My Ballard reader Benton says he saw a road rage incident involving a pickup truck and a bicyclist along 45th St. near Fred Meyer today. That stretch of road (map below) is known as the “missing link” in the Burke Gilman Trail — a confusing, dangerous stretch of roadway. “I was on a scooter and watched in horror as a frustrated driver in a pickup truck raced to come up next to a bicyclist and then proceeded to swerve into him, running him onto the railroad tracks,” Benton writes about the incident. “Thankfully, the agile rider jumped his bike to avoid being snarled by the tracks.” Benton says the incident underlines the need to find a solution for the stretch of roadway.
My Ballard
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Bike road rage on Burke Gilman ‘missing link’
July 7th, 2008 · 19 Comments
19 responses so far ↓
1 mom // Jul 7, 2008 at 8:42 pm
the only reason drivers take this way home is to avoid the light on 46th. but how else does one get from FM to the locks safely? someone is going to get killed one day and then it will become an issue.
2 Suthii // Jul 7, 2008 at 10:28 pm
“pickup truck ”
With a ‘I love the Viaduct’ bumpersticker?
3 lakreitz // Jul 8, 2008 at 6:09 am
45th street is ridiculous & confusing. In one block it has a yellow stripe down the middle, like a real street, the next block, with no warning, the yellow line disappears and the lame ’sharrow’ symbol appears. Two vehicles, traveling in opposite directions can barely pass eachother on it. The joke of a railroad, started up by its owner for the purpose of preventing a rail to trail conversion, ought to be shutdown.
The street ought to be one-way westbound, with a right turn only sign where it meets up with 46th. At least it wouldn’t be as attractive as a by-pass then.
4 isaac // Jul 8, 2008 at 8:01 am
Yeah, what is the deal with that railroad track? I’m unaware of the back story.
5 amy // Jul 8, 2008 at 8:46 am
Oddly enough, I saw a guy get hit hear there yesterday too. This was a guy biking near 3rd and Leary and after the driver hit him, he drove off.
Luckily the bicyclist was ok, just justifiably pissed.
6 lakreitz // Jul 8, 2008 at 9:02 am
Some of the business owners along the railroad tracks did not want (and still don’t!) the track to be idled and qualify for conversion to ped. pathway (’rails-to-trails’). They purchased the rights to it and started their own rail line.
I find it maddening that a tiny number of people can block progress in this way. If the rail line was converted to a proper trail, you could go from Golden Gardens to Redmond (maybe beyond, I am not sure about the E.Lake Samm. link) without going on a street. But no, we get a train engine that runs once a year. For once, I am not celebrating “Old Ballard”.
A neighbor of mine, a former fishing industry salesperson, told me the story. Before the fishing industry went sour, he was plugged into all the neighborhood buzz. Someone might know more than I.
7 Ballardeer // Jul 8, 2008 at 9:19 am
By coincidence, yesterday I also had a driver refuse to yield when it was my turn to cross at this intersection. I’m not an aggressive rider and right now I’m seven months pregnant so I’m careful. It was definitely my turn to go. But as I pulled out the driver saw me and just kept going so that I had to stop. This stretch of the Burke Gilman is terrible. There needs to be clear signals until they figure out a way to extend the trail properly.
More information about the rail-trail debate would be great. Someone told me the hobby train story, but I’ve also seen freight cars doing a short stretch on the tracks.
8 pioggia // Jul 8, 2008 at 11:58 am
write the DoT, the city council & the mayor about this. Document every incident you see. If they hear enough complaints they’ll do something - hopefully before it turns fatal.
9 pioggia // Jul 8, 2008 at 11:59 am
oh and call the cops, even if you don’t have a lot of description of the hit & run driver. It creates an official record of problems at the intersection.
10 Fred // Jul 8, 2008 at 12:12 pm
I am pretty sure that railroad is operating far more than once a year. I have seen it quite often jockying the rail cars that serve several business on the line. It typically operates (from what I have seen) in the early to late evening hours.
11 Steve // Jul 8, 2008 at 2:08 pm
I’ve ridden my bike on that stretch of road for 12 years, luckily with few headaches. The easiest solution would be to close the street to thru traffic…most of which is Fred Meyer shoppers. Let the cyclists and trains share it. Cars can trickle down from the N/S streets.
12 Benton // Jul 8, 2008 at 3:02 pm
pioggia- I just wanted to confirm that I did call 911 and reported it as a hit and run. Also, I forwarded the details of the incident to the DoT.
While I enjoy using that street from time to time on my scooter, I agree with Steve that it would be best to close it to motor traffic.
13 L // Jul 8, 2008 at 6:51 pm
There were a few times I drove down 45th - exactly to avoid the traffic light and the construction on 46th. Then I road my bike on 45th :)
Amazing what viewing the world from the other side will do .. now I drive on 46th and leave 45th for the bikers. It would make a lot more sense to close that stretch of road to motor traffic, or at least make it one-way only.
