Burke-Gilman Trail Missing Link | How it Went Unfinished for 20 Years 

Sources were too long to fit in the description, so here it is instead: SDOT | Burke-Gilman History www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/programs/bike-program/ballard-multimodal-corridor/burke-gilman-trail-history SDOT | Final Environmental Impact Statement www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/SDOT/BikeProgram/BGT/Vol%200_BGT_FEIS_Exec%20Summ_web_lowrez.pdf SDOT | Burke-Gilman Trail Missing Link FAQ www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/SDOT/BikeProgram/BGT/2018_0801_BGT_FrequentlyAskedQuestions.pdf The Urbanist | A Closer Look at New Plans for the Burke-Gilman Trail's Missing Link www.theurbanist.org/2021/11/11/a-closer-look-at-new-design-plans-for-the-burke-gilman-trails-missing-link/ Department of Ecology | Overview of Washington State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) ecology.wa.gov/Regulations-Permits/SEPA/Environmental-review/SEPA-guidance/Basic-overview SDOT | Ballard Multimodal Corridor www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/programs/bike-program/ballard-multimodal-corridor SDOT | Burke-Gilman Trail Missing Link www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/programs/bike-program/bgtmissinglink SDOT | Design Phase Outreach Summary www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/SDOT/BikeProgram/BGT/2018_1003_BGTMissingLink_Design_Outreach_Summary_FINAL.pdf SEPA DNS & Appeal web.archive.org/web/20090617054959/cascade.org/Advocacy/pdf/missing_link_appeal.pdf Westside Seattle | New Appeal Filed by Ballard Businesses over Missing Link www.westsideseattle.com/robinson-papers/2010/07/06/new-appeal-filed-ballard-businesses-over-missing-link Seattle Times | Judge Weighs Ballard 'missing link' to Burke-Gilman Trail www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/judge-weighs-ballard-missing-link-to-burke-gilman-trail/ My Ballard | Environmental study required for ‘Missing Link’ www.myballard.com/2010/04/16/environmental-review-required-for-missing-link/ My Ballard | City clears hurdle to move ahead with 'Missing Link' www.myballard.com/2011/02/10/city-clears-hurdle-to-move-ahead-with-missing-link/ SEPA Revised DNS www.myballard.com/images/BGT_RevisedDNS.pdf Seattle Bike Blog | Court decides Hearing Examiner needs to redo 2018 Missing Link decision www.seattlebikeblog.com/2021/04/02/court-decides-hearing-examiner-needs-to-redo-2018-missing-link-decision/ WA Court of Appeals | Ballard Coallision Case Summary www.courts.wa.gov/content/Briefs/A01/795431%20Appellant%20Ballard%20Coalition's%20.PDF#search=Ballard%20Business%20Appellants Seattle Bike Blog | Despite compromise and ongoing community design work, group appeals the Ballard Missing Link www.seattlebikeblog.com/2017/06/26/despite-compromise-and-ongoing-community-design-work-group-appeals-the-ballard-missing-link/ The Urbanist | Legal Challenge Pushes City to Fix Dangerous Biking Conditions on the Missing Link www.theurbanist.org/2022/02/16/legal-challenge-pushes-city-to-fix-dangerous-conditions-on-the-missing-link/ Seattle Times | Seattle to pave over dangerous rail tracks on Burke-Gilman Trail in Ballard www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/seattle-to-pave-over-dangerous-rail-tracks-on-burke-gilman-trail-in-ballard/ SDOT | A smoother bike ride under the Ballard Bridge is on the way sdotblog.seattle.gov/2023/10/24/smoother-bike-ride-under-the-ballard-bridge/ Westside Seattle | Ballard terminal railroad delivers local freight www.westsideseattle.com/robinson-papers/2008/12/15/ballard-terminal-railroad-delivers-local-freight Ordinance 118734 clerk.seattle.gov/search/ordinances/118734 Seattle Bike Blog | Technicality about updating railroad track delays Ballard Missing Link until 2022 www.seattlebikeblog.com/2020/07/17/technicality-about-updating-railroad-track-delays-ballard-missing-link-until-2022/ Seattle Times | Seattle can’t uproot Ballard railroad tracks to complete Burke-Gilman Trail, judge rules www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/seattle-cant-uproot-ballard-railroad-tracks-to-complete-burke-gilman-trail-judge-rules/ The Urbanist | Strauss Advances Leary Alternative for Burke-Gilman Trail Missing Link www.theurbanist.org/2023/03/11/strauss-leary-missing-link/ Strauss Letter to City www.theurbanist.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/EMBARGOED-2023.3.10-CM-Strauss-letter-regarding-Burke-Gilman-Trail.pdf SDOT | West Marginal Way SW Safety Corridor Project www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/programs/bridges-stairs-and-other-structures/bridges/west-seattle-bridge-program/west-marginal-way-sw-improvements SDOT | Data shows more people biking & walking along West Marginal Way SW without impacting freight travel | LEVY DOLLARS AT WORK sdotblog.seattle.gov/2023/12/05/west-marginal-way-data-results/ Freight Advisory Board Letter www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/SDOT/FreightProgram/SFAB/Board%20Correspondence/20201119_SFAB_Letter_Deputy_Mayor_West_Marginal_Way_SIGNED.pdf The Urbanist | Completed Duwamish Trail Connection Led to Doubling of Walking and Biking www.theurbanist.org/2023/12/07/completed-duwamish-trail-connection-led-to-doubling-of-walking-and-biking/

