Seattle Bikes: A real rider's town

We like the way an advocate put it: The new Seattle bicycle master plan will help the city keep exceeding its targets for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions. Now that the City Council has adopted the plan, Seattle should overachieve in the promotion of bicycling and new driver attitudes toward pedestrians and bicyclists.

In a way, the signs are promising. While the master plan was still under development, Mayor Greg Nickels announced a 10-year strategy for making Seattle a better place to bicycle. He already has started work on some of the plan's components.

But we don't like the easy proclamations that this makes us a national leader among bicycle-friendly cities. Portland and, for heaven's sake, New York City seem to be looking much more innovatively and seriously at cycling. New York is trying an idea seen in Copenhagen, Denmark: putting parking strips between cyclists and car traffic.

Thanks to a fine blog from the Seattle-based Sightline Institute, we came across excellent research by Alyse Nelson as a Valle scholar from the University of Washington on how Copenhagen became a bicycling city. It could be a guide for Seattle not just in this decade but beyond. Yes, Seattle is hillier, but the Danish city has shorter winter days. BBC describes Denmark's weather as a "cool maritime climate ... rather similar to that of Britain or the state of Washington."

What is different, though amenable to change, is the often-harsh attitude of Seattle's drivers toward cyclists. Vigorous education and enforcement must accompany new lanes, paths and facilities.