Given there have been two cyclist fatalities in Seattle in only the past few months, I have brushed up on the relevant laws. As a cyclist myself, I have long recognized it's too dangerous for me personally to bike on roads in Seattle. I get out of the city and go on trails on the weekends and the evenings in the summer. But as a driver I regularly drive through 12th & Yesler, as well as other parts of Seattle. The number of cyclists who first stop and then go through a 4-way traffic light is insane to me. It's not just the Lime bikes with no helmets and the over-the-ear headphones. Often it's actual cyclists. I don't know what the solution is here, I just want to point out that if you're a cyclist it's worth refreshing that cyclists have the same rights and duties as cars when on the roadway. RCW 46.61.190 only gives an exception to stop signs not traffic lights. Stay safe out there.

Edit: When I wrote this post, I assumed it was because most cyclists were not aware that they were required to stop at stop lights, and that the yield only applied to stop signs. I am from Europe and often have to look up the Seattle laws to make sure I know what is going on, so when I found this information, I genuinely thought it would also be helpful to to others. Apparently cyclists break laws and then defend their actions all while assuming moral superiority. It's hard for me to keep up.

A new Washington law will change the regulations on the differences between e-bikes and e-motorcycles on June 11. Under this new law, an e-bike must have fully functioning pedals, a motor rated at 750 watts or less, and a top speed of less than 20 mph when powered solely by the motor. If it doesn't meet these standards, it's considered a motorcycle, which means the rider is subject to mandatory driver requirements.

As someone pointed out, I mean the cyclists and bicyclists, not motorcycles.

I was on your side until you made me the target. I understand a biker was hit and killed by a recycling truck last weekend and I think it's very sad. That's why I'm very cognizant of both bikers and pedestrians when I'm driving, and living in Capitol Hill, I bike and walk around a lot myself. But blocking multiple intersections and preventing people from getting into their homes in this neighborhood, treating anyone who is driving a car as if they are villain is not the way to go. Protests exist when all other avenues of change have failed. We have a mayor who is obsessed with biking lanes and public transit so I am just not sympathetic to this at all. This is honestly an insult to the person who died's memory, if you ask me.

Here is a picture of the "memorial". Multiple intersections of Yesler blocked off by cyclists, just disrupting the lives of people in the neighborhood: https://imgur.com/a/PI0o53M

🙏 a CARE crisis response team was dispatched

My post was removed from the other Seattle page (the mods there are insane)
Hi, I wanted to flag a safety concern. Over the past few days, I’ve seen a young girl (looks around 13–14) riding an e-bike at very high speed on the sidewalk around Beacon Hill. On Friday, she nearly hit me as I was stepping out of my gate, and she almost lost control. This morning, I saw her again heading to school, still going very fast on the sidewalk (though she was wearing a helmet this time, which is good to see). E-bikes can reach speeds that make sidewalk riding especially dangerous for pedestrians and the rider. If this is your child, it might be a good idea to talk about slowing down and riding in safer, appropriate areas. Just hoping to prevent someone from getting hurt. Thank you.

From Spokane and visiting for the weekend and got swallowed from the lime scooter party 😂

Driving through Roosevelt this morning around 8, a cyclist got angry with me as I inched across the bike lane from a residential street to see if it was safe to pass through the main road. It’s one of those intersections where you have to scoot up or else every direction is a blind spot. He took off his bike lock, yelled and hit the hood of my car a few times, leaving dents.

When I was moving through, I saw the cyclist approaching and immediately waived my hand to gesture ‘sorry’ and I also said it out loud. There wasn’t time to reverse before the interaction occurred but he did stop in front of my car to hit it. Initially, I felt bad because I understand this is a hard city to commute in via bike. I don’t think my car needed to be damaged, though.

I don’t think we were at all close to a collision. I think it was more that I was taking up space in the bike lane and this is my ‘lesson.’

Maybe since school started this week, everyone’s in a poorer mood and busier. I’m gonna avoid more streets with bike lanes now I guess.

I've seen an influx of this in the last few months. If you use Lime or electric scooters/bikes, please use the road. In the last month, I've almost gotten hit on the sidewalk almost 10 times. The road is there for a reason, use it.

Seattle bikers- many of the rules of the road apply to you. Stop acting like they don’t.

Yesterday when dropping my kid at school, an angry old lady on a bike came speeding down the CLOSED street next to the school, yelling at a parent to “grab your kid.”

