Tom is the co-leader of Green Lake & Wallingford Safe Streets. He lives at the intersection at the south end of Green Lake Park.
Anyone who has visited Green Lake has gone through a crappy intersection. Whether you’re driving, biking, or walking, there are plenty to choose from: the 5-way cluster at 50th Street and Stone Way; the crazy Pitch & Putt intersection at the south end of the lake; or the indecisive four-way stop at Ravenna Blvd.
The City has plans to repave each of these gnarly intersections next year — and many of the major streets in Wallingford and Green Lake. Except for the Pitch & Putt intersection, however, they won’t be making significant changes to these other bad intersections. We believe this is a missed opportunity.
In anticipation of the 2019 project, a group of caring neighbors formed the Green Lake & Wallingford Safe Streets group, a member organization of the Seattle Neighborhood Greenways coalition with more than 350 supporters. Overall, we think the City’s plan to re-pave and re-design four major arterials in our neighborhood is good. But we believe the designs can go even further to implement Vision Zero and the Bicycle Master Plan, provide safe routes to parks and schools, and create a park and trail-like experience that’s just as much a neighborhood asset as the parks themselves.
Thousands of people walk, stroll, run, bike, swim, and row in Green Lake and Woodland Park every day of the week. Getting to and through our parks should be just as safe, comfortable, and wonderful as our parks themselves. As planned, new traffic signals at the north end of the lake (by Duke’s Chowder House) and at the south end of the lake (at the Pitch & Putt) will help move traffic better and create safer crossings for people walking and biking. But a brand-new stoplight at 52nd Street will cause more harm than good. More importantly, this re-paving project is a great opportunity to make the 50th Street intersection safer and simpler.
Here are our two major priorities:
- Square-up the intersection at Ravenna Boulevard; and
- Extend the two-way protected bike lane to N 50th St and create a protected phase for people biking southbound.
If you like what you see, join us in support by signing our petition. You can also see our proposals in greater detail on our website.
Priority A: Extend the two-way protected bike lane to N 50th St
The intersection of Green Lake Way N, Stone Way N, and N 50th Street is considered one of the worst in the city for people walking, biking and driving, which is especially bad considering the Woodland Park Lower Playfields are heavily used and Interlake Child Care and Seattle Waldorf School are both directly adjacent.
From drivers’ standpoint, SDOT considers the intersection to have a “Level of Service F” – failing. Although SDOT doesn’t grade intersection experiences for people not in cars, this intersection is also failing people walking and biking. From a pedestrian standpoint, it takes two entire traffic signal cycles to simply cross the streets from the northwest corner at Woodland Park to the southern corner with Kidd Valley Burgers. For people biking, the intersection is incredibly wide and the bike lanes are squeezed between motor vehicle turn lanes, creating risky maneuvers to get properly positioned at the intersection. So it’s easy to see why the intersection was voted the worst in Seattle in 2016.
Unfortunately, the City currently plans to make no improvements to the intersection except to sync the traffic light with the new traffic lights at the N 52nd St and Pitch & Putt intersections.
We believe a minor adjustment to the signal timing at the N 50th St intersection can unlock major improvements. Unlike all other vehicle lanes at the intersection, the right-hand turn lane on Green Lake Way going southwest-bound (in the direction of Aurora) has two green phases:
- When the vehicles on Green Lake Way eastbound and northbound (coming from Aurora Avenue) have a green phase; and
- When the vehicles on Stone Way northbound (going towards Green Lake) have a green phase.
Our proposal would eliminate the second green phase.
Eliminating the second green phase for the right-turning lane should not impact traffic flow very much, and would enable the extension of the two-way protected bike lane from N 52nd Street to N 50th Street and the creation of a protected crossing for people biking and walking. People walking would also be able to cross in a single light cycle from the northwest corner at Woodland Park to the Kidd Valley block.
The light signal change also enables the two-way protected bike lane to be routed along the western edge of the Woodland Park Lower Playfields Parking Lot, which would eliminate three driveway crossings for the protected bike lane. And it enables the creation of a two-way protected bike lane on N 50th St from Fremont Ave N to Green Lake Park.
For people biking northbound from Stone Way towards Green Lake Park, they would cross similarly to what SDOT currently has planned for N 52nd Street: they would make a two-stage turn to get into the two-way protected bike lane, taking advantage of the intersection’s counter-clockwise green phasing to cross at the very next cycle.
