This post comes to us from neighbor Tracy Timmons-Gray.
About thirty minutes after my 67- year old mother left my apartment after we had dinner together on the evening of Friday, October 20, she called me, crying.
I asked her what was wrong, and she told me about how she was almost hit by two cars while walking the cross-walk at 40th and Stone Way to get to the bus stop in front of Emerald City Athletics.
As she crossed the street when the walk light was on, she faced a line of cars on 40th that were attempting to make the turn onto Stone Way. While she had the light to cross, one sped forward, almost hitting her. As she stood there shocked, another car right behind the first came barreling after. While my mother tried to get out of the way while staying on the crosswalk, the 2nd car’s driver yelled at her to move.
She eventually got to the other side, stricken and shaken about what just happened. Her fear and pain were compounded as no one stopped during the whole incident. Everyone just sped along like it was normal to watch an elder woman struggle to get across the street while cars are attempting to go through her.
When Danger Becomes Part of the Neighborhood Experience
My mother’s experience isn’t a one-off on Stone Way. It seems every week in the Wallingford Fremont Facebook group, with over 8,000 people, a community member shares their story of either getting hit or almost hit while trying to cross an intersection on Stone Way. It has become part of the neighborhood—that you might get hit by a car if you’re going to the gym or heading into Pagliacci. Something to warn about, because it happens so often.
And what’s doubly dangerous is these intersections on Stone Way, including 40th, are major bus stops on both sides of the street. These crossings are made for people to reach public transit, like my mother that night. It’s not helpful for anyone if it’s not safe to get to public transit, especially for those like my mother, who is a senior, or me, who is visually impaired and can’t drive. Safe access to public transit is key to our livelihoods.
When Growth Outpaces Safe Design
The beauty of a growing neighborhood like that around Stone Way, with multiple new apartment buildings coming up and new shops and restaurants, is its vibrancy and liveliness. It’s a new nexus of community springing up around us. The issue we’re facing now, week after week, post after post about neighbors getting hurt while trying to cross the street, is that our traffic design isn’t matching our growing density and population.
Drivers turning onto Stone Way from 40th, the growing line of cars that you see waiting at every red light, have the same exact small window to turn onto Stone Way as any walker trying to cross the street. And that tension—a driver who just wants to get to where they are going (with a line of drivers behind them), and a walker who just wants to get to the other side—that’s where we’re seeing people get hurt because the demand to get through that intersection is outpacing the small window for both groups to do so safely.
And everyone gets hurt when someone is hit by a car at an unsafe intersection. The person who is hit (if they survive.) The driver. Everyone witnessing it is hurt. The whole neighborhood is affected because it’s an indicator that it’s not a safe place to live, and the whole community then lives with those scars.
We Need Your Help
We need help to bring urgency to the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) that the intersections on Stone Way need to be updated to match what the reality of Stone Way is now. Its traffic needs and population have outpaced its earlier design, and people are getting hurt.
Join our Community Cross-Walkathon
Several of us community members are organizing a grassroots “cross-walkathon” protest to help shine a spotlight on how dangerous it has become for walkers, cyclists, and drivers to navigate safely through the intersection at Stone Way N and 40th street.
We need your help to create visibility and urgency so that SDOT and Seattle city leadership will assess this intersection and create a workable solution for walkers, cyclists, and drivers to be able to cross safely.
- When: Friday, November 10 from 5pm – 7pm PT and Saturday, Nov. 11 from 12pm – 2pm PT.
- Where: Meeting at the corner of Stone Way N and 40th Street
- What: From 5pm – 7pm on Nov. 10 and 12pm – 2pm on Nov. 11, we will be walking the cross-walk when the “walk” sign is on.
Bring a sign to share your message or your favorite reflective gear, whatever you wish. We’ll be walking back and forth during the “walk period” at the Stone Way N. and 40th street crosswalk to show how important it is that safely crossing affects everyone around us.
When do things start? We’ll be starting at 5pm on Nov. 10 and 12pm on Nov. 11. Feel free to come at the beginning or anytime during the two-hour window of cross-walking.
Please join us at the corner of Stone Way N. and 40th Street so we can safely walk together and call for a change.
And as we lead up to these dates, please reach out to SDOT about how this change needs to happen so walkers, cyclists, and drivers can cross that intersection safely.
Contact SDOT:
Share with SDOT directly that you want Stone Way’s intersections updated for safe crossings.
SDOT’s General Contact: [email protected]
SDOT’s Media Contact: [email protected]
SDOT is the hero in this story–through their intervention, they can update Stone Way to be safe for walkers, cyclists, and drivers.
Let them know we need their help to make things better.
This is awesome, I will be there!!
I was hit in a local crosswalk and thrown up in the air and came down on the car breaking it’s windshield in two places. Drivers need to understand they have huge obligations, like not hurting or killing humans while they use their big steel machine. And our cities and those who fund and approve their design, have a huge obligation to redesign our streets for the safety of all, over the speed and convenience of motor vehicles.