TiHabanero

Spent a week in Seattle in mid-September and discovered it by bike. Had been there on previous occasions, but always in a car to get from place to place. This time was different, did mostly everything by bicycle. The bike route network in that city is quite something else. Out of necessity, the people that ride bikes there have done some incredible things such as a mountain bike park under the freeway bridges, strong advocacy for bike paths, and training cagers to cooperate with people on bikes. Mercer island is a gas to fly around, and riding across the bridges is very different from other bridges I have crossed elsewhere. The one man bike shops are so neat people riding vintage bikes as though they were the norm seems to breath life into cycling out there.

I feel for the tourists that don't get to see the city by bike as they are missing truly something wonderful. One thing to note is that the smoke from forest fires in the mountains was a problem and messed with my sinuses and throat, but I soldiered through it and experienced the second best vacation I have ever been on.

SurferRosa

​​​​​Air quality really hasn't been an issue this summer. Maybe one morning for me in north Seattle. I think it was last year we had a rougher go of it, both with air quality and that repressive heat dome.

Brennan

Yeah, Seattle is a great biking city. Had a similar experience while touring Oregon. Used the car to reach different points of interest, then parked it and used our bikes to tour the area. When we reached a city like Portland or Eugene, we would find a bike shop and ask for a local bike map. Each time, the employees offered up all sorts of insider tips on where to go and what to do, above and beyond just biking. In the Portland shop, even the mechanic wandered over and started giving us suggestions. The trip was awesome, and these tips had a lot to do with it.

alcjphil

Seattle looks great, however Montreal, considering our much more severe winters does at least as well. Mostly because of this guy and the people he worked with:
https://cultmtl.com/2022/04/how-robe...e-in-montreal/
"Bicycle Bob" wasn't hard core cyclist he was just a guy who liked riding his bicycle. His showmanship for bicycle advocacy remains with us still. anyone who wants to see reasonably good cycling structure designed for people who want to use a bicycle to get to work should maybe visit Montreal

Darth Lefty 

I’m in Seattle for a wedding and I will be here overnight. I have this crazy idea to grab one of the lime bikes and ride it back to SeaTac. I am guessing I will be too hung over

SpeedyBlueBiker

Glad you had a good time biking in Seattle. We strive to make cycling more accessible and safer for those that wish to engage in cycling around the area. We are always on the advocacy front to expand the cycling network through safer roads.

TiHabanero

Time and time again I remarked to my son that it is simply amazing to me that the motorists respect people on bikes and pedestrians. There's never a question who has the right of way. Another amazing thing I saw was the adherence to stop lights. Only saw one person the whole week blow a stop light. Only one out of the hundreds and hundreds of riders.

As for the air quality, coming from the mid-west and having a real issue with smoke of any kind, believe me the air was pretty bad in Seattle metro area. North of the city was miserable, but doable for the valiant at heart. My son, who has been out there going on 7 years tells me he can smell the smoke as easily as I do. It also affects his throat like it did mine. No matter, the bike lane network and pedestrian/bicycle paths were outa sight, man! What I really appreciated were the clearly marked dedicated bicycle and walking lanes on a shared path, and that everyone on those paths followed the rule.

SpeedyBlueBiker, thanks for the work you and the other advocates do for safe cycling. It is good work.

SpeedyBlueBiker

We try, but there is still a lot to do and not all of the bike lanes created are the most well thought out.
I also used to live in the mid-west (Southern Illinois) so I understand your comments. Our air quality has been bad this last week due to forest fires. Hoping things get better in the next few days as they are predicting.

addendum8716

Congrats for this!

Fredo76

Seattle was wonderful, sixty years ago. It has been Cali-fornicated for some time now. It hit 108°F in Seattle a couple of years ago. That is insane.

Good to know a nice time can still be had there, however.

JohnDThompson 

Seattle has very good bicycle infrastructure. My son just bought a house in Seattle, with a garage but no car or intention to get a car, so once they settle in, there'll be room for me to stash a bike to ride when I visit. Until now, I've just been riding Lime bikes when I visit.

Brennan

CA was also a very different place that long ago, especially the SF area, before the tech boom and before tourism really took off. I remember going to Muir Woods on a weekday in the 90s, parking in the mostly empty lot, and seeing just a couple other people while hiking the trails.

TiHabanero

JohnDThompson, I too, have a bike stashed in Seattle in my son's apartment. He wanted me to take it back with me cause there are three other machines in that place. Fortunately i effectively argued the necessity for me to have a bike out there, and add to that he's a really nice guy and knows it makes me happy that I can just show up and ride. Fortunate to have a nice person for a son!

Kabuki12

I was born in Seattle and moved to Southern California in about 1960 when I was 6. I had a brother in Victoria( we are immigrants) so after I got married in 1975 , I went back up there to show my new bride where I lived as a kid and to introduce her to my older brother. It is beautiful up there but there is a reason for it. It rains quite a bit and there is a lot of cloudy days where it is damp.

rsbob 

With climate change, when we get rain has changed drastically. We just finished a second summer with virtually no rain, or a few hundredths. We had a record breaking stretch in the 90s. October is traditionally the wettest month with temps in the 50s and 60s and we are experiencing a dry stretch of 70 degree days. Positively unheard of just a few years ago. Washington may become the new California and California may become, if it doesn’t completely burn up in the next 50 years, a new desert.

Kabuki12

I don’t doubt it is different . Things are changing here too. The rainy season is quite a bit shorter but we are still at 83% of normal where I live. A couple of years ago we had 125% of normal rainfall.Our summer was mild but September was warm ….strange. In the seventies and through the eighties I was sailing quite a bit and weather was always on my radar. We would sail out to the islands in December and January during , what we call, Indian summers. Now I ride my bike and rarely have I gotten rained on. The same goes for back east where my wife’s family is in Virginia. I am growing palms here that are not supposed to survive this climate zone but they are thriving and have been for 20 years. I dunno , if the climate keeps changing , maybe you guys up there can ride year ‘round like we do down here! Pedal on , Joe

JohnDThompson 

Ha! I was born in Shelton (kind of across Puget Sound from Seattle), and moved to Wisconsin around 1960. 1st generation American, parents from Canada and Britain. Didn't get back to the PNW until around 2005, when my son graduated and got a job with UW.

surak

PNWers don't need California weather to ride year-round. We've figured out that rain is just water, not something to cower indoors in fear of.

Darth Lefty 

I worked out a while ago the rain in Seattle is about the same as it is in northern Indiana where I went to college. It didn't feel like a lot there. It wasn't gloomy. The Seattle gloom is all clouds. If you go a little ways out of town though the exurbs are drenched

Seattle, Tacoma, Kent, Redmond, and Everett are all on the right side of Puget Sound

Kabuki12

I just don't find riding in rain "fun" so.....

SurferRosa

December is the wettest month in Seattle. But the rain up here doesn't compare to a place like Houston, TX, where a torrential downpour is normal and can be scary af.

I don't ride in the rain, and I still find plenty of days in the winter to ride. Unlike the Midwest, it doesn't really get that cold up here. Plenty of winter days above 40°f.

SpeedyBlueBiker

Neither do I. Especially a cold rain which the Seattle area has plenty of. That's why I'm headed off to a warmer climate next month.

rsbob 

If you enjoy smoking, head out to Seattle. Our air quality today and for the next week, at least in the burbs is 160 (unhealthy) “Some members of the general public may experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects.”