National Bike to Work Day

While today is National Bike to Work Day, The Seattle Times reports that our city is “no longer among the ten most bikeable big cities in the nation.” We have fallen to number 13 from number seven. The Times notes that bike score is measured by how safe a location is to bike, but this new ranking doesn’t mean biking in Seattle has gotten more dangerous. It actually points to the fact that the previous ranking we were given was inflated. In our 2013 ranking, we were given points for “sharrows,” the shared lane pavement markings. However sharrows, “are less safe than more heavier-weighted infrastructure like designated bike lanes and resdiential bike paths.” The cities that have made the biggest strides in bike safety infrastructure are Minneapolis, San Francisco and Portland. 

Green Lake

It turns out the “green” in Green Lake may be a problem. According to King 5, a toxic algae bloom in the popular urban lake has proven to be harmful to children and dogs. The “Friends of Green Lake” group lobbied the city council for treatment to clean up the water. But King County Public Health notes that the treatment most likely won’t happen until next year. People have been advised to avoid scum or light green color on top of the surface of the water as, “dogs have died from the algae of the kind of toxin that grows in Green Lake.” Similar algal blooms have recently been found in lake Washington.

Seattle Port at risk for cyber attacks

MyNorthwest.com reports that the Port of Seattle has left itself extremely vulnerable to cyber-attacks. “A recent study by CyberKeel found that 37 percent of companies running Windows web servers haven’t kept up with installing the latest Microsoft security patches. The Copenhagen-based cyber security firm’s CEO and co-founder Lars Jensen said that leaves them vulnerable to hacks.” There are three types of potential threats: espionage, hijacking, and cyber terrorism. Hackers could easily delete information about the containers at a port. Losing information about containers would be a major setback and could cause significant losses to the economy. “…that could compare to the 2002 labor dispute that shut down West Coast Ports for 10 days, the cost an was estimated $1-2 billion dollars a day.”

Ferries

Recent mechanical problems with Washington State Ferries have left travelers feeling wary for the summer travel season. The Seattle Times reports that the ferry “Tacoma” broke down last weekend due to a small electrical failure, which is not uncommon. Last Sunday, the “Elwha” ferry broke down in the San Juans. These were small issues not necessarily indicative of a larger ferry pandemic. However, The Times reports, “Last year, ferries missed 83 trips because of mechanical problems…In all, there were 247 misses — the majority caused by low tides or weather — out of 40,436 total trips.” The major issue here is that if more ferries break down, the Washington State Department of Transportation doesn’t have spares to fill the gap. The 144-car “Samish” ferry will come to assist with the Anacortes-San Juan routes in June. However, of the 24 vessels in the fleet, five are currently unavailable for use.

Seattle Elementary participates in 5K to empower girls

The non-profit program Girls on the Run has been helping elementary school girls from Sacajawea Elementary in Seattle train for their upcoming 5K. According to King 5’s Evening Magazine, volunteers have each paired up with girls to be their running buddies for the past 10 weeks of training. The goal of the program is, “…about empowerment, teamwork and [helping the girls] feel good about themselves.” Over 700 girls from all over King County will be running in the Girls on The Run spring 5k on Saturday, May 16.