Burke Gilman Trail – Seattle, Washington

27Nov11

An outstanding success and has been beneficial to the neighborhoods which it passes through. The trail has become a major transportation corridor that serves thousands of commuter and recreational cyclists. It demonstrates that when the proper facilities are provided many people will chose healthy, pollution-free, non-motorized modes of travel. – Seattle.gov

Burke Gilman Trail on Google Maps

These are a few of my photos taken this past summer when I spent 2 days on the Burke-Gilman Trail. I’ve included some general comments to explain what it was I think I was taking a picture of.

I was surprised at how many pictures I took of marking signs and wayfinders. It seemed to me that the Burke-Gilman Trail was extremely navigable by theses signs, perhaps even easier than using a map in some cases. I also noticed this in the greater parts of Seattle where I bicycled to.

As a pedestrian in most parts of Seattle I felt easily disoriented and lost, without having to check the map app on my phone, but this is in some part due to me being a visitor and unfamiliar with most of the places I went to.

The crossings along the Burke-Gilman are plenty, and with that comes a wide variety of crossing applications. The real challenge is that this trail is so busy with bicycle and pedestrian traffic, as it intersects areas of high auto traffic. Most major roadway crossings were handled through the use of awareness signs, flashing warnings where appropriate, and traffic signals. both the trail and intersecting auto-routes are fairly well signed for safety and awareness for pedestrians, bikes and cars.

Not without room for some improvement, at the 2nd crosswalk pictured above I did witness an auto-bike collision. As cars exited a busy box-store parking lot, one driver pulled into the crosswalk and stopped in it. After the stop sign! I had to pull on my breaks and stopped myself in time to avoid hitting the car, but a cyclist traveling from the opposite direction was not so lucky and slammed into the passenger side of the stopped car. Things could have been worse as the cyclist was not seriously injured.

I often noticed the need for separation of pedestrians and cyclists because of the volume of both of these types of users. Sometimes space allowed for an intentional management of this separation. But most times a worn-in pedestrian trail could be seen just to the side of the pavement, as pedestrians move out of the way of the faster moving cyclists to feel safer there.

I enjoyed the many connections that provide easy access to residential and business areas from the trail. I stopped into Counter Balance Bicycles which had a entrance directly off the trail. They fixed (for free!) a minor mechanical issue I had with the bike that I had acquired.

Below are some other examples from my collection of pictures at the various connections that the Burke-Gilman trail has grown.

Even though the trail is most seemingly a commuter-use trail, it does do a very good job connecting and providing access to many public spaces and parks, that provide the many surrounding neighborhood with an obvious linear green-necklace. Matthews Beach Park and Gasworks Park are just two of them that I specifically enjoyed myself.

Filed under: Bike, Bikeway, Commuter, Greenway, Natural Preservation, Paved and Separated, Recreational, Residential, Retail, Sidewalks, Social, Transit Modes, Urban Trails, Use and Character, Walk   |  2 Comments
Tags: Burke Gilman Trail, greenway, public space, rail to trail, recreational development, Seattle, signage, University of Washington, Washington