Benefits:
- Enables the extension and addition of new two-way protected bike lanes;
- Significantly improves pedestrian experience;
- Possibly shortens crossing distances;
- Eliminates the need for a new traffic signal at N 52nd St, saving between $500,000 and $1,000,000; and
- Enables the retention and addition of motor vehicle parking adjacent to the homes along Green Lake Way between N 50th St and N 52nd St.
What’s also possible with Priority A
Rather than putting the two-way protected bike lane on Green Lake Way from the Pitch & Putt intersection to N 52nd St, we strongly support putting the two-way protected bike lane on the western edge of the Woodland Park Lower Playfields Parking Lot.
Located on the western edge of the parking lot, the two-way protected bike lane would not cross three driveways, could be as wide as 14 feet with a larger buffer, and would create an exceptional trail-like experience through Woodland Park and to Green Lake Park. In concept, it would be similar to the Westlake CycleTrack, but with less pedestrian traffic. By changing the parking lot’s eastern-side vehicle parking from diagonal to perpendicular parking (which is more space efficient), and adding new parking along Green Lake Way, there would be no net loss of vehicle parking.
The 2014 Bicycle Master Plan calls for protected bike lanes on N 50th Street from Phinney Ave N to Green Lake Way N. Because the City does not plan to change the traffic signalization at the N 50th Street intersection, they also do not plan to build the Bike Master Plan’s prioritized protected bike lanes for N 50th Street. We believe this is a missed opportunity. With the minor traffic signal change we’re proposing, the City can build the protected bike lane.
N 50th Street is exceptionally uncomfortable for people to bike downhill from Fremont Ave N to Green Lake Way. First, it has narrow bike lanes directly up against a large concrete retaining wall as N 50th Street goes under Aurora Avenue. At Whitman Ave N, the bike lane has a blind intersection as drivers from the right come down the hill from Aurora Avenue. Then, there’s the door zone bike lane from Whitman Ave N to Stone Ave N and, finally, between Stone Ave N and Green Lake Way, people biking must merge across a motor vehicle lane to get into a suicide bike lane at the intersection in order to make a left-hand turn to head north on Green Lake Way towards Green Lake Park. It’s dangerous.
With a new protected crossing at the intersection of Green Lake Way and Stone Way and the extension of a two-way protected bike lane on Green Lake Way to N 50th Street, there’s no longer any reason for the current bike lane configuration on N 50th Street. Instead, there could be a two-way protected bike lane on N 50th Street from Fremont Ave N to Green Lake Way on the north side of the street, along Woodland Park. Much of it would be ten feet wide with a three-foot buffer. As N 50th Street goes underneath Aurora from Fremont Ave N to Whitman Ave N, the roadway is more constrained and therefore the protected bike lane would be narrower and would need to be raised to sidewalk level.
The new two-way protected bike lane on N 50th Street would have just have just one significant driveway crossing, no doorzones, no blind intersections, and no merges across motor vehicle lanes. It would also seamlessly merge into the two-way protected bike lane on Green Lake Way, which would be ideally routed through the western edge of the Woodland Park Lower Playfields Parking Lot.
Priority B: Square-up the intersection at Ravenna Boulevard
The intersection of East Green Lake Drive, NE 71st Street, NE Ravenna Blvd, and East Green Lake Way, near the Starbucks is exceptionally wide, creating confusion by people driving and biking as to who has the right-of-way and requiring unnecessarily long crossings for people walking.
The intersection also acts as the main entrance into Green Lake Park with the most foot traffic into the park. In addition, El Escuelita Bilingual School, Billings Middle School, and the Green Lake Preschool in the Green Lake Community Center are all near this intersection.
The City’s 30% design would add a two-way protected bike lane around the park, eliminate two motor vehicle right-hand turn lanes (on East Green Lake Way and NE 71st Street), and create new, relatively small, concrete curb bulbs. The City’s 60% design shows the city will also add crossbikes next to all crosswalks. These are good improvements over the current conditions.
We believe the intersection should be “squared-up” even more than the City’s current design, making the turning motion from East Green Lake Drive to East Green Lake Way more of a true right-hand turn, and aligning as straight-through streets East Green Lake Way with NE 71st Street and East Green Lake Way with Ravenna Boulevard. This can be achieved by extending the planned new curb bulbs and adding a concrete island at the end of Ravenna Boulevard. In addition, clearly marking the two-way protected bike lane and crossbike to and from Ravenna Boulevard will help drivers and pedestrians know where to expect bicyclists.
