Tag Archive for 'Walk Bike Ride'

Join the Walk Bike Ride Challenge

June 26, 2013: published by Troy Heerwagen at 9:10 pm - Closed

The Seattle Department of Transportation’s annual Walk Bike Ride Challenge has started. This program gives you a chance to win prizes as you ride the bus, walk, and bike to get around rather than driving. The details are below on how to enter and what you could win:

The Walk Bike Ride Challenge is on! This incentive program by the Seattle Department of Transportation is an opportunity to win great prizes as you try more trips by walking, bike and riding transit. These trips can be any trip you make; not just trips to work. If you convert 24 (or two per week) drive-alone car trips to walking, biking, car/vanpooling or riding transit between June 15 and September 9, you get the chance to win:

  • A brand new bike and helmet from Gregg’s Cycles
  • Family pack tickets to the Woodland Park Zoo
  • $200 REI Gift Card
  • $100 Nordstrom Gift Card
  • $100 Farmers Market gift certificate
  • $150 Zipcar gift certificate
  • Car2Go membership and four hours of driving
  • And more to come!

The more trips you report, the higher the chance you have of winning, so get riding, walking, rolling, and reporting right away! Sign up NOW for the Walk Bike Ride Challenge to create your individual profile, start a neighborhood, workplace, or other type of team (if you like), and invite your friends to join in the fun. You will also be entered in a weekly raffle to win a $20 ORCA card if you get a friend to take the Challenge.

Once you sign up for the Walk Bike Ride Challenge you become part of a community making your neighborhood and Seattle as a whole a more active and better place to live. The Walk Bike Ride Challenge is partnering with Luum this year and using a new on-line platform to track your progress, provide tips, and engage with fellow Challengers. So, what are you waiting for? Get moving, get active, get prizes!

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Another reason to Walk: This Summer’s Walk Bike Ride Challenge

July 20, 2011: published by Troy Heerwagen at 8:05 pm - Closed

Walk, Bike, RideIf the underwhelming summer weather isn’t enough to get you outside and walking, the city’s Walk, Bike, Ride program continues to offer other incentives. From City of Seattle:

It’s always a great time to do more walking with Seattle DOT’s Walk Bike Ride Challenge, but like many things, summer is the best time to do it.  First, there’s the weather, the best time of year for active transportation.  Secondly, theJuly/August round of the Walk Bike Ride Challenge has the biggest set of prizes of the year:

  • ·         Electric bike from e-Moto
  • ·         Apple iPad
  • ·         Night stay at Pan Pacific Hotel in South Lake Union
  • ·         $250 Zipcar gift card
  • ·         $100 Nordstrom gift card (from Commute Seattle)
  • ·         $100 REI gift card
  • ·         $100 farmers’ market gift card (accepted at seven farmers’ markets)

The more trips you switch to walking, biking and transit, the more chances you earn to win prizes.

The program also helps you be more active, connect with people in your community, and make a difference along with others in the program.

people walkingSDOT will help you along the way with weekly emails with tips on getting around.  You can login to see how many car trips you have reduced, and even see the collective impact of everyone in the program.

Did you know that almost half of the trips Americans make are within two miles?  That’s a walkable, bikeable distance.  

“Summer is a great time to try walking, biking or riding transit to work, to get to know your neighborhood and to start lifetime habits that keep you healthy,” Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen said in a press release.

The Walk Bike Ride Challenge is part of the Seattle Department of Transportation’s Way to Go, Seattle! Program. It encourages people to walk, bike, ride transit and carpool more by offering incentives, tools and information and runs on a two month cycle. The current round is for July and August.

E-Moto Electric Vehicles, Pan Pacific Hotel, Zipcar, and Commute Seattle donated prizes to the program.

Click here to learn more or to register.

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Council to reject funding for Walk Bike Ride

November 6, 2010: published by Troy Heerwagen at 11:38 am - 1 Comment

The mayor’s proposed budget, which includes funding for pedestrian projects through additional parking fees and taxes, is being reworked by the City Council. PubliCola covered the council’s discussion and decisions to reject funding for these projects.

