Aubrey Davis Master Plan Open House - Feb 7. You're Invited!

Learn more about the master plan, view project updates and share your feedback with City staff.   Time:  6-8PM.

Tunnel Ride: SR 99 Grand Opening February 3

Cascade Bicycle Club and WSDOT have organized a once in lifetime bicycle ride through the new waterfront tunnel (SR99).  Almost 10,000 riders have signed up, but registrations are still open.  If you are interested, find out more here. 

City Completes Two BikePed Safety Projects

The city of Mercer Island recently recognized the completion of two bicycle and pedestrian safety projects:  at the Park-and-Ride bus stop and at 40th Street east of Island Crest Way. 

Identified and supported by NIM and the Mercer Island community since 2016, these projects were completed in early December.  The first project added several improvements to the Mercer Island Park-and-Ride at 8000 North Mercer Way.    The Southeast 40th Street project improved safety along the corridor by adding new curbs, sidewalks, and bike lanes in places they did not previously exist. 

LimeBike Pilot: Last Chance to Comment

Mercer Island ran a 3-month bikeshare pilot program with LimeBike this summer, testing out a fleet of approx. 25 E-Bikes on MI.

While the bikes can still be seen on the Island, the official pilot period has ended.  

In 90 days, over 1,200 riders took approximately 4,100 rides totaling almost 4,000 miles!

The City is collecting user and community feedback to help Council decide on next steps.

If you haven’t yet taken our quick online survey, please do so today, as it will be closing soon!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MI-BikesharePilot

Cities Struggle with Adding E-Scooters to Their Transportation Mix

Bike share companies have found that e-scooters are both more profitable and expand the size of urban markets.  Several bike share companies hope to introduce e-scooters to Seattle and Puget Sound cities.

Introducing scooters has resulted in a backlash or at least controversy, because the current infrastructure and regulations are not yet designed to accommodate them.   The hyperlinks below connect to videos and articles describing situations on the West Coast, New York, Paris and London.

-Seattle 
-San Francisco  (Bike share company perspective)
-New York
-USA   (Overview with quotes from Elon Musk)
-Paris
-London

Use the Dutch Reach to Save Cyclists' Lives

Urban cyclists face the daily risk of 'doorings' when a driver leaves opens his car door as a cyclist passes by.  This can be drastically reduced if drivers use the "Dutch Reach" to open their car doors.  It means simply using one's right hand to open the door which forces the driver's body to turn and see oncoming cyclists.  

A British Columbia study indicates that doorings are the car-to-cyclist crash type causing the most injuries to cyclists.  

Learn more at www.dutchreach.org.

Safety Concerns Drive Seattle E-scooter Policy

Seattle has told the E-bike companies that they will have to wait for permission to operate the E-bike trial projects are completed.  Like most cities, the current infrastructure was not designed for alternative modes of transportation. 

"A little over a year ago, Seattle led the nation, becoming the first major city to open its streets to shareable bikes that didn’t need docking stations and could be left almost anywhere.

A year later, Seattle has taken the opposite tack with a similar technology that’s proven more popular than the bikes."