No Bikes allowed!!!! In a park! Thanks Renton! There are some trails that along the water that you wouldn’t want bikes on but that doesn’t mean you need to ban bikes from the whole park. They have been banned for years and Renton doesn’t have any plans to create anything to allow bikes to be separated from peds or cars. What makes this even worse is all the work being done on the old railroad line trail which is now known as Eastrail. Bikes have to go on unprotected bike lanes on Lake Washington Blvd for about 1/2 a mile. So a great all ages/all ability trail which is very popular with families biking together pushes little kids learning to bike on a boulevard if they want to go to a park.
Here is the sign that lets you know that the bike trail is ending and you need to get on the road. If you have never ridden this going South, you WILL miss this turn and end up at a dead end.
When you miss the turn you will end up coming to the end of the trail and a fence. You will probably see others that have missed the turn.
If you don’t have a bike, you can go through this gate and end up in Coulon Park. But NO BIKES ALLOWED.
Lake Washington Boulevard can be a little scary with cars cutting into the bike lanes around the curves. And sometimes the unprotected bike lanes can get very skinny.
The last few years has also seen a lot of construction on this road with some more condos and hotels that have caused the bike lane to be closed. It is open now but I still wouldn’t ever call this a great way for a kid to ride to a park.
What really needs to happen is for the rails to be taken out all the way to the North Entrance of the park. Boeing doesn’t bring fuselages on train cars this far North.
They do need some rail section for airplane train switchbacks so we will never be able to remove the rails all the way to Logan Avenue. But there is a lot of room in the park to put a trail along side the rails through the park. It really wouldn’t be that hard, but Renton has to want to do it. I don’t know how to make this happen. Renton politicians don’t have to make promises to the bike lobby to get elected. They just need to want to do the right thing and create a safe park infrastructure for everyone. Until then, Coulon park will be a car only park, kids won’t ride to the park, and other cyclists will ride with danger on the boulevard.