On the Mayor’s Mind 9/14/15 Summer’s End & Transportation

Shoreline Mayor Shari Winstead

On the Mayor’s Mind

By Shoreline Mayor Shari Winstead

Summer’s End and Transportation

We’re quickly approaching mid-September, and soon Autumn will officially be here. You can’t beat the weather this time of year, suitable for both sandals and boots. The end of Summer is here, officially marked by SummerSet Festival at Ronald Bog, the first regular season Seahawks game and a cozy fire on cool nights.

What I love the most about the SummerSet Festival is getting to explore a beautiful, small neighborhood park with its own body of water. The festival celebrated its 4th year, with many great attractions, like hands-on art for kids and adults, Native American music and stories, a bluegrass jam, and art at every turn. This year there were even canoe rides and floating sculptures.

I’m always impressed by the beauty of the Willow trees over the green grass and the water. I can’t help but pause to reflect on the hidden beauty of this little gem of a park, right next to I-5. And one of my favorite things about our local festivals is being able to ride my bike to the various parks. It’s great to use an alternate form of transportation, rather than jumping in the car and worrying about parking or traffic.

It made me smile to see some of our friends show up to our Seahawks party riding their bikes (and I was impressed by their riding up quite a hill to get to our house!)... and even more friends chatting about the beautiful bike rides they had taken earlier that morning.

I love living here (you know that), but not just in Shoreline, in the Northwest. Most of us want to be outside as much as we can, getting some non-deliberate exercise, spending time either in solitude or sharing the beauty with friends and family. And while there always seems to be an injury comparison of some type, there are also always stories of adventures and fun, enjoying our beautiful surroundings.

I’ve been thinking about transportation a lot, which is not unusual given the traffic issues and Council work. But lately I’ve been thinking about bicycling as a commuter option. I have a lot of admiration for people who commute by bike, especially a Shoreline to Seattle, or longer commute. I’m a regular bus rider / telecommuter to my regular job downtown. Riding my bike in traffic isn’t appealing to me, and I know that it is very doubtful I’ll ever become a regular bike commuter.

One of the things that isn’t so great about the Northwest, or specifically the Seattle area, is traffic. We all talk about it, are frustrated with it, and at some point, traffic has been responsible for making us late (or completely absent).

Even though our public transit system needs a lot of upgrades, I’m thankful for Metro and the Route 301 that gets me downtown in almost 30 minutes (depending on traffic, of course!). Even more, I’m looking forward to light rail coming to Shoreline, in just 7 or 8 years. One of the Council’s priorities is upgrading the infrastructure around the coming light rail station areas.

The roads that connect neighborhoods to the stations need to be safe for pedestrians and bicyclists, and be able to efficiently carry busses, so people can get to the light rail stations.

In fact, last week, you may have caught King 5’s televised Town Hall on “Fighting Traffic”. I had an opportunity to ask Sound Transit Board Chair Constantine and Boardmember Balducci how Sound Transit is planning to help get the riders to the stations. You can catch the segment at this link.

A few weeks ago I also testified at the Sound Transit Board Meeting, asking that high capacity transit on SR 523 (145th Street) be included in the package that will make up the ST3 ballot measure, likely to be on the ballot in November 2016. We were excited to see that project make the initial list. But there is still work to be done to keep the project on the list, and to make sure that “studies turn into action.” (I hope to see you at the Shoreline public meeting on the study of the redesign of 145th Street, at City Hall on September 30, 6 - 8pm 

I love riding my bike, but I don’t think our traffic problems will be solved by bike commuters, simply because not everyone can ride a bike, whether it is a physical, logistical, weather, or “too much stuff to carry on my bike” choice. We can only expect traffic to get better if we take steps like reducing the miles we drive, taking transit and supporting building policies that will enable people to make carless choices, like transit oriented development. Something to contemplate as we sit in our cars or on the bus, trying to get to our next destination.

I hope you enjoy the changing colors of the leaves, and the fact that our kids are going to school.

See you around Shoreline!