Don’t forget PhinneyWood Summer Streets is this Saturday! In previous years it was always on Friday so don’t miss it! This year, among many other fun things, SDOT will be demonstrating a Pop-up Protected Bike Lane so folks can get a hands-on feel for protected bike lanes. Pretty cool innovation for Seattle! But watch this video and you’ll see how far we still have to go if we really want to be a super-bike-friendly city.
Copenhagen (or course!) is building six new bridges exclusively for biking and walking and they’ve started adding garbage baskets angled for cyclists and LED lights that indicate whether riders have to speed up to catch the green wave AND the Snake! (Just watch the video). Of course only 12% of people in Copenhagen are driving their cars (lots of construction is tying things up even more than usual) so they have the determination and the motivation to facilitate lots of cycling and cycling improvements.
For a related but different perspective, check out this from Treehugger:
Are you familiar with The Bike Design Project? You should be, because the Seattle team just won it! Their innovative bike, Denny, just might revolutionize biking in Seattle and elsewhere. Check it out!
Five Teams. Five Cities.
The Ultimate Urban Utility Bike.The Bike Design Project is an independent innovation platform for the urban utility bike. We’ve partnered high-level design firms with American bicycle craftsmen to collaboratively develop the next-wave urban bike. Five teams from five cycling-centric cities are competing to concept, create and champion their unique vision of tomorrow’s bicycle for the everyday rider.
This competition isn’t on paper. Each team is developing a fully functional, road-tested prototype. High design and deep craft combine to create a very real and viable end product.
Here’s the Denny in all its glory:
Why is it great for Seattle? The Weekly sums it up nicely for us:
- The handlebars (aka bike lock)
- The electric motor
- The lights
Seattle-based Teague and Sizemore Bicycle, in partnership with Fuji Bikes, will now move to the manufacturing phase and The Denny should be available to purchase next year. (Pro Tip! Start saving your cash now because early estimates say the price will be in the $3000.00 range.) And here’s a fun fact! On the current prototype of “The Denny” the frame is made of 3D printed metal.
Lastly, I’d like to wish a very Happy Belated Birthday to the World’s First Patented Electric Traffic Light. It just turned 100 years old on August 5th. Well, red and green did. Yellow is about 6 years younger. Enjoy these few shots from across the years. Looking good! (Dates are approximate)
1931
1959
Photo taken 1999. Light clearly older.
2005
2014 (Note new bike signal)
