Seattle gets a B grade, really?

Cascade Bicycle Club releases a report that gives Seattle a B for bicycling. Do you think Seattle deserves a B?

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Highlights

“After only two years with an adopted Bicycle Master Plan, the city’s service toward bicycling has been commendable,” the club said in its 2009 Report Card on Bicycling. “Seattle has nearly doubled the miles of bicycle routes since 2006, added several hundred bicycle racks, decreased the number of bicycle thefts, and maintained a consistent, if not decreasing, bicycle crash rate.”

Since 2007, the city has made integrating cycling facilities routine and started finding “innovative and expressive” ways to support cycling, the report said. “In other words, cycling is becoming an icon to Seattle.”

Grading

  • Satisfaction with pavement quality, D plus
  • Bicycle safety, B; satisfaction with bicycle safety, C
  • Gender distribution, C
  • Satisfaction with bicycle routes, C
  • Bicycle participation, B
  • Bicycle network, C plus
  • Bicycle support facilities, B
  • Bicycle counts, B
  • Level of bicycling, A minus
  • Bicycle Master Plan implementation, B plus
  • New bicycle racks, A
  • Bicycle service on public transit, B
  • Parking and ‘end of trip’ facilities, C plus
  • Bicycle crash rate, B
  • Reported bicycle thefts, A plus.

Seattle has certainly improved with wayfinding signage, sharrows, lanes and awareness, but a B? Readers?

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