Those of us living in the vicinity of 40th St. know that crossing 40th on foot or bike — especially during rush hours — can be challenging. Now, thanks to SDOT’s Neighborhood Street Fund and citizen action by some of our neighbors, improvements are on the way.
Personally, I try to avoid this crossing when headed north on bike because it’s hard to get a quick start on the crossing when you’re headed uphill. If I’m headed to parts west, I can cross at Wallingford Ave. where there’s a traffic light, but if I’m headed east …
Under Washington State Law, motorists are supposed to stop for pedestrians and bicyclists crossing at an intersection whether there is a painted crosswalk or not. However, not all drivers are aware of the law in this case, and even if they are, it can be hard to divine the intentions of a person standing by the side of the road or even to see them on a rainy night.
To address the problem of visibility, orange crossing flags have been placed at intersections throughout Wallingford with 40th St. being especially well covered. We’ve talked about these here on Wallyhood with an initial article in June of 2011 and a follow up a little later. The Wallingford Community Council was responsible for this first round of flags, but a more recent flagging effort has apparently been undertaken by the Hamilton International Middle School Green Team funded in large part by SDOT’s Safe Routes to Schools program. (I tried to contact the Green Team at HIMS, but wasn’t successful.) The Green Team program of the Seattle Public Schools makes funding available for students to do green projects in their communities.
These DIY efforts can only get us so far. Now, actual city dollars will be applied to the problem of crossing 40th by improving the intersection at Bagley Avenue. Details of the project have not been finalized, but SDOT is considering curb ramps at all four corners as well as painted crosswalks, pedestrian lighting, sidewalk repairs and some improvements to nearby bus stops. To save money, the project will be put off until 2019 so it can piggyback on a scheduled repaving of 40th. In the meantime, SDOT will install signed crosswalks across 40th on either side of Bagley as well as a curb bulb on the southwest corner. More information on the project is available here.
The project is funded through the city’s Neighborhood Street Fund using monies that we the voters made available via the 2015 Move Seattle levy. NSF projects are selected from proposals written by citizens like you and me. For the 40th and Bagley Improvements Project, we have neighbors Cathy Tuttle and Jeff Hummel to thank.
Cathy is director of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways (SNG), and she has proposed this idea to SDOT before – each time with a different set of neighbors acting as co-sponsors. This year’s ultimately successful application was co-sponsored by Jeff. Previous applications were turned down by SDOT due to the perception that the amount of foot traffic crossing 40th was too low.
But the need for a better crossing was clear. In Cathy’s words, “A single marked crossing along 40th between Wallingford Ave N and 2nd Ave NE — about a half mile apart — seems like a very small thing that will go a long way towards making 40th a more pleasant place to live and to walk. Surveys by AARP show over 50% of the people interviewed over age 50 said they couldn’t safely cross the main street closest to them. Their fear is justified. Americans are 16 times more likely to be killed crossing the street than by a natural disaster — and the risks are far higher for older people. We all benefit from a more walkable bike-able community. Our health improves dramatically, as does air quality and general quality of life. We need to step back and question how our largest public space, our streets, is being used in our neighborhoods. A change in traffic speed along 40th will make a world of difference to people living on that street and people near that street who use it daily.”
Although her first applications to SDOT were rejected, Cathy counsels persistence for those wishing to apply for NSF funds. “Work within a coalition of local groups — your school, religious organization, social club, business chamber — to amplify your voice.” She invites neighbors interested in revitalizing a “safe streets” organization here in Wallingford to join SNG and contact her.
None of us needs to be told that things are changing rapidly here in Seattle, and our neighborhood is not exempt. Remarks Cathy, “Folks in Wallingford need to start talking and planning now about a safer, more pleasant way to walk to light rail opening in 2021, as well as talk about slowing traffic to survivable speeds on major arterials (Stone, Green Lake Way, 50th, 45th, 40th, Pacific).” Portions of most of these routes are slated for repaving, and your comments could make a difference in determining how those arterials are ultimately configured.
Although the first phase of outreach for the 40th and Bagley project has concluded, the comment period for the repaving work continues until May 7.
Those orange flags are stupid and ineffective. Well used and dangerous intersections need those hand activated flashing lights.
I agree that the flags can feel stupid. But if I can ask a second-grader to use one, there’s no reason I can’t do it as a grown man too. They’re cheap and easy to use.
I strongly prefer in-roadway LED strobes for this application, especially because they highlight the whole crosswalk. It’s very easy to not see pedestrians when there’s a Metro bus stopped at the southeast side of this intersection, and the full-width strobes let drivers on the opposite lane know what’s coming. They even highlight the RCW rule that drivers must stop for crossing pedestrians until they reach the opposite curb.
But while we wait for those to get budget and schedule, I’m going to do as the second-graders do.
