Op-Ed: Let's Accelerate Stalled Progress on the Seattle Bike Network

In 2024, Seattle voters resoundingly approved the Levy to Keep Seattle Moving and its historic $133.5 million investment in bike infrastructure and programs. Now, 18 months after its passage, we are urging City leaders to move forward faster in the construction of key bike network projects funded by, and promised to, Seattle voters.

Delays to safety projects costs lives. This point was sadly driven home – again – last week by the death of Christian Salyer, who was hit while biking on 12th Avenue. The need for bike improvements in this area was identified over a decade ago. But there has not been a consistent commitment to funding and follow through from the city.

To date, there is no visible progress from the city on large cornerstone levy projects that are needed to transform our patchwork of bike lanes into a connected and easily navigable network. This lack of progress is demonstrated in dollars and cents spent: Last year, the Seattle Transportation Levy's Bicycle Safety Program spent just shy of 50% of its planned budget – $8.5 million of the $17.3 million available. Projects in this program often require years of planning, outreach and construction, to turn into real safety improvements on the ground.

Bike projects were similarly slow to move forward in the early years of the 2015 Move Seattle Levy. Looking at how delays played out in the prior levy, we know that delays in the early years will compound during the entire lifetime of this levy. Delays are not acceptable to us and should not be acceptable to you.

https://www.theurbanist.org/op-ed-lets-accelerate-stalled-progress-on-the-seattle-bike-network/