Category / Wanderings

by Adron

Trying to Save Redmond from Its Auto-Obsessed Past – Exploring the 152nd Street and Overlake Area Projects: A Vision for Redmond’s Future

Redmond and Bellevue, long synonymous with sprawling parking lots and endless highways, vertical spines of suburban hoity toity tasteless strip malls, are finally trying to shake off their addiction to the automobile. The new projects around 152nd Avenue NE, 156th Cycle Track, and Overlake Village Infrastructure are touted as the next big thing in making the area “livable”—because clearly, we’ve all been loving those car-infested corridors so much that it took decades to realize something was off. Here’s a look at the “ambitious” plans to reclaim some humanity from the asphalt wilderness.

152nd Avenue NE Main Street: The Quest for a Pedestrian’s Paradise in Car-Land

The 152nd Avenue NE Main Street project aims to turn a once soul-crushing stretch of road into something “pedestrian-friendly.” Imagine that: walking down a street where you’re not just waiting for a crosswalk signal like it’s an act of divine mercy. This project will roll out wider sidewalks, because, surprise, people do actually walk, and protected bike lanes, because it turns out bikes aren’t just a relic of the past. In addition, they intend to put in place an actual street grid like a real city!

The city planners are throwing in some landscaping and public art—likely to distract us from the decades of prioritizing cars over community. And yes, we’ll get street lighting that’s more than just the sad, dim bulbs that currently light up the vast emptiness of parking lots. It’s a bold move to try and inject some vibrancy into a street where, up until now, “scenic” meant looking at the back of someone’s SUV.

156th Cycle Track: Because Cyclists Deserve Better than Dodging Cars

For the brave souls who dare to bike in a city built for cars, the 156th Cycle Track is the beacon of hope we’ve been waiting for—or at least, it’s supposed to be. This project is designed to give cyclists a protected road of their own in this segment, so they no longer have to rely on sheer willpower and the kindness of strangers motoring around in their cages to avoid becoming roadkill.

The cycle track will connect the SR 520 Trail to Overlake Village, finally giving cyclists a direct route that doesn’t involve navigating a gauntlet of speeding vehicles and poorly timed traffic lights. It’s almost like the city realized that people might choose bikes over cars if they didn’t fear for their lives. What a concept.

Overlake Village Infrastructure Planning: Patching Up the Auto-Dependent Mess

And then there’s the Overlake Village Infrastructure Planning—an initiative that sounds like it’s about fixing the glaring oversights of a car-centric past. This grand plan includes stormwater management (because, who knew, we need to deal with rain too), better transit access (since our existing bus stops on the side of highways aren’t exactly welcoming), and—wait for it—parks and green spaces. Because after all that asphalt, we could use a little green, right?

This plan is also about encouraging “transit-oriented development,” which is urban planner speak for “we messed up by spreading everything too far apart.” They’re now trying to fix it by building closer to transit hubs, a move that might finally give some residents the option to not drive everywhere—because clearly, parking lots as the centerpiece of community life didn’t turn out so well.

The Grim Reality: A Half-Hearted Attempt to Undo the Car-Centric Damage

These projects, despite their promises, can’t quite hide the fact that they’re desperately trying to undo decades of car-centric planning. The efforts to add pedestrian paths, bike lanes, and transit-oriented development feel a bit like putting a band-aid on a gaping gunshot wound, but hey, it’s better than nothing.

If you’re in the area, why not check out these efforts to bring some life back into the auto-dependent wasteland that we’ve built? Take a walk down 152nd Avenue, if you dare, or brave the cycle track. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll see the day when Redmond and Bellevue aren’t defined by their endless stretches of road, but by the vibrant, connected communities they’re trying so hard to become—one sidewalk and active transport corridor at a time!

Here are the key links to the projects mentioned in the blog post:

  1. 152nd Avenue NE Main Street Project:
  2. 156th Cycle Track Project:
  3. Overlake Village Infrastructure Planning:
by Adron

Riese & Muller Load 75 – Speed Fluctuations Issue & Resolution

Recently while riding home from Seattle a strange behavior occurred. Everything seemed ok for the first few minutes. But then while heading out of the Seattle tunnel over I-90 onto the long I-90 downhill bridge stretch towards Mercer Island, I reached 45kph and was getting speeds displayed that would bounce from zero up to the speed I was going. As this was happening, when it went below the e-assist speed, it would attempt to give me pedal assist at these higher speeds. But just for a second or two. Since I usually pedal going downhill for that extra speed, this was somewhat disorientating.

I wasn’t sure what the deal was, something was obviously off, and as I rode up into the hills I kept getting odd speed fluctuations, even when I was traveling a steady speed. I thought, maybe this is because I’m pulling a trailer this time. Even though that didn’t really make sense.

