Greenways: Coming to a Street Near Wedgwood

UPDATE: Maya Jacobs from the UW is hosting a meeting for folks interested in “Bike to Wedgwood” (elementary school) rides. The meeting will be at 6:30PM, April 3 at the NE Branch Library.

UPDATE 2: Video from the Seattle Channel and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways from their 3/22/12 Citywide Greenway panel discussion were posted below:

You may have heard a bit about “greenways” recently in the local news (here and here).  These are safe routes off of major arterials for bicyclists and pedestrians that also provide opportunities for traffic calming and improved streetscapes for residential streets. These greenways seem to be popping up in neighborhoods all over Seattle, including Wallingford, Madison area, Beacon Hill, Ballard, and University District. Now, residents from several NE Seattle neighborhoods have coalesced to form NE Seattle Greenways (Facebook and Twitter) to begin planning  a network of greenways in our neck of the woods.

Children’s Hospital and SDOT are finalizing design of a greenway along 39th Ave NE, running north from the Burke-Gilman Trail up to the intersection of NE 75th Street (the southern edge of Wedgwood). This is a section of greenway that was suggested by neighbors as part of Children’s Hospital Livable Streets Initiative, which was a major planning effort that Children’s undertook in 2010 as part of their master planning. As we understand it, the NE Seattle’s first greenway will be built sometime in 2012. We’ll provide more information on the greenway as it becomes available. Until then, Councilwoman Sally Bagshaw (photographed above and one of the City’s biggest advocates of greenways), will be at the Wedgwood Community Council’s general meeting on Wednesday, May 9th to discuss greenways among other issues.

You can see a summarized map of the numerous pedestrian and bicycle projects that community members suggested during Children’s Livable Streets Workshop below.


View Seattle Children’s Livable Streets in a larger map

You can also learn more about greenways on the Seattle Neighborhood Greenways blog or read the 2012 Seattle Neighborhood Greenways Toolkit.  You can also see what Portland has been doing with their greenway system in the movie below.

Seattle Channel featured Greenways in their recent City Stream episode in the video below (Starting at Minute 1:26-7:47).

The Seattle Neighborhood Greenways group has posted video of their recent citywide Greenway Panel Discussion featuring Peter Haun, SDOT Director Peter Hahn, Traffic Engineer Dongho Chang, Cathy Tuttle with Seattle Neighborhood Greenways, and a multi-hat wearing professor and planner Anne Vernez Moudon.

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