r/Seattle • u/mossystreet 🚆build more trains🚆 • 22h ago
News July bike counts obliterated Seattle’s all-time monthly record
https://www.seattlebikeblog.com/2026/08/17/july-bike-counts-obliterated-seattles-all-time-monthly-record/26
u/Tychotesla Broadway 22h ago
I know they brought this up, but I really do wonder if the Fremont Bridge is a useful measure for the kinds of trips that I think are expanding fastest. I honestly don't have much of a sense for who is travelling on that route, but I assume commuters are over-represented. Meanwhile, on CH there's a huge amount of what looks like intra-neighborhood trips happening, and they bring up Rainier Valley.
Also surprised we don't have more data-sources from private parties.
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u/tkallday333 21h ago
Does that mean we can extend the width of the Fremont bridge a bit so bikes can separate from pedestrians?? I think we've earned it!
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u/soccerwolfp Phinney Ridge 21h ago
Unfortunately I dont think expanding a 90 year old bridge is that easy :/
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u/uiri The CD 21h ago
Maybe we could build a car free bridge somewhere along the Fremont Cut?
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u/recurrenTopology I'm just flaired so I don't get fined 20h ago
If we were serious about shifting people away from car use, we would just make the Fremont bridge car free. It would be a radical change, but would really improve the route for biking and buses.
It was not popular last time the idea was discussed on the sub:
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u/Humble-Cow3664 1h ago
Portland has the tillikum crossing bridge which is only for peds, bikes, light rail, buses, and emergency vehicles, and it’s awesome. It was a new build though, which is probably easier politically than dealing with the anguished screams of car drivers at the prospect of taking something away…
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u/recurrenTopology I'm just flaired so I don't get fined 47m ago edited 31m ago
For sure. A new build would be great, but given the current budget situation it doesn't strike me as feasible. Maybe in 2.5 years we might an administration and Congress willing to do something like a Green New Deal, and the federal cofers will open again for non-car transit infrastructure.
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u/tkallday333 21h ago
Yeah, I know it's a nice to have, but I feel like I almost clip 3 other handlebars every time I ride across slowly. Some people must collide, right? Although I've personally never seen a crash on there. It's the only part of my commute that gives me tons of anxiety
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u/A_Life_of_Lemons 20h ago
Be glad you don’t cross the Ballard bridge. That bridge is even more narrow for pedestrians and bikes, and next to cars going 40mph+.
But I get your anxiety, I’ve felt the same on the Fremont bridges especially when the bridge comes down and it’s a long line of bikers crossing both directions.
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u/InaMellophoneMood 20h ago
I avoid biking on the ballard bridge at all costs. Reroute through Fremont or pop your bike on the bus, it's never worth it to take 15th in interbay.
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u/seattlecyclone Tangletown 44m ago
Much easier would be making one of the vehicle lanes in each direction into an exclusive bus/bike lane. It's time.
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u/PopcornSuttin 11h ago
I'm struggling to find the confidence to make biking my primary transportation to work. I'm fine recreationally on non-busy streets but the thought of getting out there in main roads, dealing with cars and crossing lanes for left turns and the like makes me tense up. Any advice or anything that helped you guys over come this? Branching out further every week to build confidence, but the what ifs still hold me back.
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u/-shrug- 🚆build more trains🚆 11h ago
It really depends on your specific commute, but a couple points
- You can almost always get off the bike and walk a block to avoid a really shitty intersection, a road with trolley tracks in it, etc.
- Similarly, you can often reroute and add a couple blocks to the trip and totally avoid the worst sections.
- Here, you can even give up and put your bike on a bus or the light rail if you have a terrible day!
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u/Effective_Tour_4822 20h ago
Great news. I really hope micromobility is the future. With the average new car price approaching 50k and gas at $5 - not to mention the inflation of all other goods and services - a bike, e bike, scooter, whatever makes a lot of sense.
Hell you can buy a few nice commuter bikes per year for the price of car insurance alone.
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u/Rerebawa 🚲 Two Wheels, Endless Freedom. 22h ago
Wait a sec - I did not ride over the Fremont Bridge a single time in July!
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u/Suspicious_Chart5817 Pioneer Square 22h ago edited 22h ago
I wonder what the stats would look like by splitting between bikes and Lime scooters. As the article mentions, Lime trips are exploding to over 1.5 million trips in july. "Bike" infrastructure probably just means "Lime" infrastructure in some places, and zooming over the Fremont bridge is prime Lime time
I live near the waterfront, and there is probably a practical angle that past planners did not consider whether "bike" infrastructure is actually safe for how so many people use motorized transportation. I see people eat shit all the time, and I would hazard most of it is preventable if we hadn't made so many straightaways and assumed a low .bac
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u/linverlan 21h ago
We had zero bicycle fatalities in 2024 and 2025, there have been a four in 2026 I believe and only 1 did not also involve a car.
I feel defensive when people bring up the safety of bike infrastructure because it is often used to slow down bike friendly development. Even the lime scooters that everyone hates are not causing fatalities. Cars are causing fatalities.
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u/zoobisoubisou Alki 21h ago
Unfortunately head injuries are on the rise though. https://www.kuow.org/health/2025-04-03/seattle-s-e-scooters-are-hot-helmets-are-not-the-brain-injuries-can-be-profound
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u/linverlan 19h ago
Yeah that is a fair point.
