A quick list of 10 impressions/lessons/moments from bike commuting in Seattle for the last couple days:
- The current state of the Burke-Gilman trail is a bad joke at the waterfront area (think the aquarium, ferris wheel, etc). With the viaduct being demolished, you instead get to either just bike in the street or share the waterfront walkway with the crowds, none of whom seem to expect bikes to exist. Or the any of the rest of the world. This isn’t a problem in the mornings, when no one’s really out yet, but at night when there’s tons of traffic and pedestrians? WHEE. Oh, and once you get past the waterfront it’s just an awkward bike lane jammed on the side of a road and going alongside the WA-99 highway.
- At any given location, the International District smells either AMAZING or like diesel fumes.
- Long hills are the devil. Seattle has a lot of long hills.
- My work building has a bike storage room! I learned of this from a brusque note left on my bike telling me it was improperly parked when I left it locked to a tree. But at least they told me? I just wish, you know, my new employer had mentioned it alongside the parking details so I didn’t have to find out from building management. :\
- Anyone who romanticizes the smell of the ocean hasn’t biked past the cruise terminal area near Magnolia. Phew.
- People passing me on the left on their fast-ass bikes, especially when they startle me, makes me want to kick them, because I’m a petty jerk.
Basically like this. Source.
- Georgetown is a far less terrifying place to bike than it has any right to be.
- Overall the drivers in Seattle are pleasantly non-assholes about me needing to take a lane because the availability of bike lanes is highly sporadic, at best.
- Whoever does the bike trail signage both for Burke-Gilman and in general was, I think, a big fan of seeing if people could reach a logical conclusion given minimal and vague instructions. Or a cruel sociopath. Or both.
- Construction continues to just tell everyone on the road to go fuck themselves. Who needs more than one lane open in each direction? Or the parking lane to exist? Or roads to be open?
BONUS 11th entry!:
- There are BUNNIES in the park in the morning! And lo, they are good and cute and soft-looking.
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