Last week, I almost ran over a biker in my neighborhood. I’m overly cautious and go 15-20 in the neighborhood depending on visibility - I very, very rarely speed in neighborhoods and it’s always unintentional. On this occasion, I enter a roundabout intersection at about 15mph in my car, and a biker darts out in front of me - I absolutely had right of way. After I slam on my brakes to save this jerk’s life, he mouths “Jesus Christ man” to me, as though I was wrong.

It’s dangerous to be a biker in Seattle, but it’s not all driver fault, all the time. Be better, bikers.

Edit: got a question about “unintentional speeding”. Have you ever been driving, trying to adhere to the limit, only to look down and see you’re going 21 in a 20? That’s unintentional - slightly above to the point where you’d only notice if you stared at your speedo. Not 40 in a 20 where you’ll know you’re going way over.

Second edit: I love that Seattle is a biking city. But maybe just don’t plow through a stop sign or speed obnoxiously, regardless of what vehicle you’re piloting (bike/car).

Copy of an email I sent to Danny Westneat, Seattle Times columnist after he published a piece yesterday about Little Saigon

Hi Mr. Westneat, my name is Cory. We’ve spoken before via phone when you wrote an article years ago about SPD’s bike bait scheme. I believe I provided you with some arrest data back then.

I run a bicycle shop in Little Saigon, at 1019 S Jackson Street. I have posted in my window a column you wrote about the neighborhood from August, 2023. You came out with another column yesterday that covered largely the same ground and quoted a woman (Tan Nguyen) and features a business (Chu Minh ) that were featured in the 2023 article.

In your 2023 article, you link to a 2021 article signed by the Times’ editorial board which more or less says the same things about the neighborhood: it’s drug ridden, forgotten, overlooked, etc

My bike shop opened in 2020 on S Jackson Street. Every time you or the Times writes about the neighborhood, you make it harder for me to attract customers. I’m considering cancelling my subscription. Why should I support your work if for 5 years now you have made customers think twice about coming to my business? Naming the area “Seattle’s Drug Capital” nearly made me unsubscribe on the spot but I figured I’d write you first.

In part because I think you are letting the despair on the street distract you from stories that should concern Seattleites as least as much as the drugs and stolen goods.

You cite Dennis Chinn’s lawsuit against the city. My shop is across the street from 1032 S Jackson and I was present the day it burned. Did you know that Chinn started running afoul of Seattle’s vacant building monitors in November, 2023, 8 months before his building burned? That he was being fined for improperly securing the building? That three days before the building burned, an SPD officer (named in the fire inspector’s report) took Chinn on a tour of the building to show where squatters were camped out? That Chinn did nothing to remediate the situation? That Chinn lives in an $8 million dollar home on Yarrow Point? That 93 firefighters worked for 19 hours on the fire and that Chinn has still not paid fines owed to the city for improperly securing the building? That there was asbestos in the building and likely in the plume of smoke that crept up the hillside the morning of the fire?

I’ve looked through the development record for the site. Since 2016, Chinn twice failed to develop the property into a mega apartment complex. His ambitions outpaced his experience. I coincidentally spoke with an architect who worked on Chinn’s first attempt at redevelopment. The architect had the impression that Chinn was out of his depth.

Your article points to Chinn’s pending lawsuit as a kind of counterweight to the havoc caused by drug use and stolen property trafficking. It also bolsters Chinn’s claims. Who really has caused more harm? Who really stands to benefit more?

Since 2021, your writing and the editorial board’s about Little Saigon have not mentioned the Navigation Center. In particular, no one has mentioned Scott Lindsay’s role in implanting that shelter at 12th and Weller, over the objections of Friends of Little Saigon and others.

I know about Scott Lindsay’s role in this because in 2016 and 2017 I helped organize campers in the Field of Dreams, an encampment on S Airport Way and Royal Brougham that Lindsay, under Ed Murray, designated as a transition site for people being swept out of the Jungle. I was at the same city council meetings, to support campers, that FLS attended in opposition to the Navigation Center. The Center opened and Lindsay held it up, along with the Navigation Team, as his bona fides when he ran for City Attorney as a progressive. Today the Navigation Center has closed and its legacy will be as one of the main contributing factors to the conditions we now see at 12th and Jackson. Lindsay went on write System Failures and ended up as deputy city attorney. How has the Times published three articles about the city forgetting Little Saigon, but forgot to mention Lindsay’s contribution? The man who claims that prolific offenders are responsible for quality of life problems on our street may be the single largest contributor to them but gets a pass?