These seattle videos are very interesting as someone who lives nearby.

As someone who lives here, I always found it weird and sketchy around this part of the Burke-Gilman Trail. Most of the trail is very safe (and very pretty, especially around Fremont), so it sucks how SDOT has a viable solution, only to get shot down by litigation.

Territorialism at its finest. How is connecting existing segments of a bicycle path going to have a negative impact? The whole rest of the path should be a clear indicator.

I actually laughed when they included the one-second increase in travel time in the report at all 😂

As someone from the EU I'm amazed how the US ha so much more bureaucracy most other places while many of it's citizens believe it's the other way around. As for the video, it's great, well made and researched as always. I agree that the best option will be to have both lanes, and the goal should be lanes on every street in the city, but it seams that am alternative now will reduce the possibility of the lane that should be built as they will continue to object to it and the alternative will provide them with a new way to delay it and will encourage others, including those along the alternative, to do the same.

I don't get how Seattle gets to maintain its progressive reputation in comparison to other places when such a no brainer is held up for decades by reactionary business owners.

Great video! I hope that possibility of both trails coming to fruition eventually happens, though having at least an option going forward now is good, especially with how it'll change Leary. I agree that the Market portion is a little iffy. They also plan to remove the bus shelter on the south side of the street which I think is a horrible idea. It rains so much and two major bus lines regularly service that stop so people are often waiting there in the rain. I wrote as much in the comments for the proposal so I hope they take that into consideration.

Bellevue is having its own bike lane battle right now, I might send this video to the city. Wanna come make a video about Bike Bellevue? 😅

The solution to this is simple and should have been implemented decades ago: remove the environmental review requirement for bike and public transit projects, at least along existing rights of way. Absolutely ridiculous that any city would allow an environmental review process to be weaponized like this, meanwhile if you think about it for more than 3 seconds it should be obvious that these projects would only have positive benefits to the environment.

How about this: it's an urban area for exclusive human use, therefore unless a new polluting industry is proposed, no EIS is ever going to be required for anything, ever.

