Here's some good news for the bicycling weekend road warriors of King County.

The new bridge on S.E. May Valley Road is finished and the road is open at least three days ahead of schedule.

The creek crossing on the lightly-traveled rural road between Newcastle and Issaquah has been closed since June 21 for a bridge replacement project. I just passed there Friday afternoon (Aug. 27) and the bridge was open ....   more »

After I noticed this past weekend that Renton had lowered speed limits on the Cedar River Trail to 10 mph and imposed a $101 fine [see Monday's article], I contacted the Cascade Bicycle Club to see if they had an opinion about the city's action.

Here's the response from David Hiller, advocacy director for the Seattle-based bike club:

"We find Renton’s response to be unsound and grossly disproportionate. Though we promptly reached out to staff at the city following the tragic circumstances that led a pedestrian to die from a collision, none of our guidance was taken and, with the exception of one phone call from an apologetic staffer, the promised coordination never materialized.

"We continue to discuss mounting a full scale campaign to get Renton to reverse the course it has taken ....   more »

The City of Renton has lowered the speed limit for bicycles to 10 mph on most of the Cedar River Trail. Bicyclists must dismount on the remaining sections. [See maps below]

Violation of the speed limit carries a $101 fine, according to signs posted on the path.

The Cedar River Trail is a rail-trail that runs from the mouth of Lake Washington to Landsburg, a distance of about 17 miles. The restrictions of bicycle riders target only the western 4.5 miles of the trail in Renton.

The measures are a reaction to the death of an 83-year-old woman this spring after she stepped in front of a moving bicycle about a quarter-mile from where the trail passes under I-405.

Both the woman and the 57-year-old bicyclist fell to the ground and were knocked unconcious, according to news reports. The cyclist recovered at the scene, but the woman later died of her injuries at the hospital.

No charges were ever filed in that case. Renton's mayor and city council set about limiting or restricting bicycle use on the multi-use trail at its next meeting   more »

My quest to ride by bicycle down all of King County's historic roads led me to a scenic stretch of pavement last week that I've pedaled along more than once.

What I hadn't realized is that West Snoqualmie River Road dates back to among the earliest byways in the hills and valleys between Lake Washington and the Cascade Mountains and hasn't changed that much over the years.

The "Dan Henrys" painted on the pavement for the Tour de Peaks and other rides attest to this lightly traveled roads' popularity among bicyclists. It's flat, winding, and passes organic vegetable farms, horse farms as well as dazzling fields of flowers grown for market ....   more »

A high school junior is organizing a charity bicycle ride for this Saturday up in Blaine on the Canadian border to raise funds for a family whose daughter is undergoing treatment for leukemia.

Olivia Sellinger pitched in to help when she heard that Jessica Walters, her 3-year-old neighbor, had been diagnosed with lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer of the blood or bone marrow. Sellinger used to babysit for Jessica.

When she heard that Jessica was undergoing chemotherapy at Children's Hospital in Seattle, Sellinger began raising money to help offset the family's medical bills and launched plans for the "Ride for the Warrior Princess" bike ride ...   more »

We all know that Seattle is one of the top bicycling cities in the US, usually ranked near the top with the likes of Portland, Boulder and Minneapolis on the lists for "best 10 cities for bicyclists."

But how do Seattle's neighboring cities rank?

The Cascade Bicycle Club set out to determine that and published its results in a six-page publication -- Puget Sound Bicycle Scorecard -- released this week.

The top city was Kirkland, followed closely by Redmond and Renton. Bringing up the bottom of the list were Federal Way and Shoreline. ....   more »

A portion of the Cedar River Trail just east of Renton will be closed for repairs Aug. 16 - Sept. 3 as work crews repair damage to the levee from last year's storms.

The section to be closed starts at 154 Place SE and extends to 175 Avenue SE. That's essentially from the undercrossing just east of Ron Regis Park to the Riverbend Mobile & RV Park.

King County says the trail will be closed 24 hours a day and there will be no flagged reroute during construction.

To bypass the trail, bicyclists ....   more »

It's been a while since I've written about my monthly bicycling mileage totals, but July represents a good all-around biking month for me.

My monthly "tale of the tape" was a common topic of this blog back in 2008 when I was shooting for a 4,000-mile year; I finally achieved it by plowing my bike through the snow on the last day of the year.

With no goal in mind for 2009, I bicycled 2,496 miles. So far in 2010, I've covered 2,046 miles on either my road bike or mountain bike.

I don't have a hard and fast goal set for 2010, except for one objective: Stay ahead of Barry ....   more »