This should be the main route from getting from South King County to downtown. Getting through South Park is a little dangerous and there are a couple of other sketchy parts which might be why it isn’t used as much as it should be. King County has to fix the section (Green River North Extension) between Cecil Moses and South Park but and they don’t have funding or a real schedule yet but it could be as soon as 2023. Then Seattle needs to figure out the Route through South Park which already has some weird neighborhood greenways that are not popular. The section on West Marginal Way is also due to be improved and we should hear any day what they have decided to do on that.
Starting from the South, the route goes by my favorite rabbit warren in Seattle just North of Cecil Moses park where the County will eventually build the Green River trail North extension. Early in the morning or on rainy days you can sometimes see 30-40 rabbits hanging out eating grass.
The road isn’t that busy but the shoulder gets a little too narrow and gets taken over by blackberries.
Then the tough part really starts. You need to get through South Park. The freeway exit from 99 gets put right on to 14th Ave S and the lane gets squeezed a bit.
There is a signed Neighborhood Greenway on Henderson Street but I don’t know why anyone would ever go up that hill. South Park is flat except for that one hill so that is where they put the bike route?? I think this may have been designed by someone who had never been to check out the topography. I never see bikes going up that hill.
Instead we ride on the sidewalk or the door zone of the parked cars until taking a Left on Cloverdale or Dallas.
I like riding towards the water and usually take the back roads along the river until I meet up with the start of the Duwamish trail on 8th Ave and then Portland Street. There are some wide bike trails on the sidewalk but they have been overtaken by blackberries and sometimes forklifts. I have tried turning these into the city on Find It Fix It but the city says it is the property owners responsibility. Most people just ride on the streets here which are fairly safe.
The trail then follows West Marginal Way which isn’t super pleasant because of the crazy traffic with the tall West Seattle bridge being out. The speed limit is 30 but people drive much faster than that when there isn’t any traffic.
The trail then crosses the tracks and you get a good view of the river and downtown.
It then curves back to West Marginal Way and you end up having to cross it at a stoplight. Pressing the button changes the lights quickly but that doesn’t always mean cars will stop. Be careful.
The next hazard is riding on the sidewalk on the West side of the street and then turning left around a blind corner. It doesn’t get any easier because you need to go through a gauntlet of forklifts and trucks through a recycle yard before you get to meet up with the trail to Alki or the trail over the bridge to Seattle.
This section needs to be fixed and the city knows it. Update- It is going to be delayed until Mid-2022 after the bridge is fixed. Ryan Packer wrote about it in the Urbanist.