The council agreed to raise parking rates, but not as high as the mayor had requested, and without parking fees on Sunday. The council also agreed to raise the commercial parking tax, but not nearly as high as the mayor had requested. The decisions by the council were not unanimous and some council members fought for maintaining the Walk Bike Ride program funding in the budget:

“If we accept these cuts, we will be pushing back [the pedestrian and bike master plans] even further,” Licata said. “I would encourage council members to think again about whether the [parking tax] could be nudged up a bit to take into account some of these really pressing needs.” O’Brien added that viewed in the context of a $300 million-plus transportation budget, the $20 million proposed for pedestrian and biking programs “is really just a drop in the bucket. … It’s hard to tell the public that these are our top priorities.”

After the council agreed to cut the commercial parking tax, the mayor released a list of projects that would have to be cut. Funding for the pedestrian master plan would be totally cut, as well as for the complete streets program, and red light cameras, along with numerous other transportation projects and services.

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Last budget hearing for pedestrian project funding

October 25, 2010: published by Troy Heerwagen at 3:05 pm - Closed

This Tuesday night at City Hall is the last public hearing for the city’s 2011 budget. Mayor McGinn’s budget proposal includes about $2 million for pedestrian projects next year, including more sidewalks, curb ramps, walking/biking trails, stairways, and pedestrian lighting.

There is some opposition to the funding sources for these projects as funds will largely come from increased parking rates. There is concern that the increased parking fees will keep people (and their money) away from downtown Seattle’s businesses. The Stranger examines what the effects might be of increased parking rates and suggests that increased downtown parking rates will be good for businesses.

The City Council appears apprehensive to support this budget with the increased parking fees, and Dan Bertolet at Publicola calls on the City Council to lead:

Unless they can propose a realistic and equivalent alternative source of funds for Walk Bike Ride projects, how can council members possibly claim with straight faces that they believe it’s important to create walkable, transit-rich communities in Seattle? (The recently approved $20 license fee is slated to fund about $2 million in Walk Bike Ride projects starting in 2012.)

The change we need will never happen until we start spending serious dollars on the right things, and the reality is, $5 million per year for Walk Bike Ride projects is only a meager first step. But new funding requires either new taxes or cuts—either of which is bound to piss off someone, somewhere. Where does that leave the city’s leaders? Well, it means they actually have to lead. And to do that, they might have to upset the status quo.

However, it may require a strong show of support to embolden the council enough to support the mayor’s budget. Feet First is encouraging people to come out to the final budget meeting:

City Council needs to hear from you about protecting funding for pedestrians in this year’s budget!

Your voice is crucial to the decisions that are being made about the budget.

The final budget meeting is this Tuesday at City Hall, in the 2nd floor City Council Chambers. Sign-in is at 5 pm and the hearing begins at 5:30.


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Show of support for budget needed

October 12, 2010: published by Troy Heerwagen at 7:44 am - Closed

Streets for All Seattle is organizing to make a strong presence at the remaining two budget hearings. You can RSVP to receive a T-shirt from them.

The City Council needs to hear from you about the importance of funding pedestrian, bicycle and transit improvements. At the two upcoming budget hearings the City Council will listen to members of the public like you and make crucial decisions about the budget. We need more budget hearing heroes to demonstrate strong community support for Streets For All Seattle.

The next budget hearing is this Wednesday evening at The Brockey Center at South Seattle Community College, 6000 16th Avenue SW, 98106, at 5pm.

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$2 mil for peds in mayor’s budget

October 11, 2010: published by Troy Heerwagen at 6:11 am - Closed

PubliCola dives into the details of the mayor’s proposed $13 million Walk Bike Ride Plan. Of that, $5 million is expected in 2011 and pedestrian projects would get the largest piece at over $2 million.

Mayor McGinn’s office sent out this information about the budget:

What’s in the Walk Bike Ride package? More funding for:

Safe, Healthy Neighborhoods

  • More Neighborhood Street Fund projects that will improve neighborhoods. These projects have undergone an extensive ranking process involving district councils, neighborhood residents, and the Bridging the Gap Oversight Committee. These projects include:
    • Cedar Park: NE 12th St: new sidewalk between Sand Point and 35th Ave NE (2011)
    • Central District: E Union pedestrian and bike improvements between E Madison and 13th St (2011)
    • South Park: 8th Ave South: new sidewalk between S Director and S Concord Streets (2011)
    • Arbor Heights: 35th Ave SW sidewalk between SW 97th and 104th St (2012)
    • Crown Hill: 18th Ave NW sidewalks between NW 85th and NW 89th St (2012)
    • Pioneer Square: 3rd Ave S sidewalk repair between Prefontaine Pl S and S Washington St (2012)
  • Full funding for the Linden Ave North Complete Streets project.
  • Projects that speed up implementation of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plans. This means more sidewalks, bike facilities, crossing improvements, stairways, pedestrian lighting, and other neighborhood improvements.
  • Getting started on the creation of a bikeshare program in Seattle.

