Interviewee: Mike McGinn
Occupation: Mayor of Seattle
Riding style: Commuting
His ride: a new Raleigh Detour Deluxe

At 7 a.m. on Monday morning, I met up with Mayor Mike McGinn at his Greenwood home to bike with him to work. He was kind enough to let me question him during his 45-minute commute to City Hall.

The morning was clear and the weather was mild - perfect biking weather.

As the mayor went into his garage to pull out his bike I was eager to see what he would be riding after his wife's bike got stolen two weeks ago and he had donated his beloved Trek 700 to Bikeworks earlier in the year.

McGinn is now commuting on a new Raleigh Detour Deluxe he bought at Recycled Cycles in the University District.

“This is the first new bike I have bought since I was 16,” he said. “It’s a nice, affordable commuter."

McGinn said he may be investing in a few more bikes as he learned the hard way that it's always good to have a backup.

Not to make him late for work, we bundled up, posed for a quick picture and off we went.

As we doubled up on Phinney Avenue, which has a nice flat and wide lane, I asked him if he felt biking in Seattle is safe.

"No, not for everyone" he said without hesitation. "But we have made a lot of progress."

McGinn said safety becomes a problem when sharing the road and there's only so much right of way. As part of the Transit Master Plan, slated to be finished this summer, the city is working to figure out which corridor to use best for which modes of transportation.

Half of the dialogue at City Hall is about transportation, McGinn said, and improving the city's walkability and bikeability is a big part of that.

"Interestingly, the use of cars has actually gone down in the last ten years," McGinn said. "Even before the price of oil went up. But still many people make the argument that without a car they couldn't do their job. And for many that's a valid argument. So much of our society depends on whether you drive a car and can afford to fill it up."

McGinn explained that as a city, we spend a lot of money bringing in vehicles and oil from the outside instead of focusing on redesigning our neigborhoods away from car reliance by putting stores in every neighborhood and bringing people out on the streets.

"What if we spend all that money locally? We like seeing people out on the streets. Some of our best neighborhoods have a lot of people out on the streets and spending money locally instead of driving out," McGinn said.

McGinn has been looking to Portland for inspiration on how to get the most use out of Seattle streets. He was part of a delegation that went to Portland last week to take a close look at their transit system.

"There's a lot we can learn from Portland's transit vision as we continue to develop Seattle’s own rail and transit networks," McGinn said. "But it's going to take time."

Of course we couldn't talk about transportation without touching on the tunnel. As promised, he vetoed the plans to build the deep bore tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct last month but the city council was quick to override his veto.

"They picked the most expensive and most risky option for the tunnel," he said.

"They use public safety as a pro-tunnel argument but they chose the option that leaves the elevated viaduct up for the longest period of time. If they really cared about public safety, they would have joined me to put the seawall on the ballot."

I asked him if a bridge, like the patented design by Burien resident Roger Patten would be a solution and McGinn said that while a few bridge designs were proposed, none of them were given serious consideration.

"To move the traffic from the viaduct, I believe we need to put money into transit and improve our surface streets and make some improvements to I-5," he said.

McGinn expressed a wish to have the public have a say on the matter by putting the deep bore tunnel up for a vote.

"They don't want a public vote because the majority of people aren't going to want a tolled tunnel. When it's going to cost you five to ten bucks to get through downtown, people are going to find other streets like this one," he said as we were cruising along Dexter Avenue.

Indeed, while the entrance to the tunnel was bustling, there was no congestion whatsoever on Dexter Avenue, even less so a few blocks later coming up to 4th Street.

McGinn's lastest push to solve transit problems seems to be rail.

"It was striking how many streets had rails in Portland. And they do a really good job in moving people and making complete use of streets," McGinn said.

"We couldn't accommodate all cars if we tried. There just isn't enough room. We need to learn how to make the most complete use of our streets and move the most people by incorporating rail, cars, bikes and pedestrians. It won't be perfect, but efficient."

For a final and personal question, I asked about his career and if he'll want to continue in politics as his term runs out. The passion is still there, McGinn said.

"This position has been a gift," McGinn said.

"It's hard work and the people can give and take away my position if they decide I'm not serving them properly. I feel grateful to serve them and when it comes time to consider running again, I will have to evaluate the public's opinion and my own."

The Riding Reporter is a new series in which BNT's bike-riding reporter, Anne-Marije Rook takes interviewees on a short bike ride around town to talk bicycles, transit, and any other issues that may arise when seeing the city from a two-wheeled point of view.