Community Action Spurs Quick Fix at Dangerous Downtown Bike Lane
- JoshHolland
- May 1, 2025
Seattle Neighborhood Greenways — with support from Central Seattle Greenways and fellow safe streets advocates — mobilized quickly to form a people-protected bike lane demonstration at 4th & Pine. The action drew media attention and a swift response from SDOT leadership.
The urgency was clear: In the past week alone, two people biking were hit at this intersection. One of them was SNG board member, Merlin Rainwater. Just days later, another person was hospitalized in a hit-and-run while a member of Central Seattle Greenways looked on in horror.
This intersection is a critical link — it’s part of Seattle’s Downtown “Basic Bike Network” — a system of protected lanes including 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th, Bell, 9th, Pike, and Pine that we successfully advocated for starting in 2015. These vital improvements have transformed how people move through the city’s core, but dangerous gaps remain. This is why it was urgent to close the gap at 4th and Pine.
There, a protected bike lane coming from Capitol Hill abruptly veers into car traffic, confusing drivers and putting people biking at serious risk. When SDOT installed the problematic section last fall, advocates immediately raised the safety issues. No action was taken — until the crashes happened.
“I was scraped by a bus,” said Merlin Rainwater. “I emailed and called SDOT, but heard nothing. Then, a week later, someone else was hit [and hospitalized]. I was appalled.”
In response, Central Seattle Greenways volunteers and SNG staff organized a demonstration. People stood in a line to protect people using the unprotected bike lane with their bodies. Interim SDOT Director Adiam Emery and Councilmember Dan Strauss showed up in person, and within hours, SDOT crews installed concrete barriers to improve safety.
📺 Watch the full KING 5 segment
Join us in thanking Adiam Emery and SDOT crews for quickly answering the call to improve safety on this street!
As Merlin said in the King 5 interview, our bike network is only as safe and comfortable as the worst gap. That’s why Seattle Neighborhood Greenways has an ongoing UnGapTheMap campaign to fill in gaps, small (like this section of Pine) and large (like most of SE Seattle).
Want to get more involved?
Join us at the Organizing Symposium on Saturday, May 17 to learn how you can create change like Merlin did.
