Electric Bikes
Northwest

The Burke-Gilman Trail

The B-G Trail is the Seattle area's premier bicycle trail. Much gratitude is owed those with foresight who worked to establish this beautiful trail that runs from North of Lake Washington to Puget Sound at Shilshole.

However a bike trail does of course not have to run continuously to be a great community asset. A bike trail is obviously neither a rope or a chain. Nevertheless some advocates refer to a part through Ballard as a missing link.

Decision making in Seattle is sometimes referred to as a foregone conclusion dressed up as a process. Be that as it may one would expect that the trail in Ballard shall eventually be made continuous pending a few current 'legal obstacles'.

While a life long cyclist, bicycle commuter and owner of a Ballard bike shop (at the corner of Leary and 17th) I am not looking forward to this. Why not?

Cyclists ride, as it is, all throughout Ballard without the B-G trail.

If urban bicycling shall take off it shall likely do so more due to expansive and inclusive attitude by cyclists and others than forcing disputed infrastructure. Bicycles belong on roads and streets—or may belong one day if us cyclists focused more on how some of us regard and treat non-cyclists—rather than being relegated to trails.

Bicycling is a wonderful activity but nevertheless in Seattle overwhelmingly a recreational one—while a job, particularly in the Great Recession, is for most of us a crucial necessity. Clearly manufacturing and misc maritime related jobs shall be negatively effected by more cyclists swishing by space challenged work places once a dedicated trail is in place. Long established businesses, vital to our local economy, have fairly detailed how.

I prefer to live in a city where somebody's good productive job takes precedence over somebody's fixation that a bike trail must be continuous.

Copyright © 2010 EbikesNW

June 2010

By Eric Sundin