. They have no public bicycle parking, just a couple of
bike lockers I could see in the back, presumably for employees. I just
walked the bike in and parked it behind the yuletide tree in the lobby.

So, I was in the meeting in lycra, but if there's any group that should be
tolerant of lycra wearing, it should be urban planners, right? They're the
ones who go on and on about "multi-modal" and "new urbanism" and all that.
And I was wearing my stylish red wicking turtleneck, not my grey, piling,
fleece top, so maybe I looked somewhat presentable.

Aafter the meeting was over, I could see that the sun was out, it was a
lovely day, and the original plan of just riding a mile to the express bus
stop and returning to work immediately didn't appeal. I could make up the
time for I'd spend riding later. I had this crazy notion I'd try the Green
River trail to ride to work downtown.

You can see here http://www.metrokc.gov/parks/trails/trails/intergr.htm how
straight the Interrurban is, and how wiggly the Green River trail is. I had
only been on short sections of the Green River trail before, and didn't know
how wiggly it was going to be. The trail was hard to find, and the lack of
signage meant I lost the trail a couple of times and had a hard time finding
it again. Finally I gave up on it, since it was probably coming to an end
anyway, and decided I would find Airport Way, which is a straight shot out
to downtown, flat, and if it's not rush hour (which it wasn't), not such a
bad route in terms of traffic.

Sounds great, except I must have missed the turn to Airport Way, and found
myself on MLK instead.

I don't know about you all, but I have this thing where I hate to turn
around. If I'm completely going the wrong direction, sure, I'll turn around.
But MLK was sort in the right direction-- at least it was heading north,
even if it was hillier than Airport Way. And I had never ridden on MLK.

So I rode on MLK. Like probably every road in the USA named after Martin
Luther King Jr., Martin Luther King Jr. Way goes through probably the city's
poorest neighborhoods. This showed up on the quality of the street -- I rode
smack dab down the middle of the lane because the first three or four feet
from the curb was totally unridable, with potholes, cracks, gravel, and
debris liberally strewn about. But it was educational -- since I work in the
field of affordable housing, I got the chance to ride past many projects I
have heard about, if I haven't worked on them directly myself. I believe
that you can get a better sense of a housing project from a bike than either
on foot (which is too micro a view) or by automobile (too constrained, too
fast), so I got quite a bit out of the ride. Not enough to charge the time
riding though to the office, though :).

By the time I finally made it downtown, I was pretty well beat. I don't do
that many miles in the winter time, typically, just the commute, and by this
time I had probably ridden about 35 or so. So, when I went back home from
the office downtown, I was pleased to see my car at the park and ride, and
was happy I could drive those last five or six miles back to the house.


--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
please substitute yahoo for mousepotato to reply
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky
 
Claire Petersky wrote:

[...]

:: I turned off the trail, climbed up out of the valley, and made it to
:: City Hall just around 8:00. They have no public bicycle parking,
:: just a couple of bike lockers I could see in the back, presumably
:: for employees. I just walked the bike in and parked it behind the
:: yuletide tree in the lobby.
::
:: So, I was in the meeting in lycra, but if there's any group that
:: should be tolerant of lycra wearing, it should be urban planners,
:: right? They're the ones who go on and on about "multi-modal" and
:: "new urbanism" and all that. And I was wearing my stylish red
:: wicking turtleneck, not my grey, piling, fleece top, so maybe I
:: looked somewhat presentable.

Just curious: was your meeting in a different room than where you left your
bike (in the lobby)? I would have taken my bike into the meeting room
unless it was a very small room, I think.

[...]

:: So I rode on MLK. Like probably every road in the USA named after
:: Martin Luther King Jr., Martin Luther King Jr. Way goes through
:: probably the city's poorest neighborhoods.

I've been on some that aren't that way....but I don't doubt that a lot are.
 
