Main Street is the next intuitive connection in the Bellevue Bike Network

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This year the much-lauded 108th bikeway could become part of a connected bike network, with the addition of a bikeway on Main Street. City Council needs to hear from caring neighbors like you to make it a reality.

Bellevue made great strides in creating safe places to bike in 2018 with its successful pilot of the 108th Ave downtown bikeway. Next up: a long-planned east-west route on Main Street will connect into 108th, to build out the Bellevue Bike Network. But it won’t happen without you: Council needs to hear from advocates like you today to underscore the importance of connecting the network. 

Bellevue’s Main Street cuts east-west through the south end of Bellevue’s downtown core, intersecting 108th, which is home to Bellevue’s first protected bike lane, and skirting the entrance to one of Bellevue’s forthcoming East Link Light rail stations: East Main. That’s why it’s the perfect next route for Bellevue to create an all-ages bikeway – connecting people from East Link to the downtown core, and businesses on the south end of downtown, via a connected bikeway. 

Long-term construction has closed one travel lanes on Main Street for years (literally); Bellevue is proposing converting that out-of-commission travel lane into the latest leg of the Bellevue Bike Network as soon as this year. Three designs are on the table, and the Bellevue Transportation Commission has been charged with evaluating them.  

City Council is due for an update from the Transportation Commission regarding Main Street – so it’s the perfect time for Council to hear from caring neighbors and dedicated workers like you. Without voices in support of the Main St connection – underscoring the urgency for more safe places to be built in downtown Bellevue – then the bikeway may well be pushed off until next year… or the year after that.

Please send a letter now to Council underscoring why safe places to bike in Bellevue matters to you.

The designs presented to the Bellevue Transportation Commission included three options for the two blocks of long-planned bikeway on Main St: a parking-protected lane, a buffered bike lane, or a striped bike lane (which would preserve a general purpose right turn lane).

World class bike networks prioritize connected and protected routes, and see results. Thank you for showing up time and again to advocate for safe, simple, and connected bike routes - the Bellevue Bike Network won’t happen without you.

Write a letter now

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