Bike to Work from Mercer Island, Part 1: To Downtown

Friday was Bike to Work day. It’s Bike to Work month. We live on an island in the middle of Greater Seattle, so everywhere’s convenient. Except Lynnwood.

Here’s a photoessay of biking to downtown Seattle from Mercer Island from my ride on Friday. I was running a bit late for a too-early meeting and didn’t want to stop to take photos, so please forgive any shakiness.

Commuting from Mercer Island to Downtown

Step 1: Get to East Mercer or West Mercer Way. Island Crest is way too busy. The Island is quiet and pretty in the morning.

Step 2: Where the bike lane crosses the road, take a left. Keep going til you’re on I-90.

Step 3: Enjoy the ride over the I-90 bridge; consider that people living in Iowa don’t have bridges. Check whether Ranier is out. Notice that you ride away from the sun and get great light.

Step 4: Coming off I-90, stay left to go through the bike tunnel and over the I-90 lid. On bike to work day, there was a little rest station right off I-90.

Step 5: Stay on the bike path by the Colman Playground and the old Colman School. Even if you don’t commute, you should check out this great city ride sometime. Wave to the other bike commuters!

Step 5: After you pass the old school and cross 23rd St., you’ll head down a big hill. At the bottom you’ll be at Rainier Ave. You might get hit by a car if you bike on this road. Instead, stay right on the bike path, which will drop you at Hiawatha Place across from some new townhomes. Take a left, and go around two roundabouts until you get to Dearborn St.

Step 5: Take a left on Dearborn and cross Rainier. Lots of riders chose to turn right onto 5th Ave South and go through some of the quieter avenues to points further, rather than follow the busy traffic onto Airport Way and 4th Ave. South.

From Dearborn, you can get into the I-D, Pioneer Square, downtown or anywhere.

What about riding home, you ask? Well, instead of commuting back I decided to go out for happy hour. My husband met me out and I hitched a ride home with him. It was Friday, after all.

Biking Bis and the folks at Piknik also harnessed angular momentum to get to work Friday. And Kent’s Bike Blog put up some useful Seattle bike maps.

Commuting to the Eastside/ Redmond

Watch for Part 2, commuting to the Eastside. The route is complicated and dangerous, so this will be an exciting post. We might even do a round trip for this part.

Outtakes

Right, blog posts don’t usually have outtakes. Well, if you ride to work while taking photos, you’ll get outtakes.

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