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BMX riders rile skaters at Lower Woodland Skatepark

What do you think? (9 Comments) January 23, 2010 at 6:21PM

We knew that the skaters at Lower Woodland Skatepark irritate some neighbors, but we had no idea that some of the skaters themselves are irked by another group: BMX bike riders.

All one has to do is go to Lower Woodland skatepark on a day when there are 10 BMX riders disobeying the “no bikes” rule. What they will see is younger and less experienced skaters leaving the park immediately, and the more experienced skaters shifting over to the one advanced bowl that the bikers seem to not want to use. The skateboarders of Seattle fought hard for four years to get that park built, only to then be displaced by 10 BMX riders who were not around during the tough times of getting over the political and bureaucratic hurdles in order to make that skatepark a reality.

To make things worse, when the park is full of skaters and the bikers show up making things sketchy for skaters, they don’t respond well to being asked to respect the rules and leave. In fact, they’ve been real dicks about it on almost every occasion.

This is not to say that I haven’t skated at Lower Woodland and at other skateparks harmoniously with bikers. It works well when the bikers are aware of the issues, respectful of everyone else in the park, and have enough common sense to stop riding if it gets too crowded and they become a safety threat to the other users of the park. Unfortunately these riders are the minority in Seattle skateparks.

[Seattle Skateparks]


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What do you think? (9 Comments)
  • anonymous

    Aren't there already great jumps and trails for the BMX riders to use? Why are they using the skate park? It's not called a BMX park. Sheesh.

  • Kris Fuller

    Thanks for linking to the Seattle Skateparks site and for trying to raise awareness on this. We do get along. It's not that trivial. There simply isn't enough square footage there to support mixed use without creating a hazard for younger and less-experienced skaters. I understand why the skatepark is more alluring than the dirt jumps, and I don't mind sharing the park with respectful bikers who know when it's time to chill because it's too crowded. But unfortunately there's a pack mentality thing happening where the bikes take over the park and drive the intended user group out.
    .
    The sad thing is that it's going to take someone getting badly hurt to drive this issue forward. Most likely a small kid who is just learning. The Parks Department really needs to talk to the police about enforcing their own rules and making the park safe for everyone by not allowing bikes until there are enough skateparks for all the users, or *gasp* BMXers get their own parks.

  • Pacific moderate

    I feel the same way about the mountain bikers in the skatepark as I do about the pedestrians that insist on blocking the bike/skate lane around Green Lake. C'mon guys, let's all stick to our designated lanes/areas so everyone can have a great weekend.

  • anonymous

    I am a 33 year old father that rides a 26″ mtn bike on the dirt jumps next to the park and on occasion have ridden in the skatepark. I am also a bike commuter. I have ridden a BMX bike for 20 or so years and this issue never seems to go away.

    Lets all be realistic…excluding users from an appealing venue is never going to work. That is like saying that bicyclists are not allowed to ride on roads because they don't pay gas tax or that the roads were not made for them. Also, getting the police to kick BMX kids out of the skatepark hardly seems like a valuable use of a $75,000 employee that could be helping solve car theft or shootings.

    From what I understand the main reason for “no BMX bikes” has to do with Grindline (the park builder) complaining about damage/warranty issues and has little to do with safety. It seems to me that a crowded park is equally dangerous no matter if they are bikes or skaters. I agree that is is ridicules that the city of Seattle with a population of 500,000 has 2.1 (Ballard is .1 since it is a single user bowl) skateparks that equal the average small town of 50,000 in the rest of the country. There should be no less than 10 skateparks in this city. It is also amazing that they spent so much $ on the last 2 parks with no lights or roof in a city where it rains for 6 months of the year. I will mention that the new BMX style of no brakes is idiotic.

    I have ridden at countless parks around the country with both users sharing. The bowls at Woodland park are single user areas anyway and it does not matter what you are riding (mtn bike, BMX, razor scooter, rollerblades, or skateboards). Take a look at any of the X games stuff out there and you see that BMX also belongs in skateparks. 90% of the top riders spend a large amount of time in skateparks (probably in CA). Most of the rest of the country mixes bikes/skateboarding in their parks or they have certain hours for users.

    The problem is crowding and singling out the minority (BMX users) is a convenient way to to cut down on the users….

  • anonymous

    I am a 33 year old father that rides a 26″ mtn bike on the dirt jumps next to the park and on occasion have ridden in the skatepark. I am also a bike commuter. I have ridden a BMX bike for 20 or so years and this issue never seems to go away.

    Lets all be realistic…excluding users from an appealing venue is never going to work. That is like saying that bicyclists are not allowed to ride on roads because they don't pay gas tax or that the roads were not made for them. Also, getting the police to kick BMX kids out of the skatepark hardly seems like a valuable use of a $75,000 employee that could be helping solve car theft or shootings.

    From what I understand the main reason for “no BMX bikes” has to do with Grindline (the park builder) complaining about damage/warranty issues and has little to do with safety. It seems to me that a crowded park is equally dangerous no matter if they are bikes or skaters. I agree that is is ridicules that the city of Seattle with a population of 500,000 has 2.1 (Ballard is .1 since it is a single user bowl) skateparks that equal the average small town of 50,000 in the rest of the country. There should be no less than 10 skateparks in this city. It is also amazing that they spent so much $ on the last 2 parks with no lights or roof in a city where it rains for 6 months of the year. I will mention that the new BMX style of no brakes is idiotic.

    I have ridden at countless parks around the country with both users sharing. The bowls at Woodland park are single user areas anyway and it does not matter what you are riding (mtn bike, BMX, razor scooter, rollerblades, or skateboards). Take a look at any of the X games stuff out there and you see that BMX also belongs in skateparks. 90% of the top riders spend a large amount of time in skateparks (probably in CA). Most of the rest of the country mixes bikes/skateboarding in their parks or they have certain hours for users.

    The problem is crowding and singling out the minority (BMX users) is a convenient way to to cut down on the users….