As part of the work I do with an area ‘non-motorized transportation’ group, I took part in a pedestrian count along Monroe Street yesterday afternoon. We had done a walking audit of the street the day before from the north end of the Monroe Street Bridge up to Boone Street and noticed that bike and pedestrian facilities are seriously lacking, so we were surprised to see a large amount of people walking and bicycling on that stretch of road. Granted, there were only one or two bicyclists who actually rode in the street. It’s illegal in downtown Spokane and on that stretch of Monroe to ride on the sidewalk, but that’s what most people were doing.
There was also a large amount of pedestrians who crossed the road mid-block instead of going to an intersection with a crosswalk. There is a pretty long stretch without any crosswalks though so it’s not really surprising.
We saw one kid on a bike make a death-defying weave through traffic to get across the road and another group that included two roller bladers, a dog and a person on a recumbent bike all trying to get across the street at the same time. Awesome! We got video of it but I don’t have it yet. I’ll post it when I get it.