I wonder which is cheaper and more effective, the in-roadway strobes, or the eye-level strobes like you see on 48th/Stone? Either way, I’d say they’re both more effective. And regardless, I’m sure it will be an improvement overall, but still…
Studies have shown the rapidly-flashing “eye-level” lights to be more effective than in-road lights, at least according to a traffic engineer I chatted with a little while ago.
Drivers should be looking for people, but they’re lazy, so they don’t, so we have flags. If everyone started using the flags 100% of the time, would drivers get so lazy that they wouldn’t see the flags, either?
I’m ecstatic. This is fantastic news!
A big “thank you!” to Kathy Tuttle for persisting and improving our community.
A big “Thank You!” to Cathy Tuttle for persisting and improving our community.
I wish they would wrap that bulb around the corner onto Bagley. People park too damn close to the corner at that intersection.
Will the improvements include dedicated bike Lanes on 40th and 50th?
No one bikes on 50th so I doubt it would happen there. Then again, I wouldn’t be surprised if SDOT invented a reason to put one there anyway.
No one bikes on 50th because it’s a horrible street for that. I am sure if improvements are made people would change their routes. I don’t think the biking population would grow too much that we need a lot more bike lane structures to serve them. However, true bike lane structures instead of just paints on the ground would help pedestrian safety a lot. Narrower car lanes with more complicated structures next to car lanes would slow down cars. Slowing down 50th traffic would be a good thing for Wallingford residents, just not so good for Ballard residents that’s passing through.
TJ, deliberately slowing down 50th for a bike lane you concede wouldn’t even grow the biking populace would be a disaster for Wallingford residents, not a good thing.
Think about rush hour on 50th, which is one of very few east-west arterials in north Seattle. You take away a GP lane and give it to handful of bikers, you’re going to have bumper-to-bumper backups all the way to Phinney Ridge. Which, of course, will result in more cars idling and polluting the air. Furthermore, you’ll have more drivers getting fed up with it and cutting through residential side streets.
Deliberately slowing down traffic on 50th is a good thing, if we are talking about narrowing lanes and putting in additional structures instead of removing lanes. The slow down wouldn’t make a difference for rush hours when the speed is already low, but it would be significant for other hours. Slowing down the traffic would make crossing much safer. I would be more for expanding the sidewalks instead of adding bike lanes, but bike lanes like Roosevelt ones definitely make it safer for pedestrians.
With all the people moving here who are going to be driving cars, you want to slow down 50th even more? Ostensibly for pedestrian safety? And those cars are now going to avoid the slow down you’ve created on 50th by going onto side streets where pedestrians are used to stepping out into little or no traffic in intersections.
So you want to install expensive bike lanes that no one’s going to bike on, when flashing hand activated pedestrian crossing lights would be way cheaper and more effective as well. Okaaaay. This is a good illustration of why we shouldn’t take bike activists seriously.
SDOT had to know that the Roosevelt bike lane would have been very underutilized. But you justify the expense of an underutilized bike lane by saying it’s good for pedestrians. Is this a stated goal of bike lanes under SDOT guidelines, to DELIBERATELY make traffic even worse than it already is, in the name of pedestrian safety? Tell us again how the war on cars is just a myth.
I don’t think you understood my point. I am talking about features that would naturally force drivers to not drive too fast. Features like that would help pedestrians with no impact to rush hour traffic when it’s already slow. It’s helping situations like early weekend mornings or latter in the evening, when you have some cars obviously going too fast on 50th. Bike lane structures are known to help on that, since they make the drivers more alert due to the visual effect. This is the same with Roosevelt, where the traffic would slow down, but since the lane numbers are the same there is no real impact for rush hours.
And of course there are huge benefits of people having to walk back to feed their meters if they want to park longer. That actually improves the turn rate of parking, therefore increasing the chances for others to park. If you remove that, actually the right measure to get the same parking turn rate would be increasing the price or simply shorten the time limit.
Why do you have to jump to the conclusion that somebody is scheming for somebody else’s money whenever there is a policy you don’t like? I think in these cases the issues are more about you not considering all the nuances and not realizing there are multiple different goals that need to be balanced.
I mostly think these are valid points; however the Roosevelt bike line gets a lot of use. The idea that it doesn’t is flat out wrong.
IO, what time of day do you use Roosevelt? Because I drive it every day during afternoon rush hour, and I can tell you that seeing more than one bike at a time while the lanes are filled with cars is a rare occurrence. I also drive it sometimes in the morning as well.
And just for the record, if I saw tons of bikes on it making use of the space, I’d have no problem with it. But in my experience, I see very few, and to me that makes it a waste of limited space and resources.
Afternoon during rush hour commute traffic would go north.
Bikes used to clog traffic during the morning commute hours on Roosevelt, since some drivers would hesitate to drive anywhere close to bikes.