Roger Zoul wrote:

> Claire Petersky wrote:
> :: So I rode on MLK. Like probably every road in the USA named after
> :: Martin Luther King Jr., Martin Luther King Jr. Way goes through
> :: probably the city's poorest neighborhoods.
>
> I've been on some that aren't that way....but I don't doubt that a lot are.
>
>


Most cities chose streets to rename as MLK that had a minimum number of
businesses that would grouse about having to change their addresses on
all their printing.

--
My bike blog:
http://diabloscott.blogspot.com/
 
Diablo Scott wrote:
|| Roger Zoul wrote:
||
||| Claire Petersky wrote:
||||| So I rode on MLK. Like probably every road in the USA named after
||||| Martin Luther King Jr., Martin Luther King Jr. Way goes through
||||| probably the city's poorest neighborhoods.
|||
||| I've been on some that aren't that way....but I don't doubt that a
||| lot are.
|||
|||
||
|| Most cities chose streets to rename as MLK that had a minimum number
|| of businesses that would grouse about having to change their
|| addresses on
|| all their printing.
||

Didn't think of that, but it does explain things a bit, seemingly.

|| --
|| My bike blog:
|| http://diabloscott.blogspot.com/
 
On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 23:35:40 GMT, Claire Petersky
<[email protected]> wrote:

> Sounds great, except I must have missed the turn to Airport Way, and
> found
> myself on MLK instead.
>
> I don't know about you all, but I have this thing where I hate to turn
> around. If I'm completely going the wrong direction, sure, I'll turn
> around.


Sounds like a good method, same here, when in doubt, explore.

> But MLK was sort in the right direction-- at least it was heading north,
> even if it was hillier than Airport Way. And I had never ridden on MLK.
>
> So I rode on MLK. Like probably every road in the USA named after Martin
> Luther King Jr., Martin Luther King Jr. Way goes through probably the
> city's
> poorest neighborhoods. This showed up on the quality of the street -- I
> rode
> smack dab down the middle of the lane because the first three or four
> feet
> from the curb was totally unridable, with potholes, cracks, gravel, and
> debris liberally strewn about.


When he said "I have a dream.", I don't think bad trail through bad
neighborhoods was part of that vision. They could at least maintain
the trail so it would not convey to the tourist rider that they are
now in the slums.

But it was educational -- since I work in
> the
> field of affordable housing, I got the chance to ride past many projects
> I
> have heard about, if I haven't worked on them directly myself. I believe
> that you can get a better sense of a housing project from a bike than
> either
> on foot (which is too micro a view) or by automobile (too constrained,
> too
> fast), so I got quite a bit out of the ride. Not enough to charge the
> time
> riding though to the office, though :).
>
> By the time I finally made it downtown, I was pretty well beat. I don't
> do
> that many miles in the winter time, typically, just the commute, and by
> this
> time I had probably ridden about 35 or so. So, when I went back home from
> the office downtown, I was pleased to see my car at the park and ride,
> and
> was happy I could drive those last five or six miles back to the house.
>
>

Good post Claire, and not overly long. Short of a concise ride diary.


--
Bill (?) Baka
 
"Roger Zoul" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Claire Petersky wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> :: I turned off the trail, climbed up out of the valley, and made it to
> :: City Hall just around 8:00. They have no public bicycle parking,
> :: just a couple of bike lockers I could see in the back, presumably
> :: for employees. I just walked the bike in and parked it behind the
> :: yuletide tree in the lobby.
>
> Just curious: was your meeting in a different room than where you left

your
> bike (in the lobby)? I would have taken my bike into the meeting room
> unless it was a very small room, I think.


I wanted to avoid taking it where the reception desk would see and tell me I
had to keep it outside.

The City of Seatac now has received an email regarding visitor bicycle
parking, with suggestions for design and placement. I also suggested that
along with DRIVING DIRECTIONS on their website they might want to consider
also giving bus and bicycle directions to City Hall. We'll see how far any
of that goes.


--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
please substitute yahoo for mousepotato to reply
Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky