via our sister site Queen Anne View…

Seattle’s Department of Transportation is encouraging people to walk, bike or ride public transit in July and August to get in shape, reduce greenhouse gases, and save money on gas and car repairs.

Enter the Walk Bike Ride Challenge, switch at least two car trips per week to walking, biking or riding transit, and be entered to win one of the following:

• Electric bike from e-Moto
• Apple iPad
• Pan Pacific Hotel stay
• Zipcar $250 gift card
• REI $100 gift card
• Nordstrom’s $100 gift card (supplied by Commute Seattle)
• $100 gift card good at seven farmers’ markets

“Summer is a great time to try walking, biking or riding transit to work, to get to know your neighborhood and to start lifetime habits that keep you healthy,” Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen said in a press release.

Those entering the challenge get weekly emails with tips on walking, biking and riding and can track their individual progress and the program’s collective impact online. The more trips one reports, the higher the chance they have of winning.

The WBR Challenge is part of the Seattle Department of Transportation’s Way to Go, Seattle! program. It encourages people to walk, bike, ride transit and carpool more by offering incentives, tools and information and runs on a two month cycle. The current cycle is for July and August.

Click here to sign up for the Walk Bike Ride Challenge.

(Disclosure: The Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee is a sponsor of FremontUniverse)

Tonight, the Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee will be convening on Fremont and they’d like to see you there. They’re not up to much, just shaping the future of Seattle’s transportation systems, alternatives and priorities. You know, no biggie…

The 14-member CTAC, which is appointed by the mayor and Seattle City Council, will recommend new funding methods for the city’s transportation system. A public meeting and workshop Tuesday night at 5:30 p.m. at the Fremont Library (731 N. 35th St.) will let you have a hand in how that happens.

Oh, and wear your finest. Mayor Mike McGinn will be in attendance.

For more on the CTAC, visit this site.

Seattle’s Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee wants to hear from the public about their transportation priorities at a series of public meetings. The meeting is next Tuesday, May 24 at the Fremont Library.

In January 2011, Mayor McGinn and the City Council convened a 14-member Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee III (CTAC) to advise them on priorities for maintaining and improving Seattle streets and sidewalks and to evaluate funding options including a potential ballot measure. Input from the community will inform the CTAC’s decisions and recommendations.

The meeting is from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Fremont Library, 731 N. 35th St. Mayor Mike McGinn is scheduled to attend that meeting. The first half-hour is an open house, followed by presentations by CTAC members and Seattle Dept. of Transportation Director Peter Hahn. The final hour will be small group discussions.

If you can’t attend the workshop but still want to participate, you can comment or take an online survey here.

The companies at the Fremont Plaza and Adobe buildings are putting on a transportation fair in the Plaza Building lobby. With the 520 toll starting soon, this event will provide information on transportation alternatives.

The vendors at the event:
· Good to Go 520 Tolling – assist with tolling passes
· Zebigo – enrollment with carpooling option
· Anne Ward-Ryan w/ King County – Vanpooling setup and transportation Q/A
· Zipcar – Assist and set up for Zipcar
· Bike Mechanic – first come first serve (free) FreeRange Bikes, Fremont
· Cascade Bicycle Club

The transportation fair runs until 1 p.m. today.

The Fremont Chamber of Commerce is revisiting a hot topic amongst local residents and businesses: paid parking.

At the Lake Washington Rowing Club (910 N. Northlake Way), on May 19, from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., the new Director of SDOT, Peter Hahn — along with Parking Enforcement officers, parking designers and other City staff — will discuss paid parking in Fremont, which has long had a strong base of opponents, including the Chamber. A short presentation of the status of parking in Fremont today (from the City’s perspective) will be followed with a Q&A.

Breakfast will be provided with the $15 it costs to RSVP (which climbs to $20 without an RSVP), so if you’re interested, please register ahead of time here.

Residents who live near the Aurora Bridge may be in for some sleepless nights as work gets underway to build a fence across the landmark structure.  The work starts Monday, April 19 and will last for one month. 

Two lanes of traffic across the bridge will be closed Sunday through Thursday during construction from 9pm to 5am.   WSDOT tells us the work will be incredibly noisy.  In fact, they’re even offering free industrial strength earplugs for residents who call 206-267-6019. 

The Aurora Bridge has been the scene of countless suicides, and officials hope this new fence will discourage would-be jumpers.  To track this project, you can log on to WSDOT’s special page.

Over the next four months, Seattle City Light crews will be replacing the wooden power poles that line both sides of the Ship Canal with stronger steel poles. They’ll also replace the high voltage lines. Explains City Light:

It will involve a number of trucks and staging of equipment on both the Queen Anne and Fremont sides of the canal, primarily near Warren Ave. N. along Nickerson St. on the Queen Anne side and Phinney Ave. N. by N. 34th on the Fremont side. There will be safety buffer areas beneath the towers during the time workers are overhead, including occasional closures of a portion of the Burke-Gilman Bike Trail.

City Light said the $444,000 project will result in short-term traffic and parking disruptions as well as “very little interruption of electrical power,” and residents will be warned in advance with specific details. We’ll pass them along as we receive them here at Fremont Universe.

SDOT will close the Fremont Bridge on the nights of March 14th and 15th for repair work. “Bridge crews will repair a damaged center lock, the device that keeps the two leaves of the bridge firmly fastened down when it is not opening for marine traffic,” SDOT explains. The bridge will be closed to vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists from 11 p.m. Saturday, March 14, until 5 a.m. Sunday, March 15, in time for the St. Patrick’s Day Dash. During the repair work SDOT will provide shuttle services for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Another morning with snow on the ground. Flakes started falling around 5 a.m., leaving a little less than an inch on the ground.

All Seattle Public Schools will start two hours late today with buses on snow routes. And while there are only a small handful of Metro bus changes as of 7 a.m., one is right here in Fremont: route 5 is currently unable to serve Fremont Av N south of N 46th due to “adverse conditions.”

The Seattle City Council wants to see a network of streetcars, but they haven’t figured out how to pay for the $600 million project.

The Council approved a measure today which will expand the network from the current South Lake Union streetcar and the previously-approved First Hill line to other areas of the city. One of those proposed lines will go from downtown Seattle to Fremont and Ballard. “In these economic times, a potential street car network is exactly the type of public works project we should be considering,” states City Councilmember Tim Burgess. “The line creates another efficient, affordable alternative to driving, which will help position the city to accommodate anticipated population growth and manage its transportation needs.” No money has been committed for this project.

A “pass up” is when a Metro bus is so full, it skips a stop. Or more. Metro drivers reported 640 “pass ups” in May, compared with 443 a year earlier, reports the Times. The busiest? Route 358 up Aurora Ave. N.