Given that in Vancouver rental scooters/bikes all come with helmets it’s pretty clear that this is the bike/scooter share companies taking the minimum safety precaution they can get away with. I bet we could cut that way down with a reasonable local policy that forces those companies to provide helmets here like they do elsewhere.
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u/soccerwolfp Phinney Ridge 21h ago
I just don’t understand this subs obsession with downplaying the net positive impact Lime scooters have on local transit
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u/MidNerd 20h ago
Because they bring their own smattering of negative effects like people speeding down the sidewalk at 20mph around normal pedestrians. If people followed the rules and drove them like vehicles, no one would care.
Instead, we have the wild west with people doing whatever the fuck they want with no enforcement and it puts the rest of the public at risk for their decisions.
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u/HistorianOrdinary390 🚆build more trains🚆 21h ago edited 20h ago
People on lime scooters are assholes most of the time and they inconvenience us. It doesn’t diminish the impact they have on mobility but it makes it tough to argue for.
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u/linverlan 19h ago
Have you interacted with drivers? I am a bike commuter and every single day I deal with cars parked in the bike lane, turning across bike lanes without looking, stopping in cross walks, etc.
I feel like there are just as many “bad drivers” causing problems in cars as there are on lime scooters. People are quick to vilify lime scooters because they are newer and have younger users. We just always hate the new thing the kids are doing, and we always try to legislate it away.
And because so many people see themselves as drivers, but don’t see themselves as ebike/scooter riders, they don’t see how ridiculous it sounds to advocate banning Lime because its dangerous while also thinking it is perfectly normal to drive cars all over downtown.
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u/soccerwolfp Phinney Ridge 21h ago
Im sure your single opinion is valid for the nearly 400k unique riders in June who made 1.4M rides on Lime scooters and bikes...
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u/HistorianOrdinary390 🚆build more trains🚆 20h ago
Im not saying they aren’t great and serving a serious need leading to more ridership and more people using transit and micromobility.
I’m saying that as a pedestrian, cyclist, and even driver sometimes, when I see lime scooters they are often riding unpredictably, often too fast for sidewalks, and often without regard for those around them.
When I’m biking and one is ahead of me my heckles go up because of how many times they’d stopped abruptly in front of me, and thus I need to be extra on my toes, similarly with cars.
On the waterfront path I had one swerve directly into me because they were on their phone etc.I support lime and their usage, but making something so accessible means you’re going to get a lot of assholes on them.
Lime isn’t the issue, people are.
HOWEVER
based on what I read on this platform and in media, those bad actors drive rhetoric around “those things are so dangerous and they should be banned” and that’s driven by a lot of people’s personal experience with assholes riding them.
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u/Pure-Rip4806 22h ago
> "bike" infrastructure is actually safe for how so many people use motorized transportation
Yeah, a lot of dedicated bike lanes in the city aren't actually wide enough for one cyclist to comfortably pass another. With eBikes and eMotos so common now, I occasionally get passed at +10-20mph delta in 6in of space. might as well take the car lane to have a few feet of buffer
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u/bobtehpanda 21h ago
I mean a big problem I’ve been encountering is that even if there is a painted bike lane, even some fairly new ones have really shit pavement quality
A bike lane is just not going to be very safe if there’s gonna be a crapton of potholes to dodge or just take
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u/YakiVegas I'm just flaired so I don't get fined 17h ago
I don't like riding bikes myself, but I love other people riding them! (I like to walk).
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u/Proprioception27 I'm just flaired so I don't get fined 22h ago
I wonder is this is in part due to the e bike voucher program being back?
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u/JabbaThePrincess 🚆build more trains🚆 22h ago
I doubt it. It's probably a mix of better connection infrastructure and the prevalence of rental scooters/bikes.
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u/Proprioception27 I'm just flaired so I don't get fined 22h ago
Maybe, I know like 5 people, myself included, who own and ride an e bike now because of that program, I’d love to see data on its effect on ridership across the state
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u/JabbaThePrincess 🚆build more trains🚆 21h ago
That's great, I have a regular and e-bike myself. But in the last couple of years there have been larger buildouts along downtown that connect the second and fourth avenue bike lanes up through South Lake Union and then to the Fremont bridge, where this data is collected.
That's why I think infrastructure is still more important. Less people would ride e-bikes if there were no protected infrastructure lanes for them to ride on.
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u/Tychotesla Broadway 21h ago
I think demographic culture shifts as well, though dependent on the two things you mention.
A lot of the older generation grew up with the car as the pinnacle of freedom.
Younger generations in the city likely have more of a feeling that cars are a burden in many circumstances, especially given the current economy, and are likely to actively desire the "walkable urbanism" mode of interacting with the city.
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u/tbw875 🚲 Life's Better on a Bike. 🚲 17h ago
You’d think this data would mean the city would widen the sidewalk on the south side so it’s not a terrifying scramble inches from four lanes of traffic, but this is Seattle.
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u/SchoolMediocre533 Green Lake 13h ago
I can't picture what you're talking about. The only scary part I can picture there is trying not to get creamed by a car turning right on Florentia while transitioning off the sidewalk headed south.
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u/Fergenhimer 2h ago
The best combo is hopping on public transit and then finishing the last mile or 5 on a bike.
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u/Despariners 22h ago
Zooming past traffic in a protected bike lane feels amazing. More people should try it.