Things to Ponder
- Seattleites are well-known for our rule-abiding ethos. I've been thankful that the 6' social distancing trumps our aversion to jaywalking.
- Pro-Tip for Social Distancing. Most sidewalks in Seattle are stamped with 2'x2' squares. In order to maintain a 6' distance from people, you can simply look at the sidewalk and make sure there are always three squares between you and a passing person. Unfortunately, almost all sidewalks in residential neighborhoods (and even business districts) are 6' or less. That's why we need streets in high-density business districts to be closed to cars and opened to pedestrians.
- If parks departments want to be viewed as an essential public asset to healthy city living (and if walking/running/biking are considered "essential trips" per executive order), why close the largest parks that have the trails that have the capacity to enable thousands of people to walk/run/bike and force people into smaller parks and narrow sidewalks during this time when we're supposed to stay farther apart from one another?
- According to national reporting, some bike shops are evidently doing very well during this pandemic. Are all bike shops? Do you now shop via Amazon instead of going in-person to your local shop? Do you tip your mechanic extra?
- The number of bike trips across the Ballard Bridge were 32% less during March 2020 than March 2019.
- The low Spokane Street Bridge appears to be experiencing inverted bike traffic — high on the weekend, low on weekdays — as COVID-19 has reduced the number of people commuting but increased the number of people who are biking as their form of weekend recreation rather than going to parks or the mountains. The impact of the high bridge closure is unclear, but weekday ridership started to pick-up last week so perhaps commuters are learning to ditch their cars for their bikes.
- Two surveys: Cascade asks about what you're doing to keep rolling during COVID-19, and SNG asks how the city should open its streets to enable social distancing.
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