Don’t you wish there were a map that showed buildings downtown that have bike racks, and even showers and lockers for tenants? Wouldn’t it be nice to pull up that map on your mobile device to find the nearest on-street bike rack or see the bike lanes and routes downtown?
Well, you can stop wishing and start using Commute Seattle’s new on-line Center City Bicycle Amenities Map. The map currently has 20 buildings on it, and the plan is to map all 260 commercial buildings in Center City that offer bike amenities to their tenants.
Plus, it’s a Google-based map, so you can use street view to see that bike-friendly building or get a better sense of where that bike rack is.
Close up of on-line Center City Bicycle Amenities map
Here’s some background info for this article. We hope it’ll be helpful. We know it’ll let you impress friends at summer BBQ’s with your deep knowledge.
- Who is Commute Seattle? It’s a not-for-profit partnership of the City of Seattle, Downtown Seattle Association and King County. It works to shift drive-alone commuter trips to other modes to improve access to/through downtown Seattle. Their mission is based on simple math—if we want downtown to add thousands and thousands of jobs in the future but we’d rather not add blocks upon blocks of new parking garages to store workers’ cars, we need more commuters to choose sustainable options.
- Where did the building information on the map come from? It came from Commute Seattle’s Center City Bicycle Amenity Inventory project which assessed the quality, safety, and weather protection of bicycle racks in downtown office buildings for commuters.
- How can I get better bicycle facilities in the building where I work? Contact Zachary Howard (zacharyh@commuteseattle.com) at Commute Seattle to learn about improving bike facilities in downtown buildings, as well as to learn more about this map.
- Where exactly is this “Center City” you speak of? It’s the ten neighborhoods in the downtown core of the city, from Uptown and South Lake Union to the north, to Capitol Hill and First Hill to the east and the International District and Pioneer Square to the south. Described more simply, the borders are roughly Mercer St to S Royal Brougham Way and the waterfront to Broadway E.