Dear Seattle City Council

I almost got run over by an irate driver three feet off my back tire and yelling obscenities, biking home tonight on 4th ave at 9:30 pm … In the left lane specifically painted and allocated to be shared by cyclists with car drivers.  This was no more than 30 feet from the stoplight, before it was even possible to move to the meager bike/curb lane that starts about 50 feet past the light at 4th and main.

Short story:  your “sharrows” lanes don’t mean a damn thing to entitled car drivers who are in a big hurry to get wherever and believe the paved streets are theirs to own, and cyclists to borrow unless we’re in their way.  Hence “sharrows” lanes are arguably not helping but, instead, hurting cyclists… by convincing them that they should be riding in those lanes when in fact very very few of the drivers know, or more importantly care, about the concept. And some drivers clearly are mad about the very presence of cyclists in “their” lanes anyway.

Mike McGinn, Mike O’Brien, and the rest of the Seattle City Council:   get some commitment, go Portland / New York, and dedicate some specific bike-only lanes in the central business district. Yes, you will piss off a few drivers here and there. But believe me, they are already pissed off… And with the status quo in the CBD with these wackadoodle shared lanes all over the place, those drivers are also confused, entitled, and in command of 2 tons of steel.  Would you rather have a few more mad phone calls from pollution commuters, or a road-rage cyclist death downtown in one of your bullshit sharrows lanes?

A few cement trucks worth of green and white paint and some fortitude can fix this.

Thanks for listening (even if only on Google Alerts).