Greetings from sunny Washington, D.C.! I arrived last night (my bags didn't, but that's a story for a different blog) for the National Bike Summit. This morning, I was greeted with news from New York, about a group of Brooklyn residents suing the city to undo a bike lane.
Interesting timing. Commissioner Sadek-Khan, the visionary head of the New York City DOT, is speaking tomorrow night at the opening plenary about the world-renowned progress the city has made toward becoming a more bicycle-friendly community.
I haven't done any biking in New York, but I've done a lot of walking. Last December, when I walked along Broadway for the first time since its redesign, I was startled by something. The quiet. Not that it wasn't busy; there were people all around me. The new traffic flows, however, made the street astonishingly pleasant.
I found myself wondering if streets in Seattle could be similarly re-envisioned. The Ave. Pike Place. What if Green Lake Way were one way? Or if you could only drive into the middle of the Arboretum to experience its beauty, but you couldn't drive through it?
But I digress. I hope to send up a few blog posts about what I am hearing and seeing during the Bike Summit. I don't know that last year's excitement will be topped. Here's hoping!
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