Bike commutes appear to spike after viaduct closure

Monday marked Seattle’s first weekday commute without the Alaskan Way Viaduct—and most of State Route 99—and the beginning of the Seattle Squeeze, and while it wasn’t a giant disaster, it wasn’t a picnic, either. Jammed-up streets mean longer travel times for many in motorized vehicles, whether it’s a single-occupancy vehicle, a carpool, or even a bus.

This made walking and biking even more efficient for those able to take that option, something that WSDOT, the city, and bike advocacy groups actively encouraged. While some were worried about getting people to ride to work in January, it appears a lot of people took that advice.

Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) traffic engineer Dongho Chang tweeted out some preliminary data on Tuesday morning, showing higher ridership than ever for this time of year. Chang compared January 14’s bike counter data for three locations—the Fremont Bridge, Elliott Bay Trail at Myrtle Edwards Park, and the Spokane Street Bridge—compared to the closest Monday of the two years prior. The comparison is striking: Ridership experienced jumps between 44 and 164 percent over the past year, and between 176 and 191 percent over the past two.

This is a gigantic deal for January, which typically sees low ridership as the weather gets chilly. It’s each location’s highest one-day January count since counters were installed, and in the case of the Spokane Street Bridge, it’s a long shot. Each location’s January high took place on the same day—January 26, 2015. The difference is especially pronounced on the Spokane Street Bridge, with a 75 percent increase.

The difference on the Spokane Street Bridge is especially pronounced, and makes sense. It’s also known as the Low Bridge, or the West Seattle Low-Level Bridge, and is the most popular bike route out of West Seattle, which is pretty dependent on State Route 99—and, being located on a peninsula, has fewer alternate routes. While the numbers on the Fremont Bridge and on the Elliott Bay Trail are good for January, Spokane Street actually had one of its highest ridership days since SDOT started counting in 2012. Monday was the bridge’s busiest bike day outside of the month of May, and its 20th busiest since data collection began.

The day didn’t bust any year-round records for either of the other locations, they still experienced unusually large ridership. Average January 2018 ridership on the Fremont Bridge, for example, is about 1,931 a day—less than half the 3,987 bikes that rode over on Monday—compared to a comparable Monday six months before (July 16, 2018), which was just about 25 percent above the previous July’s average. That’s the least dramatic: Ridership on Monday was 142 percent above January average on the Elliott Bay Trail, or 244 percent above for Spokane Street.

Second Avenue bike lane data was not available as of publication, but we’ll update if we hear anything.