Here is the last of 5 projects submitted for the Neighborhood Project and Street Fund. Your feedback is welcome and helpful as the Wallingford Community Council and other groups decide which projects to endorse. Tomorrow I plan to set up a vote to further help determine preferences.
This proposal is from Desiree. Desiree is writing as a parent and lifelong caretaker of a child who was seriously injured crossing Stone Way North:
Stone Way North is one of Seattle’s most difficult streets to cross if you are child walking to school or an elderly person walking to the bus. Despite repeated efforts by SDOT to make Stone Way North a more usable street, it is still a place with frequent car collisions and serious injury incidents with people who walk and bike. More people than ever are walking, driving, and biking on Stone Way North as new office and residential buildings are added. Now is the time to increase more safe crossing options.
Drivers of cars, buses, and delivery vehicles have a difficult time seeing people waiting to cross Stone Way North, particularly when it is dark. School children often walk to and from school in the dark in the winter, and it is to increase our children’s safety that this application is most dedicated. Stone Way North and North 43rd Street are used by children going to B.F. Day Elementary in Fremont, Hamilton Middle School in Wallingford, and Lincoln High School used as an interim school. There are also a number of residential and service facilities for people with disabilities and senior housing along Stone Way North. This project increases their mobility options.
People who drive need to be able to know when there is a person waiting to cross busy Stone Way North. The intersection at North 43rd Street is a greenway connection that already has traffic islands, pedestrian signs, and other control devices intended to protect people when they walk and bike across this street. What this crossing could use to help let drivers know there are people waiting to walk and bike across the street is a Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon (RRFB).
N 43rd Street and Stone Way North is about midway between signalized crossings at N 40th Street and N 45th Street. An RRFB would let people walking and biking push a button that would trigger flashing lights to alert people driving cars know there are people waiting to cross. I also would like to add an additional safety island at the N 43rd Street and Stone Way North crossing if there are sufficient funds.
I support this because it will help children who want to walk to school.
Walking to school has many benefits for children and adults. Children are shown to be more alert and able to learn after walking to school. Walking provides daily exercise. Walking helps children learn life skills because the autonomy and responsibility they experience. This doesn’t exist if they are taken to school in a car or bus. Walking also makes children more aware of their neighborhood, creating a sense of community which may result in less anti-social behavior.
The benefits are not just for the children. When children get themselves to school parents are freed from the time and expense of taking them to school. Car journeys are reduces freeing road capacity for others who need to travel them. Parents may be able to go from a two car family to one car, freeing parking spaces.
Having children travel on sidewalks and crosswalks with other commuters reduces the segregation of children and adults. This helps reduce the stress and increase compassion among adults.
Lastly, walking is good for the environment. We could do a lot to reduce CO2 by reversing the trend to have more children driven to school. Reducing other car pollutants in our neighborhood may also help reverse the increase in asthma among our children.
I also support this proposal, for all pedestrians crossing Stone Way N. at 43rd. I both drive and walk through that area occasionally, although I try to avoid it because there is a lot of visual stimuli along Stone. I’m hopeful that the RRFB will rise to the top of what drivers pay attention to visually. I frequently do not see a pedestrian waiting to cross north of 40th until I’m very close to some corners, and the RRFB will serve as an alert that someone intends to cross. As a parent of two small children I’m also keenly aware of how smaller children are even more difficult to see, and since they are shorter it is hard for them to see if cars are approaching when they have to look over parked cars and trucks.
Safer crossing for predestrians is always a good idea in my book.
My daughter crosses Stone Way every day to get to Hamilton Middle School. While it is true that 90% of cars do not see a pedestrian waiting to cross she knows not to cross until the cars have come to a stop. I’m sure that installing the RRFB would cause the cars to stop sooner which would reduce time waiting and frustration, however I’m skeptical that it would improve safety. There is no replacement for common sense and there is no limit to the stupidity of people behind the wheel. Better to spend the money elsewhere, e.g. traffic islands to discourage drivers cutting through neighborhood roads.
