Wednesday, April 4, 2012 has been designated National Walking Day by the American Heart Association (AHA).  The association hopes to encourage more Americans to adopt active lifestyles and lower their risk for heart disease – the number one killer in the United States.  According to the AHA, walking has several benefits – As little as 30 minutes a day can improve your circulation, lower your cholesterol level and blood pressure, and help you lose weight!

Did you know that walking has the lowest dropout rate for any physical activity?  So if you have started and stopped various exercise programs, maybe walking is for you?

Seattle Parks and Recreation will host 18 community walks at various locations as part of National Walking Day. For a list of locations and times, visit the Parks website.

Work in the downtown area?  The AHA and Union Bank is hosting a one-mile group walk from noon to 1:00 p.m.  The walk begins at the Union Bank branch at 5th and University Streets.

Or perhaps you want to start your own annual walk alone or with a friend? Who knows, maybe you’ll want to make the walk more than once a year?  SDOT has walking maps, divided by city sector, for the entire city.  When you visit our map website, you’ll notice that all of the routes and paths on the map have been labeled with the approximate amount of time (in minutes) it takes to walk each segment based on its length. These estimates do not account for the steepness of the street, so some routes may take more or less time than suggested. Seattle streets vary in slope from flat (or almost flat) to very steep. Those streets with a steeper grade have been colored yellow on the map. If an easy route is desired, avoid those streets with yellow shading; if you desire a more challenging and varied route, the yellow streets are for you!

 To learn more about Walk America, a drawing you can enter and a tennis shoe decorating contest, visit the Puget Sound AHA website.

Suzanne Tidwell, Artificial Light, a large-scale knitting (acrylic yarn), 2011. Located at Occidental Square as part of ArtSparks 2011. Photo by Suzanne Tidwell.

Whether you’re a seasoned public artist or newbie, and you’re residing in Washington State, now’s your chance to help enliven Seattle’s sidewalks and parks!

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is partnering with Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs and Seattle Parks and Recreation on a project called Art Interruptions.  Art Interruptions encourages artists to install artworks on city sidewalks and parks and offer passers-by a brief interruption in their day with a moment of surprise, beauty or humor. Possible locations for artworks include street and park infrastructure and street furniture such as utility poles, railings, stair risers, walls, tree pits, or even on trees, without causing damage. 

For all the details on this exciting project, please visit the following website: http://www.seattle.gov/arts/publicart/calls_for_art.asp

SDOT crews recently repaved the Duwamish Trail.

Looking for an easy walk or bike ride? Try the Duwamish Trail, approximately two-and-a-half miles along the west side of the Duwamish River in West Seattle. It’s a wonderfully flat trail, starting from the lower South Spokane Street Bridge, following West Marginal Way Southwest, southward to the First Avenue South Bridge.

The trail runs next to the roadway for the most part, but here in the midst of one of the city’s largest industrial areas is a strip park along the river bank with view points and shoreline access. The middle portion of the trail, where it leaves the street to pass through a wooded area, was recently repaved by SDOT’s paving crews, thanks to funding from the Bridging the Gap trainsportation initiative.

Along the trail is the 17-acre Herring’s House Park, at Southwest Alaska Street and West Marginal Way Southwest, with a natural intertidal basin and areas of marsh, meadow, and forest, making it a great spot for observing birds and small animals that live along the river.  Interpretive signs inform visitors about the local ecosystem.

View of Downtown Seattle from the Duwamish Trail.

Marine industry view from the Duwamish Trail.

Just to the south is the Port of Seattle’s eight-acre Terminal 107 Park, at 4700 West Marginal Way Southwest.  A sculpture is located here–the scaled-down skeleton of a North Pacific halibut schooner–part of a series of installations comprising the West Seattle Cultural Trail. Information is posted here about the people who lived at this site over the past centuries, including a Duwamish Indian village and a commercial fishing community.

Walkers and bikers looking for extended excursions can explore the Alki Trail to the northwest of the Duwamish Trail. To the northeast, the path across the lower Spokane Street Bridge leads to Alaskan Way South, and then to the path along the Downtown Seattle Waterfront. To the south, from the Duwamish Trail follow on-street and off-street routes that connect with the Green River and Interurban trails located south of the Seattle city limits.

The T-107 Park is along the Duwamish Trail.

Sculpture of the skeleton of a fishing schooner.

