This month at the Wallingford Community Council we meet to talk about the stuff that we supposedly endorsed by electing Mike McGinn. So come join us this Wednesday in room 202 of the Good Shepherd Center to discuss sustainability and road diets!
The featured discussion led by Cathy Tuttle will be about sustainability updates to the Wallingford neighborhood plan. The update is supported by a $20,000 grant from the Department of Neighborhoods. Here is a description of the update from Cathy Tuttle:
What exactly is a Sustainability Plan?
- We won’t rewrite the Wallingford Neighborhood Plan written by the community in 1998. Instead, we’ll address sustainability elements that were not part of the original plan.
- We want our Wallingford Sustainability Plan to reflect our values: Community Values including joy, grace, thrift, happiness, & a desire to leave the world better than we found it; and Sustainability Values that begin with using less fossil fuel, an improved & resilient local economy, and a lower ecological footprint.
- With your help, our plans can lead to immediate action! We can develop local food and energy systems, improve community preparedness and volunteerism, and take action in many other areas that define a resilient and prepared local community.
Sustainable Wallingford social gatherings in the past two years of have led to the formation of many friendships as well as many active groups including Wallingford Community Kitchen, Wallingford Walks, Wallingford Solar Initiative, Climate Action Network of Sustainable Wallingford, Wallingford City Chickens, Transition Movies on 2nd Fridays, Friends of Fruit Trees,Community Preparedness, Growing Food Growing Communities, Spokespeople, and Green Blocks.
Look for more info on our social Ning network, our Facebook site, and Twitter @WallingfordUSA. Come to the Wallingford Community Council Board meeting this Wednesday to learn more, and Contact [email protected] (206) 547-9569 if you’ve got more questions or ideas!
Additionally, we will be discussing a Green Lake Way N Road Diet that was bumped last month (not enough time). The goals of the proposal are to extend bike lanes on Green Lake Way N, improve pedestrian access to Lower Woodland Park, and to improve throughput at the intersection of 50th and Green Lake Way N. Hopefully the change will act to complete the very successful Stoneway N Road Diet.
The feedback from last month’s post was to improve throughput on 50th in particular, as cut throughs on side streets have been increasing. The choke point on 50th is the intersection with Stone Way N and Green Lake Way N, so the best way to improve throughput would likely be to favor West bound cars going through that intersection. There are a few trade offs that could be made towards that goal, such as further restricting parking on 50th between Wallingford Ave N and the intersection, or retiming the light to favor West bound traffic.
Anyhow, that sort of analysis is best left to SDOT, but if we can come to them with clear goals that will be what leads them to use bridging the gap funds in our neighborhood. They favor proposals coming from the neighborhood because it smooths the process for them, as happened with the recent road diet in Greenwood. So if you have further ideas, post them here or come to the meeting!
I would like to see SDOT put in a roundabout at Stone and Greelake Way and 50th. It would probably need to be controlled by traffic lights given how busy it is. This would eliminate waiting at the light while no one is going which seems to happen quite a bit for me.
I’m afraid I can’t support the Green Lake Way N road diet plan as proposed. The intersection at the north end (near the golf course) is not safe if you are trying to turn left onto Green Lake Way . The changes made by SDOT a year or two ago are no real improvement and have made the intersection feel less safe than before. If anywhere needs a roundabout, this intersection is begging for one.
The left turn lane from westbound 50th onto Sunnyside has been backing up considerably for several months now. I think the timing of the light at Stone has changed, because eastbound traffic comes barreling up that hill just as the light turns green, causing the delays. This goes on all day, but obviously gets worse during rush hour times.
I travel that route twice daily, and just this week have started to turn onto side streets to avoid the intersection. No matter what is done further down 50th, I hope that the road engineers take into account its effects on the entire street.
The left turn lane from westbound 50th onto Sunnyside has been backing up considerably for several months now. I think the timing of the light at Stone may have changed, because eastbound traffic comes barreling up that hill just as the 50th/Sunnyside light turns green, causing the delays. This goes on all day, but obviously gets worse during rush hour times.
I travel that route twice daily, and just this week have started to turn onto side streets to avoid the intersection. No matter what is done further down 50th, I hope that the road engineers take into account its effects on the entire street.
NO on roundabout at 50th Greenlake Way and Stone. What a scary horrilbe idea.
How about an overpass?
These are great inputs; thanks, keep them coming. I’ll provide an update after the meeting tonight and some back and forth with SDOT.
Light timing changes are of course easiest to make. Striping is second, followed by tearing up a recently built traffic island. SDOT says the traffic island has not generated accidents, and as they just implemented it they are unlikely to be removing it without the numbers to back up a change. See here for an official response:
http://www.mygreenlake.com/2010/06/woodland-park-intersection/
Traffic on 53rd (and probably all of 51st-54th) between Meridian and Greenlake Way is getting worse because of people cutting off the 50th St/Stone Way/Greenlake Way intersection by going through the neighborhood. And people drive way too fast while doing so. Some of the blocks are very long which seems to make it particularly appealing to speed up. This makes for dangerous streets, especially for kids.
Please take the traffic problem on these NW Wallingford residential streets into consideration when revising plans for Greenlake Way and the big 50th St intersection. Perhaps some signs like “residential neighborhood”, “no thru traffic”, “slow down”, “careful kids” would be helpful as a starter.
Cathy, what is scary and horrible about a roundabout? I find they speed up traffic at intersections considerably as there is no more waiting at the light with no one going.