Green Lake Way Bike Lane Inaugural Ride, Saturday July 31

This Saturday, July 31, SDOT will host a bike ride on the new two-way cycletrack adjacent to Green Lake Park. Two years in the making, this protected bike lane is finally complete, giving cyclists a safer way to navigate East Green Lake Way N.

Riders will meet in the “Flamingo” parking lot of the Woodland Park Zoo, located at the corner of N 50th Street and Phinney Ave N. At 10:30am cyclists will ride down the improved bike lane on North 50th Street and, at the five-way intersection with Stone Way, proceed north on Green Lake Way N to the new two-way bike lane. The ride will end at the Green Lake Community Center where there will be kids’ activities and refreshments from 11:00am to 1:00pm. Representatives from SDOT will be at the community center to discuss the project.

While this is an inaugural ride, the lane is not totally brand new. It’s existed in an uncompleted fashion for about three months, and I first rode it in mid-May. My first impression was there was going to be a learning curve for drivers taking Green Lake Way N—mainly they’ll need to slow down.

Riding the uncompleted cycletrack on May 15, I saw the door of a parked Tesla ripped off its hinges after being hit by a driver taking a curve along Green Lake Way N way too fast (at least it was just a car door, two months prior that could’ve been a cyclist). But over the course of the past two months, my observations have suggested that drivers are adapting. Speeds around the lake seem to have slowed a bit, which is good for the many cyclists (and pedestrians) who utilize this space.

The huge upside of this lane is there are very few places where cyclists are in direct conflict with automobiles, since the pathway hugs the perimeter of the park. I’ve ridden E Green Lake Way N frequently over the past two decades, and the danger of being hit by a car pulling out of a driveway or side street, or being doored by an exiting driver, was always present. Those risks have pretty much disappeared.

It is slightly disconcerting when biking the outside (counter-clockwise) lane, traveling north and westbound around the lake, because oncoming vehicles are just a few feet away and separated from cyclists only by plastic pylons. The best way to make this space safe for cycling is for vehicles to slow down to a speed no more than 20 miles per hour. And the more cyclists who use this new lane, the more visible they will be. So join your friends and neighbors this Saturday to officially inaugurate this new (and much improved) cycletrack.

Go here for more information on this ride, as well as other events SDOT is hosting around this grand opening.