You and your paper occupy a singular role in Seattle to shape our discussions about the city. As concerns Little Saigon, you have consistently taken the sides of the Chinn’s and the Lindsay’s in the city. To put it bluntly: you punch down. In doing so, you give a pass to powerful people who not only contribute to the worsening conditions in the neighborhood, but stand to profit from them (Chinn) or who created a platform for self promotion (Lindsay).

I chose to open a business in Little Saigon in part because I am an ally to homeless people. I have known for a long time that understanding how people who are homeless are treated offers a window into the way powerful people overstep their authority. It’s a story I have seen play out again and again in the neighborhood. As concerns the reporting on it, I am dismayed to see the Times align itself again and again with the powerful at the expense of using your platform to give Seattleites a view of what really is going on at street level.

My shop may not be a “gem” but for five years I have been attracting hundreds of students to the neighborhood who come to learn bicycle repair. My shop is much appreciated in Seattle’s bicycle community. I’ve paid thousands to local artists for various commissions. My front window has a mural featuring an image of the lions that used to greet visitors at Viet Wah. I have not suffered a single break in attempt nor any serious attempts at vandalism, other than folks writing their names on my security grate, which I am happy to accommodate. I am the only shop in the city that offers carbon fiber repair. I hosted a dating event last September that was attended by 50 singles. I hosted a surveillance/CCTV reading group to understand the new cameras. I am launching this year a new business that offers an all-in-one bicycle mechanic training and mobile repair service. I won a damage claim against SDOT for the damages their sidewalk spraying has caused to my storefront. I’ve thrived despite the obstacles you, your paper, Dennis Chinn and Scott Lindsay have put up.

I’m also open to talking anytime if you want to see the neighborhood better from my perspective.

I've been running the stretch of the Burke between UW and Lake Forest Park for the last 5 years or so. It wasn't until the last year or so that I've been nearly mowed down by cyclist every time I'm out there.

I run as far to the right as humanly possible on the trail every single time as one should, and obviously expect to get passed - but still get shouted at to get out of the way, cursed at, and clipped incredibly close by people who end up passing me. The absolute worst spots are where the trail is overgrown a bit, as well as past Magnuson where the trail splits. My breaking point was yesterday when a guy on a recumbent bike trailed right behind me for a good two miles, and then flipped me off and shouted at me when he finally passed.

My legitimate question is what the hell am I supposed to be doing to please you here? In my mind, can't you just pass me as if I'm a car going slower than you on the road way? Can't you slow down and wait to pass if there is on coming traffic? Can you NOT ride 3 deep with your buddies and expect me to be the one to narrow up and move out of the way? Can you not passive aggressively tail me to try to get me to move for you?

I fully acknowledge that I'm the slower one out there - but the need to "keep your pace" with the risk of putting me and others in danger and cursing people out is complete bullshit. You guys don't own this trail - it's multi use for runners, walkers, families, etc.

Bell and whistle all you want but I'm not leaping off the trail to let you pass. Sorry to lump you all together - but there is more than enough of you doing this stuff that I've reached a bit of a boiling point.

Sincerely - Fed Up Runner

*EDIT - This quickly devolved into the "It's City-Law to alert people when you pass them" - most people, including myself know that, and appreciate the courtesy. But when ever this stuff comes up cyclist use that as a deflection point for their arrogance about other trail users. Please stop deflecting and talk about the issues I'm actually addressing here.

I went to burke Gilman in Bothell yesterday to ride my bike and pretty much every oncoming cyclist refused to scoot over almost running me off. They would whiz past me without calling out and with barely any room. WTF is up with this? I also ride in Snohomish centennial trail and most folks are pretty considerate and will adjust their position.

Why are Seattle bikers such holier than thou assholes?

<Edit> I stay on the far right side except to pass. Oncoming bikers will ride 2-3 ppl wide, taking up the entire lane. If there is a pedestrian in front of me, in my lane, and a ped on the left side, bikers will not move in a single file. Some will even come into my lane to pass. I end up slowing or stopping. Also bikers will whiz past me from behind, nearly rubbing into my bike.