I rode the 28 kilometers home and set about writing an inquiry to my local bike shop. With a thorough description sent off I went about other activities waiting for a response. In short order I got a response and they asked where the magnet was positioned on the wheel that feeds the speed sensor. I knew what that was, but wasn’t sure how the positioning for it should be. I took a few shots, shown in the grid of images below, and to note – this is the WRONG position.

The informed me where it should be. It should be closer to the sloped from part of the sensor. I grabbed a trusty Phillips and loosened up the magnet and slid it over about 4 millimeters. Back to the trails for a hill climb and decline!

A few minutes later, I’d confirmed, that mere itty bitty little 4mm is exactly what was causing the problem. Whew! Relief. Off to get some more miles in and get some pick ups done! 🤙🏻

Props: Thanks Dandelion Bikes Crew!

by Adron

Later Week and The End of My Pittsburgh Adventure

Well, it clearly took me MONTHS to wrap up the blog posts on this trip! It was indeed a blast and I got so much footage that was great. I had to extensively cut it back on focus on a few key rides here and there and record recon stops of course! With that, the final blog post of the Pittsburgh trip.

Alright, I’m almost done through all the VLOG posts on my Pittsburgh trip. It was, needless to say, a really eventful trip! Last post I wrote up the 3 part VLOG of day 5, and in this post it’s another 3 part for day 6! Included is the second record recon run and wrapping up all three parts with the arrival of a CSX COKE TRAIN!

A little route map for an idea of the route.

Heading along the north side waterfront.

Hey look at that, a Norfolk Southern train heading across the Ohio River.

Trip Wrap Up

Thursday’s ride…

The finale, riding from Traveler’s Rest to the train station in the rain! First bit of inclement weather of the entire trip!

by Adron

A Week in Pittsburgh Begins!

After the grand trip across a vast expanse of the United States, I was finally approaching Pittsburgh! I’d been looking forward to visiting Pittsburgh for years now, so I was STOKED!

The day started at around 5am, as I pondered my arrival and the logistics of the situation on the train. I had some commentary, which I added in the VLOG. So be sure to check that out.

Then arrival in Pittsburgh. This image is from the train as we crossed the river.

In the VLOG you get to see this some, but lets talk about the station in Pittsburgh. For the first thing to experience coming into the city, it is a major let down. It reflects horribly on the United States as a whole – as does our passenger rail in general – but this was an embarrassment of riches right here. The station is in what I’d consider the basement of what used to be the train station. The train station itself however is a bunch of apartments or condos, and the grand entrance is now just the entrance to those apartments. So the grand station that used to exist is now a basement with apartments – which you can’t really walk around – there are signs warning you not to, on top of that basement.

Overall, it’s kind of an insult to Americans to have taken a grand station of this nature, dumped the station into the basement, and stuck a few arbitrarily built – and likely very inefficient apartments in the once grand station.

It’s now kind of just a dump. It made me sad. But I digress, the adventure in Pittsburgh was just beginning and I wasn’t going to let the embarrassment of a station ruin my trip!

Pittsburgh Arrival Day 4 Part 1 – Arriving into Union Station & Initial Explorations.

Once arrived and finally detrained and out of the station, the mess that it was, I made my way out into the streets of Pittsburgh for an exploratory bike ride around the city. This became an absolutely stellar first experience in the city and more than made up for the dumpy station.

In this video I’ve got relive maps guiding the way so you can see exactly where I went, along with some stellar photos I took of the city. I rode up onto a bridge, through a kind of messed up, stinky, car-dependent part of the city so I could get these pictures and ALMOST DIED TWICE! I point that out in the video too, so if you are ever there, dear readers, be wary of the western bridge over the Ohio River! It’s got a sketchy approach on both side! Watch these next two episodes for that part of the adventure.

Pittsburgh Arrival Day 4 Part 2 – Arrived & Exploring the Ohio River “West Wend Bridge”!
Pittsburgh Arrival Day 4 Part 3 – Heading to south Pittsburgh to get some coffee & try to check in!

Finally, after all that exploration – from 5:30am to about 7:45am – I finally make my way form the north side of Pittsburgh over the the Travelers Rest, where I’d be staying for the week. I wrap up the day one VLOGs with the final check in, checking out Travelers Rest, and I show you the accommodations I’ve picked up for the stay!

Pittsburgh Arrival Day 4 Part 4 – Delanie’s & Travelers Rest. You GOTTA check these places out!
by Adron

Beginning The Pittsburgh Adventure!

Back in April I took a trip to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is easily one of the best trips I’ve taken in a few years! Far too many years! Obviously I had to write up the adventure and that dear readers is what you have here, the log of my entire trip to Pittsburgh. I hope you enjoy following along with the adventure!

Along with the trip, which I’ll write details about here on this post and subsequent posts here on Transit Sleuth, another branch of posts will be on Vicious Shred concerning the record shops (Attic Records, etc) and music related peculiarities. So if you’re into the metal, and other varietals of music I partake upon, navigate over to Vicious Shred for a whole host of posts about that.