A Dependable, Connected Transportation System

Frequent, Reliable Transit

Creating Great Places

We hope you can help us make Seattle a better place. Thank you.

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Greenwood/Phinney Summer Streets

August 11, 2010: published by Troy Heerwagen at 4:49 pm - Closed

This Friday, August 13 from 6-9, Greenwood/Phinney Avenues are open to people:

On Friday, August 13 Greenwood Avenue/Phinney Avenue from N 87th Street to N 65th Street is being opened up from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The Greenwood/Phinney Chamber of Commerce has partnered with us to make this a great event.

It’s everybody’s street. Imagine the possibilities. This event is being held during the monthly Art Up Art Walk. Come out and enjoy great food, mingle with your neighbors, look at great art and support local businesses. The Gumshoe 5K starts the same day and Seattle Children’s is sponsoring a kid’s obstacle course and there will be skateboard demos with free helmet give-aways. Everyone is invited.

Additionally, Mayor McGinn will be giving out prizes from the Walk Bike Ride challenge at the intersection of 74th Street and Greenwood Avenue.

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Walk Bike Ride update

July 30, 2010: published by Troy Heerwagen at 8:58 am - Closed

Several city councilmembers and other local leaders are participating in the city’s Walk Bike Challenge by cutting vehicle trips. And they’re blogging about it.

Go to read about councilmember Licata’s colorful experience on the 358. Or, since this is a walking blog, read about the pleasant walk had by the Director of the Department of Planning and Development. An even more positive experience was had by the Director of the Office of Economic Development:

An annual event I attend was held the evening of the 15th. Even though I was a running a bit late, I chose to walk to the event and arrived earlier than I expected. I realized that if I had driven, I would have still been looking for parking.

This part of the Walk Bike Ride initiative is about to wrap up at the end of this month, but hopefully these experiences help people to find easy ways to work walking into their lives.

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Walk Bike Ride challenge

July 5, 2010: published by Troy Heerwagen at 4:54 pm - Closed

The mayor’s office is inviting Seattlites to participate in the Walk Bike Ride challenge.

We invite people to walk, bike, and ride MORE to work, play, or shop and cut two car trips a week during the month of July. Businesses are encouraged to take a pledge to support their employees in doing the same.

Register your participation and you’ll be eligible to win prizes, including an electric bike, hotel stay, or dinner for two.

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Last night’s Walk Bike Ride session

June 30, 2010: published by Troy Heerwagen at 7:14 pm - 2 Comments

The mayor’s office has organized several community engagement forums as part of the city’s Walk Bike Ride initiative. Walk Bike Ride is an initiative towards making it easier for people to get around Seattle without driving.

Last night, around 50 people gathered at REI’s flagship store in South Lake Union to design a better city for walking, biking, and riding transit.

The room had several informational displays, including basic facts and information about transit, bicycling, and walking, as well as displays showing a proposed redesign of Kinnear Park.

Representatives from the mayor’s office and King County spoke briefly about the Walk Bike Ride initiative and its goals.

In addition to residents from around the city, representatives from many local transportation-oriented groups were present, including Seattle Transit Blog, King County Metro, and SDOT.

There were several tables, each with its own map of a Seattle neighborhood, including First Hill, Pioneer Square, Downtown, and Capitol Hill. For most of the session, participants worked on redesigning their neighborhood to make it easier to get around by foot, bike, and transit. Ideas ranged from the cheap and easy (e.g. improving signal timing for pedestrians) to the more ambitious (e.g. building a pedestrian bridge over I-5).

People had a chance to see the ideas shared for all neighborhoods. At the end, the city took the results of these working sessions to incorporate in their planning as the city moves forward with this initiative.

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