Bike to Work Day in Ballard

Friday was Seattle’s annual F5 Bike to Work Day.  More than 20,000 people biked to work, and Ballard was the after-party for the event.

Kate Gregory said she tries to bike to work as often as possible. “I work downtown, and it’s a beautiful commute. You go along Myrtle Edwards and there’s all the roses, and if its nice out, you can see the mountains and everything,” Gregory said.

Jan and Bill Culbertson biked to the event; they said they rarely use their cars anymore. Jan bikes to work at the downtown library everyday, which she’s done for twenty years. She and her husband Bill came to be part of the festivities and see what’s new in the biking community. “It’s just fun to come out, especially when it’s nice out,” Jan said.

The street party kicked off Summer Streets, sponsored by the Seattle Department of Transportation. “Our goal was to open up streets for biking, walking and playing; promote healthy, affordable activities; and encourage people to think about using sustainable types of transportation,” the website states.

8 thoughts to “Bike to Work Day in Ballard”

  1. BFD. Did they have a biker-ed booth there too, signing folks up to mandatory safety classes as well as following up with a license plate, creating a necessary $$ flow? And why not? More community organizers and their social engineering. Can’t wait for 20th NW to eliminate the turn lane. Anarchy is a good thing, right?

  2.  I am very much for people biking to work.  I biked to work on Friday, and stopped by the ‘block party’.  What a waste of my time.  There was a stand signing up people for the Cascade Bike Club (again a good cause) but otherwise it seemed to me that the people staffing the tents there were basically going through the motions.  I don’t know what the point was of blocking off that section of street outside of stopping car traffic.  That was a dumb use of space and I hope we can figure out a better use of that block during bike to work day.  While I will continue biking to work in the future because I find bike commuting personally beneficial to me, that block party did not inspire me to do any more biking than I currently do.

  3. Yeah, I hate when volunteers don’t meet my expectations for  putting on a free event. Next time they better meet my needs, or I will…ummm…complain on a blog site.

  4. It’s likey most of the bike riders have a driver’s license, so they passed the operator’s test.
    Licence plates fees don’t create a cash flow. The only cover the cost of the tabs. Property taxes pay for local roads.
    20,000 social engineers must scare you right out of your paranoid mind, huh?

  5. Hey, just wondering were you get your fiqures ? according to some of the local radio stations and local bike clubs there were 25,000 a new record. And at the stop by fred meyer they set a record about 900 riders from 6 to 9 am. 

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