14 CaffinatorX // Jul 8, 2008 at 7:03 pm
I agree the bike situation between fred meyer and the locks is totally horrible but I’d like to point out that the railroad hobbiests are not the only property owners in that stretch, and there are more than a few other routes and stretches of space around that area that are currently used for parking and other stuff that could be just as easily used for a trail as the tracks. Also, I like having nuts like the railroaders around. It keeps ballard interesting. I don’t get why everyone thinks they have to eat shit so Yankee Diner can keep its parking lot and so on.
15 BB // Jul 8, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Back Story on the RailRoad,
Burke-Gilman trail, and road rage, medium long version–
The RR was started by the owner of Salmon Bay Sand and Gravel (with some ‘investors’) in 1996-97, shortly after the then City Council (John Manning was Transportation Comm chair then) voted to spend a $3 million grant it had obtained, from the Feds, to build the chunk of trail between 8th NW and 11th NW(current terminus, at the Fred Meyer store) AND to construct the trail from the Locks to Golden Gardens–(note, it took 12 years from time of funding to finally complete those two sections.)
Hence, the ‘missing link’ of trail was created. With the help of $350K interest free loan from the state, and a no fee franchise from the City to operate a ’short line’ railroad along the line that was ‘abandoned’ that year by Burlington Northern, Ballard Terminal Rail Road was born. BN abandoned the line for economic reasons.
For the first few years, BTRC shipped frozen fish that had come down from Alaska in boats owned by Western Pioneer, and when they went out of business, the railroad completed it’s transition to almost exclusively hauling cement cars for…. Salmon Bay S and G. (No way to know if you make money running a railroad solely shipping cement cars to your own sand and gravel business, but it probably makes sense to do that.) The owner has posited that in fact, running the train cars (as opposed to the decades long prior activity of shipping by truck and offloading at night) lessens the carbon footprint of the activity–haven’t tried to run the numbers, but this is probably a very valid argument. Mabye some one can calculate locomotive emissions for X runs, vs truck runs.
As of 3-4 months ago, two different public interest consultants were being retained (and have been since about 2003) by railroad principals to monitor any city efforts to build the trail, even in the 11th NW to 17th NW section along NW 45th, a notoriously dangerous route for cyclists (hundreds of crashes on tracks–and the heading of this blog!). It’s their money, and I suppose I would hire the best lobbyists I could if I was trying to stop something from happening. (note to political junkies–same lobbyist is fighting city hall on behalf of the plastics industry, to stop or water down seattle’s plastics reduction efforts, discussed in another myballard.com blog)
Still, the city is moving ahead with designs for the 11th to 17th section, and for the complete trail in the missing link. I agree with one of the readers above, they should be making NW 45th one way for better trail design and business access. (though I would say eastbound)
So, for the next 19 years we’ll see The Little Engine That Could (try stop the trail) jugging along. A 30 year franchise was granted in 1997, and the RR needs only to ship 30 cars/year to keep it in force
Contact kirkt.jones@seattle.gov if you want to learn more about efforts to design the complete trail between 11th NW and the Locks, thus gapping the missing link.
There’s always more to every story and that’s why this is only the medium long version…….
16 Foo // Jul 9, 2008 at 8:31 am
I am not a bicyclist but I agree, 45th should be made one-way Eastbound … because of all the idiots who try to turn onto Shilshoe West/Northbound from 45th! UGH what a horrific intersection! Or if not one-way, I wish they’d make left turns there illegal. Right turn only. Force people to use the stoplight intersection and 46th/Shilshoe (or even up to Leary) if they want to head west from Fred Meyer. The bulk of traffic should go on the arterials, not the bizarre misshapen side streets.
And for (almost) every idiot driver, I’ve seen just as many idiot bikers. And trust me, I’m sympathetic. I *always* drive safe around bikers and give them the benefit of space, safety, courtesy, and friendliness. But *oh* the stupid/crazy things I’ve seen bicyclists do at that intersection!!! (And the idiotic things I’ve seen drivers do, too - what, does no one know how to work a 4-way-stop intersection any more in this city??!!) These in no way justify getting *hit*, mind you, but lordy lordy the idiocy and egos are everywhere. (Just the other day I came back from an errand and realized I’d parked so poorly, on Ballard Ave, that I blocked two people from leaving - oops. What an idiot. That one’s going to haunt me for months. Doh.)
17 SympatheticDriver // Jul 27, 2008 at 12:20 pm
As one who likewise tries to accomodate bicyclists and “share the road,” I believe the bike trail should be relocated such that easy car access to Fred Meyer from *any* direction is available and safe for all. Please keep in mind that some people simply cannot ride a bike due to physical infirmity. Memo to green advocates: forcing cars to use one point of access will result in longer idling times and more air pollution. Memo to Seattle: Please don’t demonize motorists, or make access to the cheapest large grocery store chain in the area more difficult. Thanks!
18 puggles // Jul 30, 2008 at 8:20 am
lakreitz - the railroad doesn’t run “once a year” it runs several times a week, and it brings supplies from the burlington northern tracks up to several businesses along the ship canal because BN doesn’t come up that far anymore.
19 achey // Aug 2, 2008 at 2:46 pm
so i just had a nasty surprising crash on that wierd piece of road
its poorly marked and unsafe
i will check with a doc on monday, but i think i tore my rotator cuff and have a broken hand
is there an legal recourse?
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