(Monday – Friday SDOT sends out a compilation of local and national transportation news links. If you’d like to subscribe (or unsubscribe) to the list, just send an email to allie.gerlach@seattle.gov and I’ll take care of it for you. )

Here’s a sampling of some of the more interesting transportation news stories out there this week:

Are those trees holding their breath or what?

Did you know that next month 56 trees along the Burke-Gillman Trail and inWestlake Park will be turning bright blue?

It’s all part of a new Arts4Culture temporary art project. Starting April 2, volunteers will paint the trees with a water-based, environmentally safe pigment which will turn them a bright, ultramarine color. The trees willgradually fade back to their natural color.

The project was created and conceived by Australian artist Konstantin Dimopoulos and is designed to bring awareness and discussion about global deforestation. Trees are Earth’s lungs and yet each year we lose some 32 million acres of old growth forests. In nature, color is used both as a means of protection and as a mechanism to attract. The Blue Trees is an attempt to elicit a similar response from viewers and inspire conversation and action around deforestation issues.

Find out more about the project and how to volunteer here.

View the artist’s website here.

75 years later, the search for Amelia Earhart resumes

The mystery of Amelia Earhart has kept her alive in our collective imagination ever since she and co-pilot Fred Noonan vanished in 1937. Did she crash? Was she a spy? Did she use the disappearance to assume another identity? Was it an accident or something more nefarious? We may never know but then again…

This week, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, joined historians, scientists and salvagers from The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) to reopen the search for Earhart’s Lockheed Electra. Using a newly re-enhanced photo, taken in the months after she disappeared, and advised by Titanic discoverer Dr. Robert Ballard, researchers are planning a 10 day mission, funded by private investors, to see if they can find Earhart’s long-lost plane. And maybe some answers.

“Women, like men, should try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to others. “– Amelia Earhart

Sweet! This U.K. Bus Shelter Dispenses Free Cake!

The future is here folks and it comes bearing dessert. As advertising gets more creative and competitive, and technology gets cheaper and more advanced, and government budgets get tighter and tighter, we might expect more and more things like this innovative advertising installation in the public realm. The nineteen special bus shelters around London are loaded with 500 individually wrapped cakes and dole out the treats when the button is pressed. There’s also a scent spray mechanism in case you just want to smell the cake and not eat it. (No more bus shelter cake for me, mate! I’m bloody stuffed already. But oh, it smells lovely dunnit?)

The ads are designed to encourage busy people to eat cake on the go. Maybe that’s why we don’t have anything like this in America yet. We’re already tops at eating on the run.

Real Time Info for Transit Riders.

Passengers wondering when their Metro bus will pick them up have a new tool at Third Avenue and James Street. Today, SDOT and the King County Courthouse partnered to install a real time bus arrival sign at the northbound stop. The sign faces directly onto the bustling Third Avenue transit corridor and provides up-to-the-minute estimates of incoming bus arrivals for the nearly 900 people who board Metro there every day.

The sign uses the popular OneBusAway program which many riders use on home computers and cell phones. It is the second such sign SDOT has installed on Third Avenue, and more are coming. This SDOT initiative relies on partners like King County who recognize the benefits of better bus arrival information for the rising number of transit users in downtown Seattle.

SDOT is taking the month of March to let folks know about our work to make transit a convenient and viable travel choice in Seattle. Good public transit ties our neighborhoods together, helps alleviate congestion, reduces pollution and improves community health. Transit improvements are one of the best, most cost-effective investments to improve Seattle’s streets. This month, SDOT is launching our newly developed Transit Master Plan. The plan contains important information about current and projected transit ridership and defines the priorities that will guide future transit investments.

Residents often ask the Seattle Department of Transportation what work is planned for their street when they see some indication that work is being set up.  It can take some sleuthing to identify exactly what is happening at that location. There are several places to look:

Construction Map–You can find larger, preplanned construction projects listed on the “Planned Transportation Construction Map” on SDOT’s Web site. Move around and zoom in to find what is planned for your area. Then click on a point on the map–where a project is indicated–to have information about the project displayed in the right hand column of the screen. To find out about any Street Use Permits issued for street work, select Street Use Permits listed on the right hand side of the screen, and again click on a point on the map, for information at that location.

Traffic Advisories–Notices about activities that will block streets can be found at the bottom of SDOT’s website.  Click on the title, On the Move, to see the full list.

