Biking Tacoma’s Trail Network & Closing Shoreline’s Interurban Gap
- We biked Tacoma’s Prairie Line, Water Flume Line, and Scott Pierson trails to highlight opportunities for creating an integrated Tacoma bike network.
- Cascade organized the Tacoma ride and another in Shoreline at the Interurban Trail Gap to advance efforts by the Leafline Trails Coalition to connect the 900 miles of trails in King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties.
Paul Tolmé
Cascade Bicycle Club recently organized two bike rides in Tacoma and Shoreline that brought together state and local elected officials, bike advocates, municipal traffic engineers, and members of the Leafline Trails Coalition to celebrate local regional trails, and learn about opportunities to close trail gaps and improve active transportation in both cities.
The first ride took place on Sept. 11, when we led 25 individuals on a 12-mile loop of Tacoma that linked three of the city’s best bike trails–the Prairie Line, Water Flume Line, and Scott Pierson multi-use paths.
The second ride took place on Sept. 20 in Shoreline, where 35 people including state Senate Transportation Chairman Marko Liias and elected officials from Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace toured the Interurban Trail Gap.
Both were organized by Davíd Urbina, Cascade’s Puget Sound policy and community rides manager. Urbina is the project manager for the Leafline Trails Coalition, which is working to link 900 miles of trails in King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties.
“These trail activation rides are an opportunity for community members, elected officials and transportation professionals to get a firsthand look at trail conditions and to visualize potential solutions for connecting our regional bike network,” Urbina says. “Our goal is to bring trail supporters together to strategize and share ideas so that we can collaborate and advance progress.”
Tacoma Prairie Line Ride
The Tacoma ride took place on the eve of Washington Bikes’ two-day Bike, Walk, and Roll Summit. We started downtown near the Tacoma Art Museum, where the city is building an extension of the Prairie Line Trail from South 21st Street to South 25th Street. Known as Phase 2 of the Prairie Line Trail Development, this new segment of shared-use path in Tacoma’s Brewery District will link the Prairie Line to the existing Water Flume Line Trail.
The Prairie Line Trail is a short but attractively bricked pathway that passes through the University of Washington-Tacoma campus. “It’s a wonderful example of incorporating historically significant rail transportation corridors into modern day active transportation infrastructure,” Urbina says.
Before starting the ride, the 25 participants listened to comments from Liz Kaster, Tacoma’s principal transportation planner and active transportation coordinator, who described the city’s ongoing work to connect the Prairie Line to the Water Flume Line trail in 2025.
Check out the Tacoma Bike Mobility Map to see the overlay of existing, funded, and planned bike infrastructure. Local historian Michael Sullivan then spoke about the history of the Prairie Line.
After a safety briefing, we pedaled off and began our tour. At the conclusion of the Prairie Line, we used city streets to reach the painted bike lanes along heavily trafficked South Tacoma Way, which led us to the Water Flume Line Trail.
The four-mile Water Flume Line Trail passes through South Park and Oak Tree Park, green spaces, parallels tree-lined streets, and skirts past South Tacoma schoolyards.
At the end of the Water Flume Line our group pedaled in unprotected bike lanes along South Clement, some protected lanes on South 66th, and South Tyler streets to reach the Scott Pierson Trail, which brought us back toward downtown and our starting point. As in many cities, portions of Scott Pierson have been populated with people experiencing homelessness. See our Ride With GPS map of the route.
One key takeaway is that many of the on-street segments were stressful due to close proximity to automobile traffic.
The trail segments felt safer and more comfortable for many individuals in our group. Thankfully, the city of Tacoma has funded plans to make Tyler a separated bike lane, as well as 66th. South Tacoma Way is also currently being retrofitted to include a protected extension of the Water Flume Trail and better signage and markings along the portion of the road with painted bike lanes.
Much work remains, but there is good trail news: the Washington State Department of Transportation is working on a plan to connect the Prairie Line and Water Flume to the planned Spuyaləpabš Trail, creating a 12-mile regional shared-use path that connects South Tacoma and downtown Tacoma to the communities of Fife and Puyallup. Spuyaləpabš is the Lushootseed name for the Puyallup People, translated as "people from the bend at the bottom of the river." Lushootseed is the native language of 13 Pacific Northwest tribes, including the Puyallup Tribe.
Learn more about the history and future of the Prairie Line Trail, and the Prairie Line Phase 2 project.
Closing the Interurban Trail Gap
The Interurban Trail spans from North Seattle to South Everett, largely following the right-of-way of the former Interurban Railway that closed in 1939. Some segments of the Interurban right-of-way have been usurped for road construction, creating gaps that require people to bike along busy roadways before reconnecting with the trail.
One of these gaps is caused by State Route 104 at the border of King and Snohomish counties in Shoreline. This is where the local bike advocacy nonprofit, North Sound Bicycle Advocates, proposes building a bike and pedestrian bridge over SR 104 to reconnect severed segments of the historical Interurban right-of-way.
Last Friday, Sept. 20, the Leafline Trails Coalition and North Sound Bicycle Advocates organized a group ride and walk where 35 people including local and state elected officials gathered to learn about and advance efforts to close the gap by building a bike and pedestrian bridge over SR 104. Participants included state Sen. Marko Liias of Edmonds, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee and a supporter of trails and bike infrastructure statewide; Christine Frizzel, mayor of Lynnwood; Julieta Altamirano-Crosby, Lynnwood City Council; and Rory Paine-Donovan, Mountlake Terrace City Council.
“Bridging State Route 104 would be a big step forward in making the Interurban Trail a continuous, car-free route,” says Urbina. “This is an infrastructure gap that affects all residents of Shoreline, Edmonds, Lynnwood and the entire region, and closing it will be a huge improvement for everyone who wants to bike, walk, or roll between North Seattle and Snohomish County.”
First, our group walked a quarter-mile section of grassy and unused rail line corridor that trail supporters and elected officials hope to convert into a paved segment of the Interurban Trail. The right-of-way dead ends at a steep, bramble-covered slope that leads up to SR 104. This is where one end of the bridge project would begin.
After walking the route, our group then biked through the busy intersection of SR 104 and Meridian Avenue/76th Avenue West, which requires people to cross four lanes of fast-moving traffic. Our group re-gathered on the other side of SR 104 to visualize how a bridge over the highway could re-connect the trail corridor and avoid diverting onto busy surface streets.
North Sound Bicycle Advocates played an instrumental role in educating their local elected officials about the importance of closing the Interurban Gap, and they have secured funding to initiate a design study that will identify the most feasible alternatives for a bike and pedestrian bridge over 104.
Supporters hope to tap federal and state funds to pay for the bridge and associated trail routing. Learn more at InterurbanGap.org.
“We have the opportunity to think big and design a solution that provides a safe and easy to use infrastructure solution that will benefit people for many years to come,” Urbina says.
Learn about Leafline
Both events were a collaboration between Cascade and the Leafline Trails Coalition, a partnership of government agencies, nonprofits, trail managers, businesses including REI, community groups, bike advocates, and engaged citizens working toward a shared goal: to connect the 900 miles of biking and walking trails throughout King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties to form an interconnected regional network that would enable more people to bike and walk for sustainability, health, transportation, and recreation. Learn more about Leafline here.
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