Benefits:
- Reduces confusion by drivers and others as to who has the right-of-way (whose turn it is to cross the intersection);
- Shortens crossing distances for people walking, biking, and driving;
- Creates more waiting space for pedestrians;
- Creates a larger entrance into Green Lake Park;
- Reduces conflicts between people biking and people walking and driving by clearly marking the protected bike lane and crossbike; and
- Provides placemaking opportunity for planters, a bench, or art within enlarged curb bulb adjacent to park.
Does our proposal excite you? Read more about our recommendations on our website and sign our petition.
GREAT ARTICLE pointing out the general lack of in-depth planning by SDot. You have shown-up their project planning by suggesting better alternatives. Please join with us in asking for a complete re-examination and a postponement of the entire project.
SAVE N40th will back you completely.
I agree, these are all great suggestions. One more I would have would be looking at turning the 5-way intersection of Stone Way/Green Lake/50th into an all-way walk to avoid having cyclists needing to switch sides of the street. It would slow down folks who are only crossing once, but would speed up people who now need to cross 2-3 times. The intersection is already so stacked against pedestrians that I don’t know that the people who currently need to cross only once would notice a delay…
Great suggestions. For me, Green Lake is a great place to go for a walk or run after work however this is spoiled by the frustration of crossing 50th on the way home.
Woodland park will be a very important sports facility for Lincoln High School when it reopens. This is an additional reason why making the 50th St intersection safe to cross by everyone.
The changes you propose here to 50th and GLW really aren’t practical.
Changes to the parking lot in Lower Woodland Park are very expensive as it would require repaving / redesigning a big chunk of parks property, meaning a huge impact on the budget / scope of project (2 million? 5 million?) It won’t happen, even though it would be a nice to have.
Your plans for the 50th and Green Lake Way intersection look like they’d have major negative impacts on throughput for vehicles. You’re blocking West bound cars from turning right onto GLW and throttling throughput for cars southbound continuing on GLW. The intersection is already saturated, and any more negative impact on throughput won’t work. What did SDOT say regarding traffic impacts?
SDOT studied the following design and found it would work without throughput impacts. It also keeps cyclists and vehicles totally separate through the intersection, and connects to the regional greenway at 46th. Their only excuse for not taking it is that they don’t want to touch the intersection of 50th and GLW as that’s “out of scope”:
https://www.wallyhood.org/2015/11/making-a-cycle-track-work-on-green-lake-way/
There’s a simpler solution for the cycle track. It doesn’t need to go south even to 52nd, it can just end by the Pitch n Putt. The crossing there is active and hazardous, from what I’ve seen, so a light there will be a good thing, and is less apt to back up to 50th. There are design issues at 52nd, and as you point out, relocation onto park property isn’t happening in the real world.
The cycle track could be a fine idea on the circuit around Green Lake, it will be interesting to see, but it just doesn’t work out when they try to make it leave the lake and come up the hill.
The problem with that transition is that bike advocates want protected bike lanes south of there, and SDOT says that would mean no parking on the East side of the street. That’s why SDOT put the transition is at 52nd, to try and preserve some parking for residents without driveways.
The only solution that works for both cycling advocates and residents is a transition at 46th. That gives cyclists complete separation from cars and a connection to the regional greenway on 46th along with an arterial crossing. Residents get to keep parking, including for the new 40 unit apartment without on site parking. Finally, there’s little to no impact on throughput for vehicles.
I suspect a 2-way track across 50th would be more than “little to no” impact. The current southbound paint lane threads through the car through and turn lanes somewhat awkwardly, but at least it’s flexible, where a “protected” 2-way is going to be much more restrictive, which will affect how the vehicles queue up and how they flow during their phase. And for what? who are the bicycle advocates advocating for? Imagine the cyclist who’s saying “I sure wish I could stop here at N 46th and wait for a light, so’s I could ride on the wrong side of the road in a narrow 2 way track!”
SDOT studied it and said little to no impact. The key reason is that you can greatly improve the queue for vehicles on Green Lake Way approaching the light, allowing for a 2 lane queue back to 52nd since bikes don’t have to mix with general traffic (they go when Stoneway traffic goes).
