To connect or not to connect the Burke-Gilman? Judge to decide
SEATTLE -- Joggers and bicyclists call it the missing link -- the gap in the Burke-Gilman Trail in Ballard and Golden Garden Parks.
"I'm constantly looking over my shoulder ready to be hit by a car. It's a risk i take running this path," said Cherie Clausen.
"I feel very unsafe. It's my least favorite part," said Lindsay Lyman.
But the industrial maritime stretch of street, void of trail, still draws droves of bikes.
The Department of Transportation wants to pave a path to connect the trail. But the Ballard businesses in the path of the city's proposed expansion say with hundreds of trucks and low visibility, the trail would be treacherous.
"The probability is somebody get injured or killed," said Warren Aakervik of Ballard Oil Co.
Aakervik says he's been warned by his insurance company that if there's an incident on a recreational facility in the middle of an industrial area, his oil business won't be insured.
"In our business without insurance (we) won't be functioning," Aakervik said.
On Friday attorneys representing a hundred maritime firms went to court against Seattle. They're not opposing a trail in Ballard; they're opposing the location, which they claim could result in the death of bicyclists and businesses.
The city says there are already hundreds of cyclists already riding this route where the expansion is planned, and that businesses here don't have the right to claim this right of way for private purposes.
A judge will make a final decision in two weeks.
"I'm constantly looking over my shoulder ready to be hit by a car. It's a risk i take running this path," said Cherie Clausen.
"I feel very unsafe. It's my least favorite part," said Lindsay Lyman.
But the industrial maritime stretch of street, void of trail, still draws droves of bikes.
The Department of Transportation wants to pave a path to connect the trail. But the Ballard businesses in the path of the city's proposed expansion say with hundreds of trucks and low visibility, the trail would be treacherous.
"The probability is somebody get injured or killed," said Warren Aakervik of Ballard Oil Co.
Aakervik says he's been warned by his insurance company that if there's an incident on a recreational facility in the middle of an industrial area, his oil business won't be insured.
"In our business without insurance (we) won't be functioning," Aakervik said.
On Friday attorneys representing a hundred maritime firms went to court against Seattle. They're not opposing a trail in Ballard; they're opposing the location, which they claim could result in the death of bicyclists and businesses.
The city says there are already hundreds of cyclists already riding this route where the expansion is planned, and that businesses here don't have the right to claim this right of way for private purposes.
A judge will make a final decision in two weeks.