In many ways, I know my Seattle biking experience doesn’t really speak to most other people’s biking experience.
My personal geography patterns cover a small area of Seattle, mostly north of the ship canal. I live in north Fremont and most of my trips are between there and the University of Washington for my graduate program. I don’t think this is a unique footprint, but it covers a pretty insignificant portion of the city limits, much less the greater metropolitan area.
Even in my small space I deal with hills, the challenges of sharing roadways with traffic, a few dedicated bike trails and the difficulties of Seattle’s weather. Most of these are, I think, universal in this city to varying degrees. But it misses a lot of other common experiences – I almost never travel in or between the densely populated areas of Capitol Hill and downtown, which numbers alone suggest must be a common trip and probably requires dealing with steeper grades than I am faced with.
So to break out of my well-worn path, at least slightly, and because the whole point of this exercise is to find out if a bike is a realistic primary mode of transportation, I decided to take a ride downtown, a trip I’d made only by bus or car so far. To choose a destination, I figured ‘What’s more Seattle than heading to Pike Place Market?’ The answer is probably anywhere, I know, but I hadn’t been since moving here, and I think I have to at least go once before starting to roll my eyes at the very mention of the market and complaining about how it’s only for tourists. (At least I assume that’s how long-time residents react. I moved here from D.C., and that’s basically our reaction to anything anywhere near the Mall.) Continue reading…
