Alaska Airline CEO Brad Tilden unveils the system look.

Puget Sound Bike Share announced the name, look and major sponsor of the system set to launch this fall. Alaska Airlines will have branding on the first 500 Pronto! Emerald City Cycle Share bikes, which make up the initial launch in the U District, South Lake Union, Capitol Hill, Eastlake and the downtown neighborhoods.

“Will they be available at the airport?” asked one person sporting an Alaska Airlines shirt to laughs (No).

Alaska Airlines will contribute $2.5 million of five years to support the program.

“I made one call, and they said, let us know how to do it,” said Mayor Ed Murray of his role in helping to find the system a sponsor, a goal he set shortly after taking office.

“For just $8 a day, someone can ride a bicycle,” Murray said. “There is an equity issue here.”

Brad Tilden, CEO of Alaska Airlines, was excited to see so many people attend the launch celebration.

“This is a lot more people to show than we get to show up when we announce a new route or even a new order from Boeing,” he said.

“Alaska Airlines is proud to help people get out of their cars and enjoy what our great city has to offer in a more personal and healthy way,” said Tilden in a press release.

Pronto! is funded in part by government grants and part by private sponsorships. The rest of the operating budget will be made up from user fees. Other sponsors include Seattle Children’s, Group Health, Vulcan, REI, Fred Hutchison and Spectrum Development Solutions.

It will cost $8 for a 24-hour membership, $16 for three days or $85 for a year. Every station will also have a helmet-vending kiosk where users can rent or buy helmets (rentals cost $2). Here’s a photo of a pricing card:

The next big community outreach step is to figure out where exactly the stations will be located. You can get involved by attending one (or more) of the following workshops:

Pronto Cycle Share will utilize different bikes than the other Alta Bicycle Share systems around the nation, including CitiBike in New York and Capital Bikeshare in DC. The company that supplied those bikes declared bankruptcy earlier this year before Pronto made any business deals with them (good job, Pronto staff, on dodging that bullet).

So instead of using PBSC as a supplier (the bikes are actually made by Quebec-based Devinci, but PBSC owns the patents), Pronto is going with a custom bike from the French bike maker Arcade. The bike will have the key features expected from the PBSC-supplied bikes, including a small front cargo space, auto-on wheel-generated front and back lights, and seven speeds set at a Seattle-hills-ready gear ratio to help everyday people climb even Capitol Hill. Oh, and fenders (duh).

Seattle is set to be the first city to utilize the new business arrangement between Alta Bicycle Share, 8D Technologies and Arcade.

It’s finally mostly open!

While the usefulness of the Broadway Bikeway is still severely limited due to bike detours at its north end, the 1.1-mile two-way protected bike lane opened Wednesday. Simply put: Broadway is the city’s most ambitious complete street project to date.

The first benefit I want to highlight really has very little to do with bikes at all. A commonly overlooked — but perhaps equally important — benefit of protected bike lanes is the immense safety and comfort increases for people walking. Here’s an example of how the bike lane makes crossing Broadway at Boren much better:

This safety increase is not just wishful thinking. A New York City study of similar protected bike lanes found dramatic increases in safety for all road users. That means fewer people walking, biking and driving are injured and killed while simply getting around town.

But back to bikes. The two-way bikeway on Broadway is, in a lot of ways, a testing ground for the nation. Not only did the city go all-out on the design and construction, but it is also among the first examples of such a lane with significant hills in such a dense urban setting (at least that I’ve been able to find). Hills are a common worry when discussing protected bike lanes, especially two-way lanes.

The city has taken measures to slow people on the descents. One simple method is to paint the word “slow” on the pavement. Another method is to change the pavement style from asphalt to concrete and raise the bike lane to sidewalk level. This creates a gentle bike speed hump and a raised crosswalk (good for people with mobility issues who have trouble navigating curbs).

In my experience, the bike lane seems perfectly comfortable to use on the hilly sections. But only time and extensive use will tell whether my sense of safety is confirmed by data.

Driveways remain a serious concern, as people pulling in and out of garages and parking lots need to remember to look both ways before crossing. People biking also need to be aware, as it is a very active area. People tend to walk or stand in the bike lane and you cannot trust people driving to yield before turning into a driveway. Lots of these issues should be eased as more people use the bike lanes and everyone gets more used to it being there. There may also be some design improvements that could help to make the driveways safer, should they prove to be a problem.

You can see some of the major elements of the bikeway in the video we made when the city opened a small section of the project last year (note: The Denny Way connection has since changed). Notice the way the bike signals and the turn signals have separate phases to reduce conflicts. How cool is that?

Watch video

Some of my favorite parts of the bikeway are super simple, tiny features: For example, you now have a comfortable, raised curb to rest your foot at stop lights. And most lights give you a tiny little head start when the light turns green so you can get rolling and well into the intersection before the rest of traffic starts moving. Much of the new space is filled with planters and greenery (especially near Seattle U).