All plans have an extra crossing to the cycle track, it’s just a question of where. Switching at the pitch and putt means eliminating 3 more blocks of parking for residents. At 52nd is what SDOT has planned. At 50th throttles throughput for vehicles. 46th is no worse than those alternatives but has the benefit of providing an arterial crossing for the regional greenway on 46th, preserving the most parking of any plan, and keeping recreational cyclists on a protected pathway all the way into Wallingford or down to Lake Union (via Woodland Park Ave).
“SDOT studied it and said little to no impact”
and you just go ahead and assume that SDOT knows what they are doing??LOL
Yeah I thought that was pretty credulous but I’m trying to be nice 🙂
Blocking cars heading westbound on 50th from turning right (north) on GLW means those cars will now cut through the side streets like Woodlawn to get on GLW. Woodlawn happens to be the route I bike with my daughter to take her to school, and it won’t make it safer for us and other bicyclists there, or for people in the neighborhood.
When you block access for drivers, they start looking for alternate routes once the backups get too unbearable. And those routes will take them through quiet residential neighborhoods, making it even more dangerous than it was before. It’s an example of the Law of Unintended Consequences with protected bike lanes.
I appreciate your work in writing this. I pass thru that intersection 2 or 4 times a day. If I choose to ride my bike at Green Lake I put it in my hatchback and drive to GL, where I then bike .I have seen enough car drivers swerve into biking lanes, I really enjoy living not worrying about a potential injury. While i am unsure if your proposed changes are best solution my observation is that the more dotted lines, green areas, cobbled areasin an intersection the less patient some drivers become while others pause perplexed to comprehend falteringly what they are allowed to do or not do.. and others ignore everything.( I go to Olympic Athletic Club which has had a new complicated traffic renewal design which now provides a scarier tiem crossing the street than previous ot the redesign.) Too much becomes too much, NOTE– I am posting. However after a recent poster persisted in inappropriate words directed at mine I have decided I may need to delete anything which causes concern. I relayed my concerns with ideas for stopping insults and harrassment on the blog.
My fix to the 50th Street intersection would be a bit more ambitious than yours. I would get rid of Green Lake Way entirely and reconnect the street grid in the area it currently cuts through.
This would accomplish a few things:
1) It would turn a crazy five-way intersection at 50th into a relatively simple four-way one.
2) It would vastly improve the pedestrian experience in the affected area. As is, anyone trying to cross Green Lake Way on foot (between the controlled crosswalks on either end) is taking their life into their own hands.
3) The reclaimed land could be used more effectively as something other than a small shortcut for drivers. My first instinct would be to build some more affordable housing, but would be happy to explore other options.
Would it really be so bad to have to drive down 46th/45th and take a left on Stone rather than having Green Lake Way as a diagonal shortcut for a few blocks?
Neither proposal looks safe. You have a right-side driving bike lane right next to right-side driving car lanes so to cars you have bikes coming at you which would appear to be driving on the left, on the wrong side of the road for a right-side driving country. Unless there is a Jersey barrier separating them I would think both these designs are asking for trouble. I don’t expect any vehicle including a bike to be coming at me to my right. I’d think what, am I back in the UK?
“we strongly support putting the two-way protected bike lane on the western edge of the Woodland Park Lower Playfields Parking Lot.”
This seems like a better idea. I support it.
It might be OK for something like the path around Green Lake, by the water.
This is a bicycle arterial, with a ca. 2% grade. Much of the northbound traffic on this narrow little lane is going to be going fast, and they’re not there to take in the scenery, they’re going somewhere. So you get the minivan parked, bundle the kids out and herd them over to the playfield … in front of 20 mph cyclists with rather modest stopping power, flying past the parked cars? I don’t think the parks dept is even going to think that far about it, they’re just not in the business of adding traffic routes over the top of their facilities, but it seems like a non-starter in any case.
If we want to talk about alternatives, a possibility is to simply block off vehicle traffic between the two intersections mentioned. That whole stretch of Stone Way can be turned into parking space for people accessing the Woodland Park and Green Lake.
It would mean the east-west traffic goes faster, since there will be no major intersections for 50ths between i5 and 99. It would also force a lot of north-south traffic out to i5 and 99.
The major traffic bottlenecks should be forced back to the highways.
The same thing can be considered for the northern stretch, including turning the Ravenna Blvd of that stretch also into just parking/park/trail. Ideally the stretch between Roosevelt light rail station and Green Lake can be kind of like what UW is now, a nice walking area with no vehicle traffic with direct access to the light rail.