One form of transportation usually overlooked in a transportation system is bicycles.

Bicycles can hardly be called mass transit, and they definitely are not rapid transit. But a lot of people ride bicycles, and obviously, if enough people ride bicycles instead of driving, there would be a significant lessening of motor vehicle traffic. Improved routes for bicyclists would encourage more use of bicycles and less use of cars.

I would like to see more effort and money put into building bikeways, dedicated narrow roadways specifically for bicyles, although in many cases they could be used also by hikers, joggers, walkers, wheel chairs, roller skates, skateboards, and other human-powered means of getting around.

Seattle currently has many bike routes, but in most cases these are on streets and are specially marked narrow lanes designated for bicycles only. This is better than nothing, but still is not very satisfactory. The bike lane is typically between a regular motor vehicle lane and either the curb or a parking lane. There is not enough separation between cars and bikes and there is risk of a bicyclist being struck by a careless driver. If the bike lane is adjacent to a parking lane, there is risk of somebody suddenly opening a car door just as a bicyclist is passing the car, resulting in the bicyclist plowing into the car door.

To me a bikeway would be a separate paved path, separated from streets, about two meters (a little over six feet) wide so that there is plenty of room for bicycles to travel safely in opposite directions. As much as possible, bikeways should be grade separated from streets with overpasses or underpasses. When a bikeway crosses a street at grade, then there should be traffic signals or signage to make it clear who has the right-of-way.

The closest thing to a bikeway I know of in Seattle is the Burke-Gilman Trail, which is several kilometers long, from the Ballard district of Seattle to Redmond. The trail is for walkers, runners, joggers, bicycles, roller skates, and other human-powered equipment. Many portions of it meet my definition of a bikeway. Most of the trail was built on an abandoned railroad line, so there are fairly long stretches with no street crossings and in other places there are bridges over many streets. However some parts cross streets at grade level.

Recently the City of Shoreline completed a section of the Interurban Trail. The Interurban Trail is proposed to follow an old interurban rail route from Seattle to Everett. The portion completed in Shoreline goes about 1 km. north from the Seattle city limits at North 145th Street to North 155th Street. There are plans by Shoreline to extend it further north and by Seattle to extend it further south. The new Shoreline section is an excellent asphalt-paved pathway about three meters wide (about ten feet) and I would consider this to be an excellent example of a bikeway.