Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In

Bike ridership jumped more than 413 percent after Seattle upgraded a key corridor from a mere painted bike lane into a beefier protected version, a city official revealed on Thursday.

Department of Transportation lead engineer Dongho Chang tweeted about the surge along Second Avenue as a way to highlight the game-changing power of a protected lane versus a painted lane.

"Downtown has always been a challenging area for people to ride, especially with our hilly terrain," Chang posted on social media. "The numbers show that people will use bicycle facilities when it is more comfortable and thoughtfully connected.

The project began with a pilot in 2014 to convert a regular painted bike lane on Second Avenue into a curb-and-landscape-protected bike lane. An extension through downtown Seattle was completed last year, lengthening it to about one mile.

Watch what happened to daily ridership as the bike infrastructure upgrades progressed.

Graph: Dongho Chang/Seattle DOT
Graph: Dongho Chang/Seattle DOT
Graph: Dongho Chang/Seattle DOT

The protected bike lane project was costly by bike lane standards. At $12 million, it was the most expensive bike lane Seattle ever built (the cost was partially offset by $5 million in federal money). Rebuilding part of the street to make a very well protected lane required some utility relocation.

When it opened, Seattle Bike Blog said it "revolutionized biking" in downtown Seattle. The city of Seattle keeps an automatic bike counter on the street. It reports about 83,000 trips since December.

Seattle was at one time a leader on sustainable transportation, but new Mayor Jenny Durkan has killed plans for a bike lane on 35th Avenue NE, a dangerous thoroughfare which has been proposed for bike lanes for a decade. And she has infuriated safe streets advocates in the city by revising the city's Bike Plan, and cutting a dozen projects.

The moves represent a real turnaround, as Seattle's earlier efforts had been seen as among the country's most successful.

Seattle is obviously not the first city to experience massive increases in cycling after a protected lane is installed. Toronto claimed a 300-percent hike on Sherborne Street. And, more generally, New York says cycling is up 70 percent since 2011, when the city truly began expanding its vast protected bike lane network.

"Miles of protected on-street bike lanes are emboldening the more cautious and risk-averse New Yorkers to take to the streets on a bike," the city's DOT said in its semi-annual "Cycling in the City" report.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Is Sec. Duffy Holding NY Transit Hostage To Negotiate Away The Rest of America’s Transportation Future?

The federal Transportation secretary is using two large transit projects as a bargaining chip to bully Congress into passing a budget that could be disastrous for communities across the country.

October 3, 2025

Friday’s Headlines Shut It Down

The government shutdown looks like it will be just another excuse for the Trump administration to cancel transportation projects unless blue states bend the knee.

October 3, 2025

Can Pedestrian Pop-Ups Go Permanent in the U.S.?

Can temporary pedestrian pop-ups spur permanent change?

October 3, 2025

Talking Headways Podcast: Healthy Architecture, Healthy People

It is very unusual for an architecture project to pay any attention at all outside of the property line. And that has to change.

October 2, 2025

Report: A Third of Americans Can’t Rely On Cars — And 16 Million Have No Access At All

So why do we plan our cities like everyone can and does get behind the wheel every day?

October 2, 2025
See all posts