[Editor’s note: As we wrote back in May of last year, improvements are coming to 40th Street courtesy of SDOT’s Neighborhood Street Fund. Now, interested reader Kit Lewis writes to tell us that we can expect some additional changes to the signage relating to the school zone.]
Have you ever driven westbound on NE 40th St, between the University Bridge and Wallingford Ave N, during School Zone hours? Have you ever wondered why there’s no “End of School Zone” sign on westbound NE 40th St after you pass the School Zone sign with the flashing yellow lights? I drive that route often, and have always been frustrated by the lack of a sign that would tell me when I could accelerate from that 20 mph School Zone crawl to the usual 30 mph.
So I wrote a letter (email, actually) to Ms. Ashley Rhead, the Seattle Transportation Department’s Safe Routes to School Manager. She replied the very day she returned from her winter vacation, and her info was wonderfully detailed and specific.
Short story: there will be an “End of School Zone” sign installed this spring on westbound NE 40th St at 1st Ave NE.
Longer story: the Safe Routes to School Department is studying its signage citywide, and is enacting its plan to bring all School Zone signage into compliance with its updated policies. Wallingford is on that list, and NE 40th St westbound will be updated this spring. That’s where companies like Titans of Print come in.
Longest story: Ms. Rhead gave me permission to share the detailed info in her email reply:
The signs for this school zone were installed many years ago under a different policy than we have now. Previously, we would install either a speed limit sign or an end school zone sign to signify the end of the school zone. There is a 30mph speed limit sign installed at the northeast corner of 1st Ave NE and NE 40th St. Under current policy, there should be an end school zone sign installed here as well.
We are currently reviewing all the school zones in the city to bring them into compliance with the current policy. In fact, this school zone is currently under review! I just spoke with the staff who are working on this, and they let me know that the school zone signs will be updated later this spring.
FYI speed limits have been mostly reduced from 30 MPH to to 25 & 20 MPH:
Seattle transportation workers spent Sunday installing 145 signs announcing the new 25-mph arterial speed limit in the central city — an attempt to reduce traffic injuries and deaths….The residential speed limit of 25 mph falls to 20 mph throughout the city, including hundreds of unmarked roadways — in many cases, too narrow for drivers to safely exceed 20 anyway….The default speed limit of 30 mph for arterials drops to 25 mph citywide, “unless otherwise posted,” according to new signs at entrances to the city.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/slow-down-seattle-speed-limits-drop-but-officials-allow-grace-period-before-fines/
N. 40th is posted at 30 mph so the lower speed limit does not apply.
Really? That’s crazy. WCC ought to lobby to get that down to 25.
Making a few blocks on 40th safe for children is wrong. All of 40th should be designed to be safe for children to walk along and cross.
Obviously all crossings should be made safe for everybody to cross, but if you put the sign all along the street it’d lose its effectiveness.
And we should seek the right balance for pedestrian and vehicle traffic anyway. 40th is already one of the very few east-west options for vehicles today, and more limitations would make the car traffic worse. All along 40th are low density areas with limited pedestrian traffic. If anything, having crossings safer on 45th would trump making crossing safer on 40th and through traffic should be guided more toward 40th and 50th as is than 45th. What’s essentially are for crossings near schools and parks to be safe, which means those close to John Stanford and Hamilton and not much else. Kids walking to John Stanford don’t need the ability to cross at any crossing they like. They can all safely cross where the crossing guard is stationed near the school.
We can have safe streets and car travel. We could design 40th to have slower more attentive drivers with little or no impact on journey times. Waiting is what makes for longer journey times, not slower speeds or having to pay attention. We should make 40th and 45th and 50th all safe enough that a 10 year old can walk to school and also walk to visit their friend regardless of which block they live on.
One person’s low density is another person’s street they have to cross to get to the bus stop or to get home.