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Seattle Bicycle Weekends Begin Saturday on Lake Washington Boulevard
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- Join Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson on Saturday as we celebrate a summer of biking, walking and rolling on the city’s loveliest waterfront boulevard.
- Lake Washington Boulevard Bicycle Weekends will last through Labor Day, giving people a chance to enjoy 15 weekends of car-free cycling and summer fun.
- On July 11, more than 6,000 STP riders will roll down Lake Washington Boulevard in what could be a record-setting Bicycle Weekend.
Tyler Vasquez
A three-mile segment of Seattle’s Lake Washington Boulevard will be a car-free bike boulevard for 15 weekends this summer, giving people the chance to gather with friends and family to ride, walk, run, roll, scoot and celebrate Bicycle Weekends 2026.
“Seattle summers are beautiful, and everyone should be able to enjoy them,” says Mayor Katie Wilson, who announced the opening of Lake Washington Boulevard “to make more space for people to bike, walk, roll, and be outside.”
The 2026 Bicycle Weekend season will begin this Saturday through Monday (May 23-25). In addition to this upcoming Memorial Day weekend, three-day Bicycle Weekends will take place over the Fourth of July and Labor Day.
On July 11, more than 6,000 people participating in the 2026 Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic will participate in a Bicycle Weekend when they roll down Lake Washington Boulevard at the onset of their 207-mile journey.
The section of Lake Washington Boulevard open to bikes and closed to traffic runs from Mount Baker Beach to Seward Park. There will be no Bicycle Weekend on Aug. 1-2 due to Seafair.
Ride with the Mayor on Saturday
Meet us at the new Judkins Park light rail station at 10:50 a.m. this Saturday, May 23, to ride with the mayor and fellow bike advocates through Colman Park to Mount Baker Beach Park for a ribbon cutting and remarks from Wilson at approximately 11:20 a.m. RSVP to the ride with Wilson.
If you can’t make it Saturday, Cascade is offering a 15-mile moderate pace Free Group Ride on Sunday from the Beacon Hill light rail station to Lake Washington Boulevard and ending at Mount Baker light rail station.
Locals and delivery drivers can still access homes from the nearest cross streets. Parking lots at Seattle Parks along the route will also remain open.
Bicycle Weekends Schedule
May 23-25, 30-31
June 6-7, 13-14, 20-21, 27-28
July 3-5, 11-12, 18-19, 25-26
Aug. 8-9, 15-16, 22-23, 29-30
Sept. 5-7
A Boulevard Getting Better
To make Lake Washington Boulevard more accessible and safe to reach, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is investing in Phase 3 Improvements along the Lake Washington Boulevard corridor. These include:
- A new paved walkway on 43rd Avenue South connecting Genesee Street to Lake Washington Boulevard
- Speed cushions at multiple locations to calm traffic and reduce speeding on Lake Washington Boulevard when the roadway is open to motor vehicles.
“Thank you to Mayor Wilson for prioritizing vulnerable road users and giving people who bike the chance to come enjoy one of Seattle’s most beautiful waterfront boulevards,” says Cascade Executive Director Lee Lambert. “Every time a family or individual rolls down Lake Washington Boulevard on a Bicycle Weekend this summer, they will be continuing a movement to make our streets public spaces for everyone to use and enjoy.”
Lambert also thanked the Seattle Streets Alliance, formerly Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, and Rainier Valley Safe Streets, a chapter of the Streets Alliance, for their advocacy on behalf of Bicycle Weekends and a safer Lake Washington Boulevard.
A History of Bicycle Sundays and Weekends
As documented in the book Biking Uphill in the Rain, the Story of Seattle from Behind the Handlebars, author and Seattle Bike Blog founder Tom Fucoloro documents how Cascade Bicycle Club and Seattle’s bike advocacy movement was born following the creation of the first Bicycle Sunday on April 28, 1968.
On that day, an estimated 5,000 people showed up to ride on Lake Washington Boulevard. The huge turnout (organizers expected a few hundred people, not thousands) amazed city leaders, who created more Bicycle Sundays to feed public demand for opportunities to safely ride bikes on streets without cars.
It’s no coincidence that Cascade Bicycle Club was born two years after that first Bicycle Sunday. The event allowed people who wanted to bike but felt unsafe pedaling amidst city traffic the opportunity to gather, make connections, and imagine a more bike-friendly Seattle.
More than fifty years after those first rides, Mayor Wilson’s decision to create Bicycle Weekends marks what Cascade hopes will be the beginning of a push to rapidly build out the Seattle Bike Network and connect Lake Washington Boulevard to the expanding network of protected bike lanes and bike paths.
Read about Cascade's 2026 Seattle Priorities
South Seattle alone has seen more than five new miles of protected bike lanes recently completed, linking Beacon Hill, SODO, Georgetown, and South Park. The voter-approved 2024 Seattle Transportation Levy, which includes a historic $133.5 million in bike investments thanks in part to Cascade’s advocacy, promises many more miles of protected bike infrastructure to come.
This work is not enough, however. South Seattle still lacks safe bike routes through many important transportation corridors, including the Rainier Valley and along Rainier Avenue.
“Please join us all summer long,” Lambert says, “to show our elected leaders that Seattle residents support not only Bicycle Weekends but also continued progress on the South Seattle bike network to make our city more bikeable and safe everyone in all neighborhoods."
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