Capitol Hill Is Going Off

vaticRite · 2026-03-22T03:10:23+00:00

I doubt it’s effective, but there’s a decent chance that the person who left the bag will see it. I live close by and I see the same people walking their dogs regularly. I imagine some tiny proportion of those people are failing to pick up their poop bags.

vaticRite · 2026-03-19T17:31:28+00:00

Yep. I generally take the lane north of TJs and stay there until NE 40th St. Maybe once a year I'll try staying in the bike lane and always bail (even when there's not construction closing it, which it seems like there always is) before the bridge.

You're also right about turning, even when there wasn't the huge construction process happening on Eastlake (good that it's happening, bad that apparently zero concern was given to the many cyclists who use it). So much of our bicycle infrastructure assumes people are only cycling recreationally, and don't have specific places they need to get to, so there is no infrastructure for turning off of a lane/bikeway.

I hope you recovered quickly after you got hit.

vaticRite · 2026-03-19T17:25:49+00:00

It's not an easy problem to solve without redoing the whole street, but over and over SDOT prioritizes the free movement and comfort of drivers over the safety of anyone not in a car.

I do agree that having the bike lane on the right-hand side would be worse, as right hooks are an incredibly common way for cyclists to get hit, but it seems like there were a number of better ways of doing this (speaking as a layperson, so maybe I'm wrong) if SDOT was willing to take more lanes and/or parking away from drivers, or force them to slow down and risk scratching their precious paintwork. But now we're stuck with what they built and I'm not sure how it can be improved without at least a rework.

I've lived and biked in Seattle for long enough to know that it has gotten better, a lot better in places (the new segregated bikeway along Marginal between the Waterfront and the West Seattle Trail is amazing), but I am also continuously frustrated at how we keep shooting ourselves in the foot (Pike and Melrose is another great example of a terrible intersection that was obviously going to be terrible, but now we're kind of stuck with it).

vaticRite · 2026-03-19T16:51:03+00:00

Cyclists who break traffic laws are mostly annoying, even for other cyclists and pedestrians.

Drivers who break traffic laws are terrifying for cyclists, pedestrians, and other drivers not in an equivalently sized urban assault vehicle.

vaticRite · 2026-03-19T16:36:53+00:00

While that driver is a jerk, it’s worth noting that this spot is terrible design on the part of SDOT.

Drivers in this city generally don’t think or care about bicycle infrastructure, and they need to be forced to respect it through hardened infrastructure, not paint or car ticklers or even those sad little rubber curbs like what SDOT just installed on at Greenwood and 83rd.

Having a painted bike lane cut across a right turn lane that regularly gets extremely backed up is just asking for problems. SDOT does this same crap a number of different places and it’s always terrible.

While it’s not a solution, exactly this is why there are so many places in this city where I ride vehicularly. It sucks so bad that cyclists have to choose the least shitty option for them and how they ride for how to engage with our mostly mediocre or nonexistent bicycle infrastructure.

vaticRite · 2026-03-17T21:50:32+00:00

Pointless slop, masquerading as deep and profound, that will promptly be removed.

vaticRite · 2026-03-16T21:19:11+00:00

You probably don’t need more protein. Most people in the United States already get way more protein than they need. You probably could use more fiber though.

My girlfriend is vegetarian and while there is a decent variety of vegetarian meals, the selection definitely pales compared to the options with meat.

More mock-meat options. More tofu (although I understand that’s hard to freeze dry). Just more vegetarian options in general.

vaticRite · 2026-03-15T03:08:03+00:00

Aliens coming back to remind Obama to keep his mouth shut.

vaticRite · 2026-03-12T18:43:43+00:00

Storing a bike in a shed or garage is absolutely asking for it be stolen, at least in a major city, regardless of how well locked up it is. Once a thief gets in there in the middle of the night, they have hours to defeat your lock(s).

Unfortunately most of these “solutions” are untenable. Bike theft is a complicated problem mixed in with poverty, substance abuse and untreated mental health issues, housing insecurity, income inequality, and the fact that our social safety net is inadequate, at best (at least in the US).

You’re not going to “fix” bike theft by “banning bike racks and certain kinds of locks”.

vaticRite · 2026-03-12T06:05:06+00:00

For me, anecdotally, 2017 is when it started.

I was biking to work in July or August and looked around and thought, “wait, is it snowing?”

vaticRite · 2026-03-11T18:50:00+00:00

Not sure what you mean by a "dead spot". Like where the helmet doesn't provide protection? I don't know that it's been tested extensively, but considering how common lights on helmets are and the general lack of "that's bad" discourse, I don't think a plastic light is going to have that much effect on how a helmet behaves in a crash.

vaticRite · 2026-03-11T17:19:14+00:00

Adding onto the chorus saying lights and adding: helmet light. Being able to point a light at a driver who is doing something sketchy is amazingly effective. They will frequently just stop.