Hear me out. Bike lanes anywhere people might want to go

Thanks for the very informative video! I appreciate how well researched and presented this was and I learned some details I hadn't known. I had been against Dan Strauss's alternative, thinking it would lead to the direct Shilshole route never being completed. You have presented a good case that it is better than where we're at now and ultimately both routes are justified. (I remain somewhat skeptical of the part on Market though.) As it is now, it's worse than just the economic impact of all the delayed time and wasted tax dollars. The area is unsafe. I personally know someone who broke their collarbone crashing on their bike in this area due to misjudging how dangerous the tracks are to cross in the rain at any angle less than a full 90 degrees. Told me the doctors in the ER at Swedish Ballard were like, oh yeah we see this all the time. Long recovery and significant missed work time on that one. I've tried to ride Shilshole a few times but I'm too slow on my bike, there's little shoulder pavement for much of way to get out of the traffic lane, and some vehicle drivers are actively hostile to being slowed down below what seems like at least 40 mph. Heading south and east from Golden Gardens, sometimes I'll take the NW 58th St neighborhood greenway east to 8th Ave NW, and then ride south on 8th Ave, which at least has a painted bike lane but is otherwise not the most pleasant, to join back up to the BG trail. Other times I'll ride down Ballard Ave -- need to ride real chill there because there's lot of pedestrians. Maybe the business owners are happy to preside over one of the ugliest messes of a street (Shilshole) in all of Seattle.

Lol encountering this gap was just bizarre and ended up backtracking to cross a bridge and ride the trail on the other side. Didn't end up finishing the BG trail on that ride with the damn detour. But in San Diego, we have a few painted bike lanes along industrial coastal roads to connect areas south of downtown to Imperial Beach and the Silver Strands trail. I've hardly run into a truck during the day, hell the area is very quiet. San Diego is also building miles of two-way separate bike paths on Harbor Drive to fully connect the trail to the downtown Embarcadero path

As this trail being a rail trail, it's possible that it has to deal with active rail line. And you rightfully pointed out that active transport corridor can co-exist with logistic corridor providing good planning. Talking about rail-with-trail, do you think that the whole Burke-Gilman Trail has the possibility to be a transit corridor reserved for future commuter rail or light rail usage ? It too reminds me of the case of Eastside Rail Corridor, also an ex-NP line and (previously) operated by Ballard Terminal Railroad, had some talk of adding commuter train service, but got severed by I-405 widening and partially converted to multi-use trail with no vision of co-exist with any form of rail service.

I rode the entire route back on 14 March 2015. That Ballard part was very nasty. I did stop in for a Redhook Ballard Bitter though! :)

por que no los dos? the more bike routes the better. edit; oops, you mention that also, europe deals with way more trucks per capita than north america! and they still manage to do so safely!

I love the idea that there needs to be an environmental impact statement.... Its a bike path... Being built on already constructed asphalt and cement. The environment was already destroyed when an entire city was built there... A bike lane is not going to damage anything

Incredibly frustrating as someone who lives in the area and cycles every week. I have to hop on shilshole or leary to get basically anywhere. Always feels unsafe for the first 5-10 of any ride.

Build both!

My solution to this is to ride super slow in the left lane on Leary with cameras all around me and lots of flashing lights. Pisses off lots of drivers:)

Are you going to do a video on the other missing link? The one between Woodinville and Bothell?

If not stopping in Ballard, I prefer crossing to the south bank at Ballard Locks and coming back north at Fremont Bridge, if time's no issue.

this is why i hate late-stage capitalism. everything has the one express purpose of maximizing profit, to the point where companies will go to the length of not allowing a trail to be built for the public.

I have this theory that if you're a business owner you're inherently a misanthrope

Why the hell should an environmental impact study include an economic impact study? By the gods, NIMBYs here are awful.

i mean i think the answer here is obvious, no? ride your bikes to these coalition members' driveways and prevent traffic through civil disobedience. sometimes it takes gentle reminders to know how to be a good neighbor

It's so disgusting that private businesses are allowed to waste public funds like this, calling for study after study. What a miserable and selfish cause to dedicate yourself to as a business. They even had the audacity to celebrate wasting taxpayer money. If I lived in the Ballard area, I would be furious with these businesses for wasting so much of my money to endanger my life as a cyclist.

Like what does this Environmental Impact Statement actually do? Just seems to bolster projects with negative environmental impacts like freeways. Like here; negative environmental project you don't need to spend the money to do this. But here; positive environmental project you do. EIS seems like a bunch of bullshit to me! Just a way to slow down projects that are actually good for the environment.