SAFETY will only be achieved when we separate the cars (and bikes) from the pedestrians. We need an overpass.
Although an OVERPASS is the safest way across Stone Way, an overpass needs space at each end for access. Ideally it needs to be usable by those who are disabled. Is there room for this?
My son and his wife were hit crossing Stoneway at 41st before they made the improvements to the crossing that have already happened. My son suffered a very severe head trauma but is almost completely recovered. I’m so glad to see these improvements get done. I see the kids walking across Stoneway without even looking just as kids will. It’s so important to protect them and all of us as we walk across theirs ever busier street.
These are all worthy ideas, but one huge problem which I haven’t seen addressed is
the need for a crosswalk/blinking light at Meridian and 34th/N Pacific. Meridian is the
MAIN cross street to Gasworks Park and the westbound curve is often obstructed by that annoying sunshine. I have seen many near misses on my ~30 year treks to the
park. Please add this critical issue to the mix. Many thanks!
While I think pedestrian beg buttons can be an effective band aid, they’re nowhere near as effective as actual traffic enforcement. SPD last did a sting operation on Stone Way in 2011 for one day. I think they might have done a sting operation in 2007-8 but it’s been a long time so my memory is hazy. Where have they been in the intervening years?
As scary as 43rd & Stone can be, though, there are sources of amusement. I love walking out into the crosswalk, watching a driver try to swerve into the turn lane, and suddenly realize there’s an island.
I like the idea about the blinky light. That’s my crossing intersection too, and many times cars do see me, but don’t stop anyway. The light will make it harder for them to pretend they don’t see a person waiting.
I am dubious about the additional island mentioned. There are already two in the left hand turn lanes, and it makes turning left onto 43rd awkward, but at least we can still turn left. Because of the one-way streets around Lincoln, being able to turn left specifically on 43rd is important for those living there. So I vote no for additional islands there.
@Yani “That’s my crossing intersection too, and many times cars do see me, but don’t stop anyway”
Over the years it seems like more and more cars don’t stop unless you take a step into the street. I remember once upon a time, a driver would see you waiting and actually stop. Nowsdays it seems like 1 out of 5 cars (or less) will actually stop. Too many people in a hurry with a “me” mentality.
@Skylar, there have been stings since 2011. And studies as well. I frequently cross Stone Way at 40th & 41st for the most part, and at 41st I used to like counting all the cars that would get tickets if cops were around. The blinky lights at 41st have definitely helped, and it’s a harder intersection than 43rd. I think blinky lights at 43rd would be excellent.
@GCP,
That’s news to me – I live a couple blocks from Stone Way, and can’t remember the last time I even saw a patrol car on Stone, let alone an officer stopping someone.
In any event, I don’t think anything less than continual enforcement will change people’s behavior.
The cross walk improvements will be more effective when there is enforcement. Does anyone know if there is technology for cross walk camera enforcement? The vehicles that continue through the intersection after the beacon is activated should get a ticket. Revenue raised from fines could be applied to more cross walk improvements.
I imagine that one could use red-light cameras for enforcement, but it would be trickier since AFAIK it isn’t illegal to proceed through the crosswalk if the beacons are flashing, but only if a pedestrian is in a lane adjacent to the lane the driver is in. The beacons are only there to get the driver’s attention.
I like the idea of a blinky light at 43rd.
This intersection should have a traffic light, I am happy to make my case as I overlook this intersection from my corner Noble apartment.
I can easily count 5-10 times a day (and I’m not even home all day) where accidents almost happen to both people crossing Stone Way via car, bike, or foot.
Add in the fact that the bus stop on 43rd causes the bus to ignore normal right of ways when stopping and you’ve got a heap of problems. There was just an accident yesterday morning where a yellow car t-boned a silver Honda who was turning left onto Stone Way from 43rd. I’ve seen a few cases where people have literally jumped out of the way of the bus or cars.
Why was my comment censored out? Is this seriously the kind of blog this is?
sorry… nevermind ignore that last comment