Squeak, and You May Be Heard

Around mid-January, I was bicycling on the Burke Gilman trail where it crosses N 36th St., and I was surprised to see a monitoring device lashed to the nearby stop sign. “Traffic study in progress” the label on the device said. My surprise was due to the fact that, just back in October of last year, I wrote a story for Wallyhood about this very intersection complaining that the design of this intersection was bringing bicyclists and drivers into conflict. I offered up some suggestions for improving the crossing point, and readers also added some useful input in the comments. Was this the city’s response to my article? Well, maybe. (I emailed the Parks Dept., which is responsible for the BGT within the city limits, with some questions although the traffic monitor may, in fact, be the work of the Seattle Dept. of Transportation. When I get to the bottom of it, I’ll let you know.)

[Update! This story was first drafted on January 15, the same day as the photos of the traffic monitoring device were taken. Then, on January 18, I noticed that the device was gone. Perhaps the traffic monitoring was concluded – or perhaps I scared the device away with my questions to the Parks Dept?]

 

There’s another case that comes to mind of an infrastructure improvement suddenly materializing in our neighborhood after citizens took action. Back at the end of 2023, Julie wrote about folks living near the intersection of Stone Way and 40th who were organizing to try to get SDOT to make that crossing safer for pedestrians. A key problem, they felt, was that cars heading west on 40th St. and trying to turn left onto Stone Way faced lots of oncoming traffic. When they finally got a small break, they often failed to observe pedestrians crossing Stone at the same time. But … voila! Left-turning traffic now has an arrow. Cars trying to turn left get a clear chance to do so on a green arrow while pedestrians get the red hand. And pedestrians can cross secure in the knowledge that left-turning cars are getting a red arrow. (The opportunity for a similar enhancement exists at that same intersection for traffic heading south on Stone. A left turn lane exists for cars heading east on 40th, but there is no arrow. Instead, cars compete with pedestrians making their ways across 40th.)

It’s certainly not unheard of for the city to respond to constructive criticisms and complaints from citizens. Back in 2016, the city had a plan to redesign 35th Avenue NE between 47th and 85th St. in the Wedgewood, Ravenna and Bryant neighborhoods. The plan called for a bike lane to be added by eliminating most parking on the west side of the street. As I recall, construction had actually started amid rising neighbor protests by the time Jenny Durkin (remember her?) canceled the project. The final design was a true compromise in that no one was completely happy. A bike lane was not put in, but parking on the west side still disappeared.

Closer to home, remember the 40th St. bike lane? Well, there’s not much to remember because they never happened. Back in 2018, I wrote about the city’s plans as did Eric a few months later. These plans included a bike lane on 40th at the expense of parking. However, in response to complaints notably by people that would be losing their parking spaces, the city scrapped the bike lane before the project even got going.

There’s an old saying that has never ceased to be a thing: the squeaky wheel gets the oil. So I would say, “Squeak, neighbors, squeak!” And you may be heard.