How To Get Involved
Rainier Valley Greenways is part of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways. Click on the icon to get on to our mailing list.
This group holds regular meetings on the 3rd Tuesday of every month from 6:30 pm at Bike Works.
What We’re Doing
Do you want to create a better, safer Rainier Ave S? Get involved with our top 2016 priority for District 2!
What We’ve Done
Click on the icon above to see what projects we’ve worked on.
How To Get Involved
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Rainier Valley Greenways formed in August 2012 with a vision for planning and creating safe, healthy streets in our diverse neighborhoods. Bike Works and Seattle Neighborhood Greenways have been providing leadership to a local group of greenway advocates that now includes Columbia City Business Association, Feet First, Rainier Beach Chamber of Commerce, Seattle Department of Transportation and Seattle Parks and Recreation’s Sound Steps Program. The group received a grant for assistance from the National Park Service in 2013 to assist with planning and outreach in two Rainier Valley neighborhoods: Columbia City and Rainier Beach. Here is the Rainier Valley Greenways Bylaws.
What We're Doing
Rainier Valley Greenways supports a safe healthy Rainier Valley where children and adults can choose to walk, bike, take the bus or drive within our community and to adjoining neighborhoods.
Do you want to create a better, safer Rainier Ave S? Get involved with our top 2016 priority for District 2!
We support safety over speeding on Rainier Avenue South
With 1,243 crashes in the past three years, Rainier Avenue South is the most dangerous street in Seattle. Every crash impacts our community – from cars careening into our businesses to our children being run down by drivers who never even stop. We say enough! Rainier Ave S should be made safe for all people to walk, bike, drive, catch the bus, shop, and live.
We need our neighborhood back.
We need,
- Safe Speeds of 25 MPH along Rainier Avenue South and 20 MPH engineered in our community centers of Columbia City, Hillman City, and Rainier Beach with enforcement.
- Safe & Dignified Crossings of Rainier Ave S where people driving stop for people walking, and people walking have enough to time cross before the traffic light changes.
- A Safe Place for People to Bike on Rainier Ave S.
What We've Done
Rainier has been a important contributor to achieve improvements all over Rainier Valley, including the following:
- Our Safety Over Speeding campaign pushed the city to improve Seattle’s most dangerous street – Rainier Ave S.
- We helped scout and advocate for the best route for a N-S and E-W neighborhood greenway in our neighborhood.
- We brought attention the inequity around traffic signal timing in our community compared with more affluent an whiter communities in Seattle. Since then, some signals now give people walking more time to cross the street.
Map of significant schools, parks, community places in Rainier Valley (pdf)
Community-generated feedback maps November 2012 (pdf 2-pages)
RV Greenways OSE/CAN summary starting up Rainier Valley Greenways organization (pdf)
Please help us translate "Safe Healthy Streets" in multiple languages. Here are our first 26 languages (pdf)
Crossing Rainier Avenue. Signal Timing Study commissioned by Seattle Neighborhood Greenways with UW School of Public Health March 2013.
View Safe Healthy Rainier Valley in a larger map
MAP LEGEND
- Solid Green Line: Completed Greenway
- Translucent Green: In progress/Greenway Funded
- Red: Priority 1 Greenways to build next
- Red Pin: Priority 1 intersections to build next
- Narrow Purple Lines: Potential Greenway Routes (subject to change)
- Purple Points: Potential Greenway intersection treatments
- Wide Blue Lines: Cycle tracks and other expensive Low Stress infrastructure recommended
- Application to Parks Opportunity Fund for a Children's Safety Garden in Rainier Valley 2012
- Equity Score from SDOT gap analysis work 2012. Based on demographic/economic inputs (i.e., race, poverty, under 18, over 64 and no car ownership) as well as the metric for low service which is the bottom 25% the city’s census tracts based on the amount of existing bicycle facilities they have divided by the total area of the tract.
- Southeast Seattle Bikeability Report 2012 Finding #1: Install a separated bicycle facility (i.e., cycle track), on Rainier Ave S and/or MLK Way S. Alternate north/south routes are too hilly for new riders and young children. 2012
- Rainier Beach Youth Transit Justice Survey 2012 Rainier Beach does not have sufficient bike infrastructure such as signed bicycle routes. However, several high school students did report riding bikes to school. Overall, people reported very little bicycle usage, with most people surveyed responding that they never ride bicycles. This is a concern because bicycling can be a healthy and cost effective form of transportation.
- King County Metro SE Transit Outreach June 2012 Major destinations that consistently came up in conversations were: downtown Seattle, the International District, Harbor- view and other First Hill medical institutions, community colleges, high schools, Seattle Housing Authority complexes throughout the city, Southcenter, White Center and further south, Seattle Center, and Skyway/Renton. A new travel pattern of note that was consistently reported was more and more people traveling from the Rainier Valley south to Skyway, Renton, Tukwila, and White Center to visit family and friends.
- Rainier Beach Neighborhood Plan Update March 2012 Develop coordinated public realm plan that improves the physical connections (streets, sidewalks) between the smaller centers of activity (schools, library, com- munity center, grocery stores, ethnic markets).
- SDOT Intercept Study of Columbia City Visitors 2011 Questionnaires given to better understand visiting and travel behaviors in the Columbia City neighborhood business district.
- Walking Audit by Sound Steps around Rainier Community Center 2011. Feet First / Safe Routes to Parks. Top recommendation: Establish a wayfinding system connecting the Columbia City LINK station, the Columbia City business district, and the Rainier Community Center/Genesee Park.
- Sustainable Seattle Rainier Beach Indicators 2009.
- Southeast Transportation Study Final Report (SETS). SDOT 2008. This study outlines the City’s transportation plan for the area: http://www.seattle.gov/
transportation/ppmp_sets.htm - Rainier Traffic Safety Project Summary 2008 A 2.5 year program to focus on education and enforcement along 7.5 miles of Rainier to reduce collisions on roads using low-cost, near-term solutions through partnerships with community groups, business, engineering, enforcement, education, and emergency services organizations.
- Rainier Avenue South Traffic Safety Corridor Study 2007
- Seattle Neighborhood Plans and Approval Matrix c. 1999 Work plans written to direct funding investments for Columbia City, MLK@Holly, North Rainier, Rainier Beach.