Park(ing) Day is international day inspires people all over the globe to transform parking spots into places that people want to be. Here in Seattle we are lucky to have the buy-in and support from Seattle Department of Transportation, who not only formalized the process, extended the hours of participation! Cascade has been an active participant in Park(ing) Day and this year was no exception.
This year we headed to Capitol Hill to improve the crossing of Broadway and Pine. With just a little bit of duct tape and some orange cones, we carved out a clear path for people biking.
Getting ready for #parkingday and making Pine safer for biking! #SEAbikes pic.twitter.com/srZ0BBWg04
— Kelli Refer (@Cascade_Kelli) September 16, 2016
Cascade Bicycle Club protecting me from getting corked off at Broadway and Pine with temporary lane and no parking pic.twitter.com/950V2eUIiK
— jseattle (@jseattle) September 16, 2016
A few things I learned along on the way:
- Collaboration is essential to a good Park(ing) Day project! Thanks to our friends at Sportworks who provided a bike corral’s worth of bike parking that can hold up to 10 bicycles in the space of one car! Commute Seattle helped promote our Seattle Bike Friendly Business Network and also took on the business outreach, crafting a creative solution to move a loading zone for Molly Moon’s ice cream.
Excited to partner with @Commute_Seattle and @CascadeBicycle for @seattledot parking day Fri & Sat. #gobybike pic.twitter.com/6wWoMv3zcu
— Sportworks (@SportworksRacks) September 16, 2016
- Support local businesses! This year our parking spot was adjacent to Dick Blick arts and crafts store, which made gathering supplies for this project very easy.
- It’s possible to haul what you need for Park(ing) Day with a good cargo bike! I’m lucky to have access to an e-assist cargo bike, which helped me gather a table, cones, outreach materials and even flowers!
- Small improvements make a big difference — while the improvement we made at this intersection was really small and only requires a little bit of paint to make it permanent it highlights that need for connectivity. When a bike lane disappears, even for a half a block, it puts that person biking in an uncomfortable spot. It doesn’t have to be this way and Park(ing) Day shows that sometimes the solution is simple and small.
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