The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) recently released updated designs for a two-way protected bike lane along Leary Way and invited feedback in a public survey open through July 15.
The Leary Way bike facility has been a passion project pushed by Councilmember Dan Strauss, whose District 6 plays host to the "Missing Link" of the Burke-Gilman Trail – long the bane of people biking, rolling, and walking through Northwest Seattle. Strauss fought to get $20 million in funding earmarked for the Leary Way bike route in the Seattle Transportation Levy, which was approved by voters in 2024.
A project to add a bike trail on the south side of Shilshole Avenue NW has been tied up in litigation for decades, with nearby industrial business owners and freight interests objecting to the route. The Burke-Gilman Trail did see improvements just to the east in 2023, but the conspicuous gap remains. Strauss has pitched his Leary Way project as an alternative to get people biking into and through Ballard, which has long been a hot spot for collisions involving people biking.
Bicycling advocates have kept the Leary Way project at arm's length, arguing the Shilshole South project is still the essential linkage to complete the Burke-Gilman Trail all the way to Golden Gardens. Cascade Bicycle Club executive director Lee Lambert has stressed Leary Way is not a replacement for completing the trail's missing link on Shilshole.
“We don’t want this route to cause any unnecessary delays to the Shilshole option to close Missing Link,” Lambert told The Urbanist in 2023. “There’s a need for more than one safe route through Ballard by bike.”
That appears to continue to be Cascade's position in 2026, as SDOT rolls out 60% designs for the project. The group hosted an event at Old Stove Brewery in Ballard Wednesday pushing to get more public feedback on the new designs, with Strauss in attendance.
Jenna Chavez with Ballard Fremont Green Streets was among the critics of the Leary Way plan who turned out at the event. Particularly on dense Market Street, SDOT's designs show bike riders in close proximity to users of the busy Ballard sidewalk, with little to separate pedestrians from fast moving cyclists.
"Previously at the 30% design phase, we gave our feedback and feel like those needs haven't been really addressed, and I'm not sure that they ever will be able to because there's just a lot of conflict points when it comes to the Leary design," Chavez told The Urbanist. "Leary will just not replace Shilshole as a way to get cyclists from point A to point B, and so people are going to continue to use Shilshole. Until we have that as a valid option, I think that we should not be continuing with this Leary trail."
On Leary Way, the bikeway would pass in front of the Ballard Landmark senior living facility, adding additional potential conflict points. One design option SDOT has put forward would see drivers cross the bikeway twice to utilize the Ballard Landmark loading area.
"A big problem with it is, one, there's Ballard Landmark; so there's going to be a lot of incoming residents of them that need access to cars... which provides a lot of conflict points," Chavez said. "And then, once you get to Market, it just turns into a free-for-all, and that is so heavily pedestrianized that there's just going to be people everywhere, and cyclists are not going to be able to go through it. So, unless you make like a designated cycle track, you're not going to really have an option. Even when you have cycle tracks, right, in heavily pedestrianized areas, unless it's completely separated, you're not going to get pedestrians not in that cycle track."
Last February, residents at the Ballard Landmark showed up at the City Council to push back on Strauss's plan in person, citing potential issues loading their residents onto buses in front of their building.
"I don't want to see the next Seattle Times headline that says that an 83-year-old grandmother has been hit in front of her home," Janice Stamm, who co-chaired the Missing Link Taskforce, told Councilmembers. "If safety is your main issue, then I urge you to look for an alternative to the bike trail on Leary Avenue."
Another downside of the plan is potentially losing a recently added bus lane for Route 40. Chavez proposed an alternative of upgrading the 17th Avenue NW greenway to provide an all ages and abilities connection into the heart of Ballard from the Burke-Gilman Trail.
"We just got a bus only lane. This option basically takes that away, so it's just not a good plan," Chavez said. "And so if you want to do something that connects to the Burke, do 17th all the way, and then at least you can turn at 50th [Street] and connect to parts west of Ballard that way, because it's definitely a greenway option."
Given the ambivalence from cycling advocates, it remains to be seen how the Leary Way project will be handled by the Wilson Administration, which has not yet waded in. A push to address the missing link on Shilshole Avenue could end up taking center stage, assuming litigation is ever concluded and the City of Seattle is finally able to find a way forward.
Doug Trumm
