Washington State Get’s it’s First Bike Playground

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When Cascade Bicycle Club in King County, Washington (9.5% Latino), found out about a grant opportunity in early 2015, they jumped at the chance to build their youth and family-oriented programming.

Cascade Bicycle Club’s mission is to improve lives through bicycling. Physical activity, like bicycling, is critical to improve overall health and wellbeing for Latino and all kids.

Read and watch a Salud Hero story about an elementary school that teaches kids bike safety thanks in part to Cascade Bicycle Club.

Partnering with King County Parks for the King County’s Youth Sports Facility Grant for $75,000, the Cascade Bicycle Club discussed ideas and locations for kids and adults to practice and learn bike safety. An urban designer suggested a traffic garden after seeing one in Copenhagen and parks staff helped select two unused tennis courts at Dick Thurnau Park that could be renovated into a traffic garden.

The bike club started by envisioning as many traffic garden scenarios as possible, like stop signs, roundabouts, and intersections, and they built a small test traffic garden outside their headquarters before creating the larger White Center Bike Playground, which cost just under $95,000. Private donations made up the difference from the grant, according to one source.

White Center Bike Playground at Dick Thurnau Park opened in October, 2016 with a mini streetscape, including stop signs, crosswalks, roundabouts, multi-lane roads, a one-way road system, and turn lanes.

Read and watch a Salud Hero story about an initiative that transforms unused tennis and basketball courts into futsal courts.