On 2003-07-25 at 17:23:04 PST Claire Petersky
) wrote:

The prospect of this level of negative emotional energy that I am
going to provoke is scary for me.

the answer is easy: seek strength in numbers. organize NOW to
turn out riders from all over the seattle area at the hearing(s).
get the cascade bike clubs advocacy folks working with you to
turn out as many riders as possible.

recruit other cyclists who ride the route to carry flyers with
them and hand them out to all the other cyclists.

finally, do some advance legwork to find out how the city council
and county council members involved stand on the issue. if
necessary, find cyclists close to them (in business, as
acquaintances, or politically) to speak to them personally.

if you can determine the undecided council members, make sure
they get a LOT of mail on the topic (in my past organizing
efforts around community planning issues, i've found that
check-the-box pre-addressed postcards work VERY well, and they
are easy to hand out).

now that you've heard all the bogus arguments, prepare logical
statements to counter the emotional arguments. talk about
fairness. talk about the fact that there's no way to eliminate
the road, so it should be fixed to be safe.