Special Events–To find out if any special events are planned that could block of an area of a street, see the city’s Special Event Calendar.

Film Productions–For current film production projects, see Film Production of the Week.

If you need assistance to find out what is happening on your street, we may be able to locate the information if the work is being done by an SDOT crew.  Please call SDOT at (206) 684-ROAD, (206) 684-7623.

The middle part of the Ballard Bridge (called the “bascule”) is getting a fresh coat of paint on its steel parts to reduce corrosion. The painting contractor has draped containment sheeting under the bridge to keep any stray paint from falling in the water while the crews paint the underside. This sheeting is also known as a “diaper.”

The containment sheeting is designed to allow the leaves of the bridge to open and close for marine traffic. Boaters must provide advance notice when they need an opening, and the painters get off the structure until it is closed again.

The sidewalk on the east side will be closed until the project is finished this spring. The contractor needs this sidewalk to access the bridge and bring in materials. There will be no further lane closures until late February.

New Podcasts Now Online!

SDOT is taking the month of January to ask folks to replace one car trip a week with a walking or biking trip.  It can be as short as a close-by walk to the neighborhood library, or as long as a bicycle commute downtown.  It’s an easy way to have a positive impact on traffic congestion and air quality – not to mention working off some of that holiday cheer.

The SDOT Blog has supported this effort by providing resources and motivational testimonials from your neighbors that have taken the challenge.  And now SDOT staff share their thoughts on how to walk or bike more often in a three part podcast.  Listen as SDOT super stars Barbara and Heather talk about their resolve to walk and bike more and be healthy in 2012.  Enjoy!

With the recent snow and ice storm, we thought it would be a good idea to share a friendly reminder that we all need to keep our sidewalks clear. 

If you have a sidewalk in front of your property, it’s your responsibility to remove snow and ice so it doesn’t pose a hazard for people using the sidewalk.   This rule applies to removing other things from the sidewalk too, like leaves and branches, as well as maintaining the planting strip.

It keeps the sidewalk safe, it looks better and it’s certainly the neighborly thing to do.  

Plus it’s the law. 

Some might think that it’s the City’s responsibility to keep the sidewalks clear since sidewalks are part of the public right-of-way, like streets.   But this isn’t the case. 

Let’s get just a bit wonky for a moment… When a property is developed, part of the property is dedicated as public right-of-way for streets, sidewalks, planting strips, utilities and other things which benefit everyone in the community.  However, the responsibility to maintain the sidewalk area stays with the property owner. 

It’s also the responsibility of property owners to repair their sidewalks when they are damaged.  

More info on these rules is available for residents and business owners.  Also check out yesterday’s blog post about overgrown vegetation and sidewalks.

So, now you’re in the know in case of more snow!  Thanks for doing your part, neighbor.

Crews working on the electrical duct bank on Westlake Avenue N.

The infamous “Mercer Mess” is shrinking and the new Mercer Street is taking shape.  Staying right on schedule, despite the need to keep traffic flowing in the construction zone,  the Mercer Corridor Project will reach a major milestone in January.  If you drive the corridor eastbound to take the Mercer Street ramps to I-5, you have probably noticed on the left, the new, future westbound lanes of Mercer Street forming on the north side of the existing Mercer Street between Fairview Avenue and Terry Avenue,  and at Ninth Avenue.  

The project team is currently working hard to complete the remaining underground utility work along the north side of Mercer Street at Westlake Avenue in order to complete the final paving and sidewalks along the stretch of Mercer between 9th Avenue and Terry Avenue.  Underground utility work in Westlake includes undergrounding of electrical distribution, transmission and communications lines, storm drainage, and water line replacement.  This work has been particularly challenging given that crews are installing some of these underground facilities underneath the Seattle Streetcar tracks.  All of this work is in preparation for the big “Mercer switch”, which is when eastbound Mercer Street traffic will switch to the new lanes on the north and we’ll close down the south side of the street in order to begin utility installation and reconstruction of existing Mercer Street. 

If all goes as planned, the switch is expected to happen on the weekend of January 6 – January 9.  Closure hours will start Friday at 11:00 p.m. and extend through the weekend to Monday at 5:00 a.m.  We will keep you informed as more details become available.

For more information about project – the purpose, benefits, and other information, visit our website at:  www.seattle.gov/Transportation/ppmp_mercer.htm