Speed limit and e-bike regulations coming to Burke-Gilman Trail

I’ve been picked up by the road-side speed detectors on my bike. I have to get pretty close and there can’t be a vehicle close by, but they are sensitive enough in the right circumstances.

In reality, though, I think it’ll be pretty obvious who’s speeding.

What are you even talking about? Is this somehow related to forest fires in your brain?

Yeah, and that tidy little expensive bike of yours needs a paid for license plate. You DO want to pay your fair share, right pal? You idiots on these things are right in and out of traffic like nobody’s business alright, speeding much of the time too. Yet how do you get caught running a red light or going too fast for conditions? Or, perhaps you’re too special to play along with the rest of us who must pay. And don’t even try to tell us how many autos you already license. In the days of incessant revenue enhancements, the time HAS arrived for you folks to pony up. Imagine leaving my property taxes alone for a few months while you pay for your play. WTF is our crazy city council waiting for here?

You’ll be happy to know I’ve been riding mountain bikes for 35 years and keep my speed low around any blind corners.

More like mo-ped.

I know how you feel, but there are plenty of cycling commuters that are unsafe. As well as general stupidity when it comes to most of the planet and smartphone use. I have been cycle commuting for 20 years in Seattle and have watched hundreds of human-powered bicyclist barely kill each other. I have seen cyclist complain about everything from bikes not having lights, to bikes having lights that are too bright, too bike having saddle bags that are too big. :D

In general, cyclist have no safely gear other then a helmet. It sucks getting in a wreck at 20 MPH. Someone who is being stupid on a faster eBike, Segway, eSkateboard, etc will learn a hard lesson eventually. The same is true for all the cyclists that average 22 MPH in the flats. While rare, human-powered cyclist have collided in the past killing each other.

Lime e-bikes are not allowed on sidewalks, and yet there they are. Good luck with the enforcement of any bike rules. Making the rules is one thing, actually enforcing them is another. Sort of like street camping, littering and otherwise using planting strips to do things like take a dump or pee on the flowers (yeah gotta love that urine smell on the warmer days).

The police triage emergencies as they come, they could be right outside your house, but then get pulled away for Domestic Violence down the street. Parking enforcement officers are civilians -not sworn officers- that do not respond to emergencies. Imagine if all the people on the BG decided to take a car to work. Congestion and parking would be a nightmare! There is not enough room to widen roads. Riding and parking a bike takes less space than driving and parking a car.

I’m neither elderly nor disabled (well, I am 50 years old, so maybe that counts as elderly in your book?) and I love my e-bike because it makes it possible for me to commute to work by bike without requiring a shower and a change of clothes once I arrive. I also own a 150cc scooter and far prefer the e-bike: one less vehicle on the road (albeit a small one), no use of fossil fuels, free parking and, considering the traffic between Ballard and downtown Seattle, it’s actually faster to ride the e-bike to work (even factoring in walking across the Locks and adhering to the 15mph speed limit) than it is to drive.

I agree with the former part of your post (there certainly are folks who think the Burke is their own Tour de France).

The latter point, though, is simply not true – cyclists pay the same taxes that drivers do. Local roads aren’t paid for by car tabs, but from general fund revenues (sales and property taxes, mostly). Most cyclists also own vehicles, so are paying car tabs as well, but those go to support highways and Sound Transit capital projects, not local roads.

I’m down. Love the whole “keep it simple” vibe.