After a decade hiatus, the Seattle Disaster Relief Trials are set to return July 25 with Cal Anderson Park as the start and end point. One of the most unique and fun bike events, the DRT is a simulation of a natural disaster like a major earthquake. Normal communications are knocked out and roads are impassible. Well, the roads are impassible by cars, anyway. That’s where you and your bike come in.
Using your bicycle, you join the effort to deliver medicine, carry fresh water and food, relay messages, and many other tasks. It’s basically a very fun alleycat race with a twist (for example, how prepared are you to navigate the city without relying on your phone for mapping?). You may discover real emergency hubs and meet neighbors who volunteer to stay prepared to help organize relief by operating ham radio communications, organizing resource distribution and directing relief helpers.
Registration is open now. There are categories for cargo bikes, bikes with trailers and bikes without trailers as well as e-bike versions of each. The main ride will be 30–35 miles. There is also a shorter family-friendly circuit. All variations of riders and bikes are welcome and needed. There is a suggested donation of $25, though organizers “encourage all individuals to participate in the DRT, regardless of financial or other barriers.” They are also seeking volunteers to help run the event.
I had a great time doing the DRT a decade ago, and I also learned a lot about what to do if the big one hits. It’s a lot of fun, but practicing a collective response to a disaster could also prove invaluable if (*knocks on wood*) we ever need to do it for real.
Bikes are versatile, nimble and can get through road blockages that cars and trucks cannot. We have seen many anecdotal stories of bicycles being used in disaster relief. In a famous example last year, a guy with an e-bike played an outsized role getting resources to people in his community who were stranded and in need of help during major flooding. A bridge was damaged and rendered impassible by cars, but he could get through on his bike. He hacked off the top of his dog trailer and made 100 trips a day carrying fresh water, food and other supplies like chainsaws needed to help clear roads. Cell service was so spotty that he sometimes was able to reach medics faster than a phone.
His story is one of many about people using bikes to help in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, but there has been limited research to formally study the potential for bike use. Seattle DRT 2026 organizer Katherine Idziorek is part of a team of researchers who have received a National Science Foundation research grant to study the Seattle DRT event to gather real world data on “bicycle resilience in disasters.” This research could lead to efforts in the future to formalize bicycle use as a part of disaster preparedness in communities across the nation. Riders can opt in to tracking their rides using GPS to give researchers real data on movement capabilities with different bikes on different terrain and carrying different loads. The researchers have already simulated scenarios like these, but you can help verify or correct their models. Riding in the DRT is perhaps the most fun a person can have while verifying scientific data.