A drive toward fewer cars in Seattle
There are other ways to get from A to B
Steep gas prices.
Flabby bodies cruising for diabetes and heart trouble.
Global warming.
Air pollution.
If the pitfalls of automobiles aren't already enough to make you think about chucking your car for other ways of getting around, consider the growth that is in store for Seattle.
In the next 19 years, the city expects 22,000 new housing units and 50,000 new jobs.
Assuming the same percentage of people continued driving alone to work, the city estimates it would have to build 20 city blocks of 10-story parking garages downtown.
"Nobody wants to do that," says Patrice Gillespie-Smith, chief of staff of the city's Department of Transportation. "We are very motivated to offer incentives to get people out of their cars."
In 2000, 61 percent of all Seattle work trips were by someone driving alone. By 2020, the city's transportation strategic plan wants to knock that down to 55 percent. People tend to become more interested in shifting out of their cars if gas or parking prices escalate, and if alternatives to the car are reliable, affordable and convenient, experts say.
But it often takes something unusual to inspire or shake people into the awareness of those alternatives, said David Allen, senior transportation planner for the city.
A city program called "One Less Car Challenge" aims to do just that, Allen said. The program encourages people to give up use of one car for one month, offering commuters tips on getting around by bus, bike or foot and also providing the free use of a Flexcar when needed.
Of the 86 people who signed up initially in the fall of 2003, 20 percent decided to give up a car and the rest have vowed to drive less, Allen said. "It proved people could do it," he said.
And the city is hoping to encourage people to use cars less by making it more difficult to find places to park.
Last March, Mayor Greg Nickels announced plans to reduce the number of parking spaces housing developers will need to provide in the Capitol Hill, First Hill, Pike-Pine and University District neighborhoods. The city's Department of Planning and Development now wants to eliminate the required minimum altogether for both housing and commercial developments for those neighborhoods and around light-rail stations.
Not only will the initiative reduce the cost of housing, planners say, but it may encourage transit ridership.
Here are some of the trends affecting non-car options for getting around:
Bicycles
Nearly 10 percent of work trips in Seattle are by bicycle or on foot, and in the city's "urban villages" that rises to 20 percent to 25 percent, says Peter Lagerwey, Seattle's bicycle and pedestrian coordinator. About 4,000 to 8,000 bicyclists commute daily, the city estimates.
"We're talking real numbers here," he says.
The Cascade Bicycle Club, a politically active group with 5,000 members, keeps the city informed about what bicyclists want.
The city's Department of Transportation boasts that "Seattle consistently has been rated one of the top spots in the country for bicycling."
Still, things could be better, says Peter Hurley, senior policy analyst with the Transportation Choices Coalition. Seattle lacks the well-connected network of bicycle paths and routes that Portland has, Hurley says, although he sees a network coming together here.
For the past 15 years the city has focused on developing rail and utility corridors into trails that bicyclists and walkers can use.
These include the Burke-Gilman Trail in northeast Seattle, the Interurban Trail now under construction in northwest Seattle, and the last piece of the Mountains to Sound Trail on Interstate 90, which is about one-third designed. The Chief Sealth Trail, which follows a City Light right of way in southeast Seattle, will open next year. Two missing pieces of the Duwamish Trail in southwest Seattle are either in design or about to begin construction.
This month, Lagerwey says, the city will start on a comprehensive bicycle master plan, a major goal of which is to connect the network of bicycle trails and routes. Among the steps will be evaluating all Seattle streets to consider putting in bike lanes, wider curb lanes or shared bicycle-vehicle lanes.
"The theme will be connecting it all together," Lagerwey says.
By summertime, Lagerwey says, the city will begin installing a comprehensive bicycle route sign system.
Already, the city's bicycle program is the most visited page on the city Department of Transportation's Web site and the city publishes 15,000 copies of its bike map a year.
Now the city will be adding more signs and paint on the streets to help with finding the way, Lagerwey says.
The city also has a 16-year-old bike rack program that provides a free bike rack on public property to any business that requests it.
Under a new rack initiative, the city is leaving the posts from some old parking meters that have been replaced by new parking stations. The city is working with a local manufacturer to produce bike racks to fit on the old posts. Sound Transit and Metro have been moving to bike racks on the front of their buses that can carry three rather than two bikes. Seattle's new light-rail system will have two racks for bicycles on board each rail car. All eight of its light-rail stations outside downtown will have bike racks and bike lockers.
Continue reading this story from the Seattle P-I:
A drive toward fewer cars in Seattle