Small details like this make the overall experience more pleasant and comfortable. It’s sort of like how people buying a car often care more about the location of the cup holders than anything else. The small things matter.

Overall use of the bikeway will likely still be diminished this year, since light rail station construction at the north end detours most people to other nearby streets. Yesler Terrace is also a crazy construction zone, and huge numbers of homes are in the process of being demolished. Yesler Terrace was such an active place before construction began, and I hope people displaced can move back into new housing soon. When they do, the bikeway will provide a fantastic connection to the rest of First Hill and Capitol Hill.

Below is an unedited video of one trip along the bikeway just hours after it opened Wednesday. Have you tried it out yet? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Watch video

Pretty well, it seems:

Via @Familyride

Wednesday was National Bike-to-School Day. Kids all over Seattle biked to class. That’s not all that unusual, but there were definitely more than most days.

And Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Jose Banda joined one of two bike trains to Alki Elementary this morning. West Seattle Blog was there, of course:

Watch video

Bryant Elementary, the site of last year’s ride with Superintendent Banda, may have had their largest ride ever. And if you watch the video we made last year, that’s a whole lot of kid-powered transportation.

Seattle will build a protected bike lane on 2nd Ave downtown before Pronto Cycle Share launches later this year, Mayor Ed Murray announced during the Cascade Bicycle Club Bike to Work Breakfast Tuesday.

The pilot bike lane project will be built in part with help from the Green Lane Project and will stretch from Pike Place Market to Pioneer Square, the mayor said.

The announcement puts the city on a much faster track to start building its downtown bike lane network than was previously discussed, and the news seemed to surprise even many bike advocacy insiders.

The mayor hinted at the news during a press event Monday announcing Alaska Airlines as the major sponsor for the newly-named Pronto Cycle Share system. When Seattle Times’ Mike Lindblom asked the mayor about whether he was concerned about launching bike share before there are protected bike lanes downtown, Murray said, “I may have something to say on that at the Cascade Bicycle Club breakfast.”

Alaska Airlines CEO Brad Tilden took the Bike to Work Breakfast mic after Mayor Murray and praised the news of the downtown bike lane, which should help the Alaska Airlines-sponsored bike share system.

As we reported recently, Chair of the City Council Transportation Committee Tom Rasmussen said be thought it was “very optimistic” for a protected bike lane to be in place downtown before 2016. That timeline was based on the Center City bike lane plan process, which will come up with a full route plan for a downtown bike networks and significant design work for at least a mile of protected bike lanes.

It’s not yet clear how the 2nd Ave pilot project will interact with the Center City plan, but it could be a chance for the city to get an idea of what a protected bike lane downtown can actually mean for the city. And the design successes and struggles could inform the rest of the plan.

The mayor did not mention design specifics other than to say it will be fully separated from traffic. Stay tuned for more details when we get them.

Screenshot from a King 5 report on traffic danger in Kenmore. The problem is not on the trails.

Here’s an odd press release I got late Friday: King County will spend a stunning $140,000 to police the trail system this summer.

Now, of course people should be safe and follow the rules when using trails. And some police presence every once in a while is understandable as a way to remind people to obey the rules. But of all the traffic dangers in King County, the trail system is simply not a serious problem in need of a high-budget sting.

Just last week, not far from the Burke-Gilman Trail, neighbors in Kenmore marched through the rain to protest a rash of people walking and biking in their city who have been killed by people driving cars. At least three people have been killed in less than a year in Kenmore alone.

If the county wants to focus on the very real and serious problem of traffic injuries and deaths within its borders, they’re not going to find the core problems on the trail system.

That said, if the county really wants to enforce the rules, they need to focus on issues that actually affect comfort and safety on the trail: People biking and driving who don’t yield at trail crossings, people biking and driving who completely blow through red lights and people biking far too fast and passing too close in crowded sections. Unfortunately, trail stings often focus on less important issues.

For example, last summer we received several reports of police pulling over people in Kenmore who entered the trail crosswalks after the walk signal hand started blinking (but the traffic light was still green). Technically, it is illegal to enter a crosswalk once the hand starts blinking, and the law does not include an exception for people on bikes.

But on a bike, this is a ridiculous rule that nobody follows because there is no safety advantage to stopping and waiting an excess length at a light timed for walking speed, not biking speed (it might even be more dangerous, since nobody behind you will be expecting you to stop while the traffic light is still green). Nearly everyone who bikes treats the walk signal like a regular traffic signal: Solid hand means stop, and so long as you are more than halfway across when the light turns red, you’re good. This is perfectly safe.

So will King County’s big trail patrol budget make the trails safer? I hope so, but that depends on what kinds of violations they focus on. Is a big trail patrol the most effective way to decrease traffic injuries and deaths in King County? No way.

From King County Parks:

King County Parks and the King County Sheriff’s Office are joining forces to ensure the continued safety of all visitors to the County’s regional trail system and various parks sites during the busy summertime months.