And bike traffic is never consistent. It’s much more weather-dependent. Wait until dryer months and we can see if the new bike lanes are getting used. Burke-Gilman bike traffic is always very weather-dependent.
While it’s true that afternoon rush hour traffic tends to head out of the city, and therefore north, Roosevelt still tends to be pretty packed in the afternoon.
Protected bike lanes on 50th are in the Bike Master Plan, but are probably a ways off.
a. Ugh, I hope there is never a bike lane on 50th. I would never bike on it – it is much more pleasant to ride on the nice streets north and south of 50th. And I, too, need to get to Ballard sometimes! What it needs is no parking anywhere anytime, maximize the lanes, and install some functional four way traffic lights (like, at Sunnyside/Keystone).
b. The Roosevelt bike lane is a hideous death trap because of all the right turns into parking lots that cross the bike lane – Trader Joe’s is a particularly nasty one. Also, cars use the bike lane as a pick-up/drop-off zone. I was eating at Taste of India and the bike lane was blocked by Amazon Fresh or similar fast-food delivery vehicles most of the time I was there. How is that a protected bike lane?
IMO, cars and bikes shouldn’t share space. Some streets should be dedicated bike streets, closed to cars, and others – like 50th – should be bike-free.
This project is actually a sad little consolation prize. The full history:
– Cathy and I submitted the 40th crossing several times, but SDOT kept killing the project because not enough people were running across 40th to warrant a crosswalk (that’s their crazy standard).
– The WCC and our district council did get a project through to improve pedestrian access where Stoneway crosses the Burke Gilman and then dead ends into the lake. Our district council prioritized that project highest and SDOT approved it for funding and did detailed design work that was very promising.
– SDOT then mysteriously and without notification killed the project, we think because Suzy Burke complained about freight access to the parking lot there being blocked by better sidewalks.
– For the Move Seattle cycle we just had we asked for medians and crossings on Green Lake Way between 50th and Aurora. SDOT killed that project for the same reason they killed the crossings on 40th, because not enough people run across the 5 lane roadway right now. The mayor spoke to dealing with the issue at his find it fix it walk and said he would fix the issue, but nothing has happened since then that I’m aware of (and no email replies from the city on the issue).
– SDOT had to figure out what to do with the leftover funds from the killed pedestrian work at the bottom of Stone and chose to redirect the remaining funds into this little crosswalk at 40th and Bagley since the size was right.
People who manage these projects are typically very utilitarian, and the tendency to lean on existing stats is heavy. Since measures like “how many people are currently using it” are always the easiest numbers to get, those numbers typically got the most consideration.It’s not a bad approach really when resources are limited.
“Nobody is swimming across the river, so we clearly don’t need a bridge, here.”
Yeah, exactly the weakness of relying too much on readily-available numbers. That means money is much more likely to be spending on improving existing solutions that already has measurements, and not on new solutions that might be much better but much harder to have solid data.
Thanks for adding this, Eric. As I was writing this piece, I was asking myself, “So what’s changed to overcome SDOT’s low foot traffic objection?”
Glad to help Jack! We’re really getting shafted hard by the city these days. This sad little crosswalk will be what’s left of 1.5 million dollars that should be coming to Wallingford. The city hasn’t been giving us any funds because of “equity”, which is really just a code word for saying downtown gets to decide. On the flip side, they are giving us an upzone because we happened to have an urban village boundary drawn around us for neighborhood planning 20 years ago. Rob Johnson is supposed to be representing us but doesn’t even come to the community anymore since we oppose HALA upzones. So we are basically unrepresented at the city level.
This is awesome – thank you (again!) Cathy and everyone. My wish list though would be for the flashing lights. They have made such a huge difference on Stone Way. I’m sure there’s probably not much data yet, but the change in driver behavior has to be big. I’m pretty aware, but those lights always give me an extra jolt and help to build to the level of automatic response all driver’s have to red and yellow traffic signals…
The crossing flags at Wallingford and 40th were funded in large part by a grant from SDOT’s Safe Routes to Schools. I can answer any questions about the HIMS Green Team (I’m a past coordinator) or provide an email to the current Green Team coordinator.
Thanks for clarifying this point. I’ve updated the article.
Interesting ideas – I learned a lot from the specifics . Does anyone know where my assistant could get access to a fillable IRS 1099-MISC form to use ?
Irwin’s Bakery and Cafe posted this today on Facebook:
Hello neighbors! We at irwins want to share that our beloved employee
Rio was hit by a car yesterday in front of the shop. she will be ok!
She is currently at Harborview with a broken leg and other bumps and
bruises. We know that our customers love her and would want to know
this. Again, she will be ok. She will probably be off work about 8
weeks. We will keep you posted!