In a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Mayor Greg Nickels has opened the six-mile trail around Lake Union, known officially as the Cheshiahud Lake Union Loop Trail. “The trail creates a pathway for pedestrians and cyclists to enjoy access to neighborhoods and parks, and to explore some of our history along the shores of Lake Union,” Nickels said. As part of the improvements over the last year, the city extended the path along Westlake Avenue 870 feet to meet the Fremont Bridge. Now, as many hikers and bicyclists know, it’s far from a seamless journey around the lake (see the map in .pdf), and the city is planning more improvements to come.

Just the other day, we had to jump aside for a couple bicyclists who rode up the sidewalk in front of Pete’s Coffee. As you may have noticed, there are no bike lanes between 34th and 35th streets on Fremont Ave. Scott Henry wrote the Seattle PI and asked why there’s a gap there. After all, the rest of Fremont Ave. has bike lanes — some of them brand new — extending all the way to Phinney Ridge. But SDOT says there’s not enough room for bike lanes on that particular stretch, suggesting that bikes move into traffic, instead.

The bus stops on both sides of the road also complicates matters. Drag the photo above to take a look around.

The city has painted “sharrow” markers all along Fremont Ave.

The sharrow symbol, a bicycle topped with two chevrons, is meant to signal motorists to share the road with cyclists. The markers usually go in at places where bikes are moving closer to the speed of vehicles (i.e., downhill) and where the road isn’t wide enough to accommodate a bike lane.