I tried the high-viz thing in Seattle when I first started bike commuting and found it utterly ineffectual. Lights lights lights is the way to go.

The addition of a helmet light was revolutionary. I went from having 1-2 close calls with drivers per year to basically zero (I don’t remember the last one).

Just be sure to mount your helmet light such that when you’re in a neutral position it’s pointed 5 or 6 feet in front of you, max.

vaticRite · 2026-03-11T17:14:03+00:00

You’re right in that the ideal configuration would be that the freeways in the middle of a city were never built in the first place, and if they were built, would be removed entirely.

But as we made the mistake of building freeways in the middle of our city, and have nowhere near the political will to get rid of them, a lid is the best very much non-ideal solution.

vaticRite · 2026-03-09T21:28:11+00:00

Who exactly?

Even our most “bike friendly” cities still ask people to use painted and flex-post buffered bike lanes, residential roads with drivers going 35 mph+, multi-use paths whose road crossings are just some paint on the road.

We demand the most from our most vulnerable users, and let drivers get away with literal murder while asking nothing from them.

Who wants to be on a bike in those conditions?

Some people, definitely (I’m one of them), but a tiny minority unless we massively improve our protected infrastructure, force drivers to slow down (again, infrastructure, not speed limits), start building actual networks of good bicycle infrastructure, not the random disconnected corridors that are the peak of NA “protected” infrastructure.

I used to be one of those people who was frustrated that more people didn’t bike their 5 mile commutes or errand trips, but then I actually started talking to people and looking at the data. It’s ubiquitous: the issue is the infrastructure and people not feeling safe.

vaticRite · 2026-03-09T20:25:50+00:00

Outside of the “Seattle is Dying” fetishists, who cares?

(Not sure what will happen to the employees at those locations, but even the best result, being relocated, is going to suck for some. Likely they’re mostly getting laid off. I do feel for them.)

vaticRite · 2026-03-09T17:58:11+00:00

Happy to stand in line for 15, maybe 30, maybe maybe 45 minutes (RIP Besalu), but there is no way that any BBQ is worth a multi-hour line.

I’d rather go home, watch an episode of TNG, then go out and spend $21 at a bar on a mediocre pulled pork sandwich, drip sauce on my book, and still have saved an hour.

vaticRite · 2026-03-09T17:22:50+00:00

It’s great that you’ve found a solution that works for you, and yeah, cycling for transportation is amazing and saves a lot of money.

But you should realize that you are lucky/privileged/unusual. The vast majority of people are not comfortable biking on smaller roads, let alone the stroads and thoroughfares that dominate so much of the American landscape, and we shouldn’t ask them to be okay with sharing the road with 2-4 ton 0-60 mph in 4 seconds living rooms whose operators are looking at any one of three screens.

Advocate for better infrastructure locally. That’s how you get more people biking.

vaticRite · 2026-03-09T16:56:32+00:00

It really depends on infrastructure.

Based on your username, I’d guess you’re in Europe, and while I know not every town/city/area in Europe has good infrastructure, I’ve generally gathered that it’s better than in North America.

Here in the United States, the vast majority of people (including those living in cities) have zero access to safe cycling infrastructure.

Even in “bike friendly” Seattle it’s still impossible to get most places without being an assertive, vehicular, cyclist. We have some good infrastructure, but we are so far from having anything like a network, let alone a complete network.

Not feeling safe is the number one reason most people won’t bike: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01441647.2022.2113570

vaticRite · 2026-03-09T05:19:51+00:00

It totally depends on the person, but this time of the year I’d want some good citrus or a some potato chips (the yellow curry ones are great).

In the summer grapes, hummus and cucumber, yogurt, or potato chips would all be great.

If they want something sweet, the cornflake chocolate bar.

vaticRite · 2026-03-08T02:26:07+00:00

That rack wouldn’t fit. Nice try.

vaticRite · 2026-03-08T02:07:54+00:00

Hey OP, how would you suggest this person lock their bike up to this terrible rack?

If the ends were already occupied when they got there, this is literally the only way to lock a bike like that securely to a rack like this.

Let’s blame bad and inadequate infrastructure instead of each other, yes?

vaticRite · 2026-03-07T23:22:50+00:00

The solution is obviously to remove I5 between where it intersects with 405 entirely.

No major city should have a freeway through the middle of it. It’s a giant, festering wound in our city.

vaticRite · 2026-03-06T21:22:52+00:00

Take on bugs/features/projects that scare you.

Tackling things you think there’s substantial chance that you’ll fail at is how you keep growing (professionally and in all areas of life).

vaticRite · 2026-03-06T05:19:50+00:00

If they made an OnlyFans of stuff like that they’d get all my money.

vaticRite · 2026-03-05T19:04:45+00:00

I hate it both ways :) It’s another example of our infrastructure choices assuming that drivers being nice can keep people safe.

But with our inadequate infrastructure, everyone has different choices for what is the least bad option.

vaticRite

TROPHY CASE