Everett bike lanes important part of transportation system

Published 1:30 am Sunday, November 27, 2022

I disagree with a recent letter to the editor criticizing bike lanes on Madison Street in Everett (“Madison Street project in Everett will include bike lanes,” The Herald, Nov. 18).

I do live on E. Pine and Broadway in Seattle. I do use the bike lanes almost everyday. I have a scooter I do my errands on. “Wiping out parking” is not the case here. The vast majority have secure parking in their building garage. The others find free parking or simply don’t own a car. I do not own a car. I take my scooter on transit from here to Mount Vernon and back if needed.

Thinking logically, lots of folks use the bike lanes and are safe from traffic.

Also, there’s the future. Something Seattle thought of long ago.

It’s a pleasure to bike downtown Seattle and awesome for tourist dollars. Also a great carbon reducer within the city makes it pleasant for pedestrians and bikes. There’s a ton of folks who use the bike lanes. I couldn’t imagine how many deaths and injuries we’d have in Seattle alone without them.

Yes, this is taxpayers’ money.

But the attitude indicative of too many folks who want to take their wealth and keep it all, no matter how much money they have or don’t have. It’s why schools don’t meet levies. It ain’t their kids, so they are opposed to paying for others. Who paid for their education?

It’s time we take care of our own. Austerity is how we got here. It’s time to build infrastructure, before it falls into disrepair. This “I got mine” thing needs to stop if we ever hope to be the nation we could be.

Let’s make a more perfect union together. That doesn’t start and end with me that’s for sure. Bigger plans are ahead. Bikes are part of that public transit system. There’s no age that being a part of something bigger expires.

Butch Griggs

Seattle