As I paused at this quiet spot to shoot this red brick road near Redmond the other day, I had a hard time believing that this was a section of the transcontinental Yellowstone Trail highway back in the early 1900s.

At one-time it buzzed with automobiles heading back and forth across the Northern Tier states. People traveled it for business and pleasure.

Today it's a 1-mile-long connector between the busy Redmond-Fall City Road (Route 202) and Union Hill Road on the outskirts of Redmond. A historical marker notes that it's the longest remaining brick road in King County.

Now renamed 196th Avenue NE, the present alignment of Mattson Road ....   more »

May is 2010 National Bike Month and advocates want to put more bicyclists on the streets than ever before, especially during Bike to Work Week, May 17-21, and Bike to Work Day, May 21.

In the Puget Sound region, that means preparatory classes and get-togethers about bicycle commuting, contest challenges, and post-event parties and presentation celebrations.

The Cascade Bicycle Club's goal is to surpass last year's record 24,000 bike commuters in the region.

To check on what's happening in cities around the US, check the League of American Bicyclists' state-by-state event calendar for National Bike Month. Bike to Work events planned in Washington state: ..   more »

An elderly woman has died after she was struck this past weekend by a passing bicyclist on the Cedar River Trail in Renton.

News sources report that the 83-year-old woman was walking on the path about 4:45 p.m. Sunday about a 1/4-mile from the Interstate 405 overpass when she stepped out in front of the bicyclist, 57, who was passing her on the left.

Both were knocked to the ground and lost consciousness. The cyclist came to and was treated for minor injuries by EMTs; the woman was rushed to the hospital where she died Monday morning ...   more »

When I first stumbled across King County's Historic and Scenic Corridors Project online, I made up my mind to ride my bicycle along all 12 routes this year.

Researching a ride I did late last week along the Old Sunset Highway toward Snoqualmie Pass, I'm discovering that I frequently ride my bike along parts of a historic automobile route that date back nearly 100 years.

The Sunset Highway was the evocative name given to a road that connected Seattle with the Idaho border via Snoqualmie Pass in 1915. The Sunset road name survives in some sections of streets and highways that I've been riding for years in Renton and Issaquah without knowing the route's early history. .....   more »

A Benton County (WA) Superior Court judge sentenced a man to 5 years and 3 months in prison for vehicular assault after he struck a woman on a charity bike ride last year.

The 32-year-old man apologized to the victim, who was not in court, then told the judge that he believed the crash "was an accident" and "I feel bad about this whole situation."

Although the judge agreed with the word "accident" in terms that the man didn't intend to run into the cyclist, he pointed out on Friday that the driver was under the influence of a stimulant and the crash shouldn't have happened ......   more »

Seattle might be a gold level bicycle friendly city on one list and ranked 4th best in the nation on another, but bicyclists and the city are having a devil of a time getting a major bike trail completed.

Bicyclists using the 27-mile-long Burke-Gilman Trail to commute to work or college or to run errands must deal with a 1 1/2-mile gap in the trail known as the "missing link."

... On Friday, a judge ruled on the latest tactic to delay the trail completion -- a lawsuit filed by area businesses. The superior court judge ruled against the businesses on all but one count, the need for an environmental report....    more »

Three cities in the Pacific Northwest landed among the top five of Bicycling Magazine's list of Top 50 Bike-Friendly cities, but Minneapolis took the Number 1 spot.

In spite of winter conditions that many wouldn't consider conducive to bicycling, Minneapolis got the nod because of its active bicycle culture and the doubling of bike commuters in just a 3-year-period.

Rounding out the Top 5 are Portland, Oregon (#2), Boulder, Colorado (#3), Seattle (#4, at left) and Eugene, Oregon (#5).

The region also ranked high among cities under 100,000 population. The top 5 are Davis, California (#1), Corvallis, Oregon (#2), Bellingham, Washington (#3) ...   more »

I have a bad habit of riding the same old routes on my bicycle, so I'm always trying to keep things fresh by looking for new roads. Scenic is good; points of interest or historic landmarks are a bonus.

That's why I was happy to stumble across the recently published Historic and Scenic Corridors Project of King County. Although not a bicycling map book, it contains a treasure trove of new roads to explore by bicycle.

The first ride I set out on did not disappoint. The Issaquah-Fall City Road described in the booklet, also published online, put me on a 5-mile route that has changed little from the early days of settlement when it was used as a wagon road by farmers before the arrival of the railroad to the region.

Originally seen as only a trace on early maps, it was officially established in 1883 ....   more »