Slog

News & Arts

Line Out

Music & the City
at Night

« Taking a Hard Look at a Few of the… | Re: New Media Flashback »

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

City Let There Be Light

Posted by Unpaid Intern on Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 11:38 AM

Posted by News Intern Aaron Pickus

The University Bridge, without working street lights for months, will be a dark and dangerous crossing for cyclists for just a little while longer. Details come from Bicyclepaper.com:

On Monday, Feb. 9, the City of Seattle will begin rehabilitating the aging lighting system on the University Bridge. Seattle City Light, with the assistance of Seattle Department of Transportation, will replace the 90-year-old wiring on the bridge, repair or replace the conduit system and hand holes, and replace the luminaries (streetlights). The departments anticipate completing work on the lighting system by the end of April.

For those whose daily commute takes them across the University Bridge without the aid of natural sunlight, here's a little safety tip from a guy who should know a thing or two about riding around at night and, apparently, the Dutch countryside.

Comments (6) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

Thanks for the update.

It was also nice to stumble on City Light's response in the earlier thread. Unfortunate though that they only gave this response to larger media and not to normal people like me.

Posted by stinkbug on February 10, 2009 at 11:45 AM

They have been working under the bridge for a while now ... I thought this had something to do with it, and that perhaps the lights have been disconnected, versus simply broken. I'm basing this only on what I see, versus what I'm told.

Posted by make mine a moo day day! on February 10, 2009 at 11:54 AM

...is that why there are those weird cut outs in the curb?

Posted by nipper on February 10, 2009 at 12:53 PM

I've biked on that bridge a few times at night recently. It was perfectly safe.

Posted by Trevor on February 10, 2009 at 12:54 PM

At least at night they don't have the bike lane closed....something that will be going on for the next several months while they repaint the bridge.

Posted by slugbiker on February 10, 2009 at 1:05 PM

thank god. i ride on that bridge every morning at 5:30 A.M. Riding in the dark section is a bit frightening, rather like floating through a void. Having a light doesn't really help, either: my eyes never adjust properly to the dark because of other streetlights, so my relatively dim LED is useless.

@2: they're painting it

@4: it's perfectly safe -- if something isn't in the bike lane. if, say, some debris were there, it would be difficult to see it and hitting debris on a bike in the dark could be fatal. the other day, the inch or two of snow on the roadway made the bridge experience especially exciting.

so yes, if there's nothing dangerous on the bridge, it's not dangerous to ride on the bridge at dark.

Posted by emor on February 10, 2009 at 5:48 PM