Sheriff’s deputies are now patrolling stretches of regional trails including the Burke-Gilman, Sammamish River and Cedar River trails, and parks such as Big Finn Hill, Five Mile Lake, Lakewood, Skyway and others to provide parks patrons with information about proper conduct, including posted speed limits, leash laws and other rules that are intended to keep everyone safe.

“Trail use is at its highest during the sunny days of spring and summer, and now is the right time to remind everyone about the basic rules of conduct,” said King County Parks Director Kevin Brown.

Deputies are patrolling the sites to inform patrons on parks rules and regulations and also issue either a warning or fine for observed violations. Some of the most frequent observed violations include cyclists and other wheeled trail users greatly exceeding the trail system’s 15 mph speed limit, failure to follow pet leash laws that lead to accidents, and alcohol use.

Sheriff’s deputies will also be distributing copies of the trails code of conduct code of conduct, which is also posted at locations along trails.

The enhanced enforcement effort will continue along selected portions of the parks system through the Labor Day weekend. The cost of this safety program is estimated at about $140,000 and is funded through the King County Parks budget. This effort dedicates approximately 1,500 hours of patrolling and park patron interaction from April through October, with additional contingency hours to address concerns in the winter months. Deputies also work closely with park employees to help parks and trails patrons enjoy their visit.

The King County Regional Trail system is a network of approximately 175 miles of multi-use trails that is used by bicyclists, pedestrians, runners, skaters, equestrians and others. Regional trails are popular for recreational use and for commuting.

The new Census commute data visualization tool is awesome. The data is not new. It’s the same dataset we analyzed last fall when we discovered that fewer than half of Seattle residents drives alone to work. But the new visualization tool is super cool and easy to use. Give it a try! (note: It requires Flash, so may not work on some mobile devices)

Here are some maps from Seattle:

And remember how King County Prop 1 failed, thus dooming transit service to awful, terrible cuts? Well, here’s a look at county commute data:

And here’s the vote on Prop 1, courtesy an awesome interactive map by Oran Viriyincy:

So, basically, if you use transit (or if your neighbors do), then you probably voted for Prop 1. So the best way to get more people to vote for the next county-wide transit measure is to get more people using transit! Too bad the failure of Prop 1 means awful transit cuts, at least outside of Seattle (which has plans to save its own service).

Here’s where people in King County bike or walk to work:

And here’s something really fascinating: Check out the correlation between driving alone and commute time in King County:

Communities across Washington State have been expanding the bike education programs in their schools, thanks in large part to the work of Washington Bikes and the state’s Safe Routes to School program.

The education effort is one more way that Washington communities big and small, conservative and liberal, have embraced bicycling as a healthy and affordable way to get around. Bike education of youth is an often-overlooked but important part of creating a safe and booming bicycle culture.

Image from WA Bikes.

Beyond that, bike education also helps create a safer driving culture. If all people behind the wheel know what it’s like to be on a bike, they will know better how to drive around them.

WA Bikes’ Seth Schromen-Wawrin describes how the education program has had an impact on just one of the many communities implementing it: La Center.

Interested communities keep coming. We recently returned from La Center, a small community outside of Vancouver, where we trained school staff in teaching the Bike and Pedestrian Safety Education Program. It was a wonderful, engaging, and very wet training teaching the school staff an 8-lesson curriculum for middle school students on walking and riding.

With this program, the community is poised to make great strides in promoting biking and walking. The streets around La Center are predominantly calm and many have sidewalks. There are even some separated trails – one connecting the middle school to the high school. The 10 participants of the training included teachers, principals, parents, and even the superintendent. They have passionate instructors and dedicated visionary leaders to inspire students to walk and ride.

This program unleashed a much larger vision for bike to school programs at the district. Their vision includes more bicycles to reach late elementary students, a bike maintenance barn, using bikes for science field trips, and multi-day bike tours exploring the trails of southwest Washington. Currently, the start and end of each school day results in an enormous traffic jam from so many family cars driving kids to school. As more students ride and walk to school, the entry area of the schools will transform from being extremely congested with idling cars to flowing with smiling bikers and walkers.

La Center is one of 11 new districts we welcome this year to the Safety Education Program. Cascade (Leavenworth), Deer Park, Kettle Falls, La Center, La Conner, Newport, Northport, Port Townsend, Riverside, Tumwater, and White Salmon School District all receive curriculum on safety education for middle school students, training from Washington Bikes and Feet First on how to teach the curriculum, a fleet of bicycles and trailer, and ongoing support from us to make sure the programs run smoothly

By the end of the year, we will have over 40 districts teaching the curriculum, reaching over 15,000 students a year! Washington Bikes worked with the legislature to pilot the curriculum in 2008 and established an official program in 2011 through WSDOT’s Safe Routes to School Program. Since then, we have been expanding to new districts each year touching tens of thousands of students.