Day 1 – Departing Seattle via the Empire Builder

Day 1 involved departing Seattle. What did that involve? Well let me tell you!

The very first event involved me biking down from home to downtown Redmond. There I caught the Sound Transit 545 out of Redmond heading to downtown Seattle & King Street Station. The bus arrived timely, I got the bike mounted up and off I went.

Shocker of shocker, as we got into the city there was a back up on 520 coming onto I-5, which is part of traveling on I-5. It’s always been backed up here and likely will always be. If someone is stupid enough to think they’ll resolve this poorly designed mess they don’t understand how cars work – and in that sense I am seriously looking forward to the day I can just on the tram (light rail) Link into the city!

Once I arrived downtown, I didn’t even attempt to ride the 545 all the way across the downtown core. There are two reasons I did got off the bus to travel this last few miles:

  1. The main reason is I like to, as I’ve made it a tradition, to always stop at Monorail Coffee and get a cap before departure. For many – if not most – destinations in the United States it is likely the last time I’ll get a decent cap until returning. The espresso standards in the USA have improved to a degree so it isn’t as frequent I go without as it used to be, but I still don’t trust most cities.
  2. The other reason is I actually like to ride through the city – I love cities, love em’! Some folks don’t get that from me but I see so much more than the mere concrete and fumbling crushed souls of the city and more the wealth generating heartbeat of America that US cities actually are. Albeit they’re severely damaged and have a severe quality of life issue compared to European cities. Largely evident in the vast warped subsidized American socialism experiment gone awry called “the suburbs”. But hey, they’re holding together the country in spite of all that!

Anarchist Jurisdiction

As the “Dear Leader” designated our poor fair destroyed obliterated city of Seattle, it is indeed destroyed y’all! Nobody come to Seattle, look at all that smoke and fire and burning, nobody is left! It’s all zombies and those lost in the riots. /s

Comedy aside, the ride through Seattle was rather pleasant. The roll – emphasis on roll because it takes almost no energy to pedal downhill from Monorail Coffee down to the train station – to King Street Station was smooth and effortless.

King Street Station

I arrived, got my bike tagged for the trip and headed off to the baggage car to hand off my bike. The only two things I brought with me was my Mission Workshop ARKIV Backpack and the bike (bounce back to this post for details on why she’s named “PDX Orange”).

Tragedy Struck!

Chubby DOWN!!! You’ll have to watch the video for that bit of tragedy (time point @ the tragedy), it was already too much to write about the remnants of the destroyed city of Seattle! So with that bit of narration lagniappe, enjoy the video.

My Pittsburgh Adventure day 1 departing Seattle via King Street Station on the Empire Builder!

Day 2 – Eating on the Empire Builder

Day 2 can be summarized as eating day. There isn’t a lot to see or do on day 2, so it’s 3 meals and complete uninterrupted relaxation. In all seriousness it is one of my favorite days of the trip – even with the somewhat boring scenery – because I just do nothing. Maybe read, but mostly just thinking and introspecting against a repeating scenery. With that, I detail some of day 2 via VLOG for you dear reader!

Train Life, Day 2 on the Empire Builder from Seattle to Chicago, en route to Pittsburgh.

Day 3 – Empire Builder Transfer to Capitol Limited in Chicago

When I got into day 3, Chicago was the central action of the day. I needed to arrive on time or close to on time in order to make my connection to the Capitol Limited. The Capitol Limited route runs from Chicago to Washington DC. It makes a bunch of stops but my stop would be around 5:23am in the morning in Pittsburgh. If I had my preference, I’d have take another train that would have had me arriving in Pittsburgh at a more reasonable hour, but this being America we have a severe lack of transportation options between major cities!

The great thing about – in my humble opinion – coming into Chicago is getting into the urban fabric and watching the urban core and its skyscrapers start to rise out of nothing. If you’re privy, you get to see a lot of history as you roll into the city too. If you find that kind of thing fascinating Chicago is a city worth looking into.

In this episode I wrap up things by showing the path and process – for my brave fellow cyclists out there – of getting your bike stowed in Union Station. If you’re in the sleeper or 1st class like I was, you get to hang out in the awesome lounge at Chicago but you need to stow your bike in the meantime.

Pittsburgh Adventure Day 3 – Part 1 – Arrival in Chicago & wondering around Union Station.

In the 2nd part of day 3, transferring in Chicago I provide a tour of the 1st Class Lounge and then wander aimlessly around Chicago for a short while. Then I show boarding, which is a bit of an adventure in fumbling since I have a bike. Even though this is actually an easy process, you need to stay on top of things in order to make sure the bike does end up where you end up. Follow along in the VLOG to see more of the chaotic fun as I wrap up the Chicago transfer to the Capitol Limited!

Pittsburgh Adventure Day 3 – Part 2 – Transferring in Chicago & wondering outside Union Station.

That’s it for the Empire Builder part of the trip, in my next post I’ll delve into arrival day in Pittsburgh and the ongoing adventures!