Tag: SDOT

How do we end traffic violence?

Robb Mason was killed by the driver of a white or silver sedan at the east end of the Spokane St Bridge right near this spot. Here is another one willing to do the same thing. Joe is clearly visible, clearly intending to cross the at the clearly signed crossing, with family and friends on the way to Seattle Neighborhood Greenways safe streets party. Joe has the right of way. The driver has an obligation to stop but does not care. How can we get drivers like this to care? Or, at least prevent them from committing this kind of violence?

Big Dig on Highland Park Way

While waiting for SDOT to get back to us on our April 28 (!) action requests for biking to the bridges, we did some of it ourselves, with folks from Highland Park Action Committee and the West Duwamish Greenbelt Trails Group.

Delridge Greenway connections progress

SDOT is proceeding now with suggestions we made during the Delridge Transit + Multimodal Corridor planning.  There’s a good Neighborhood Greenway on 26th Ave SW from Andover to SW Juneau, parallel to Delridge and just two blocks west. It’s at basically the same grade as Delridge Way, with less traffic, and connects to the Spokane Street Bridge and Alki Trail.  There is also the Delridge-Highland Park Greenway up on Pigeon Point, along Puget Ridge to Highland Park and White Center via 21st Ave SW – SW Myrtle – 1 7th Ave. That one needs some improvements, and was not connected to the 26th Ave Greenway.

Now it is connected!  SDOT has installed speed humps on Juneau between 26th Ave and SW Croft Place, and along Croft, which angles up the hill for a less steep way to go from 21st Ave down to Delridge Way.

A crew was out yesterday installing bike detectors on Juneau to trigger the stop light at Delridge.  One of them asked me as I stopped at the light if I ride this way often. And he gave a nice unsolicited explanation of the bike detectors, here for you, too.     short video

SDOT agreed to a bunch of our suggestions to improve the Delridge-Highland Park Greenway to make it a viable compromise route in lieu of northbound protected bike lanes on the south half of Delridge Way.  It’s good to see work proceeding even before the final plans for the RapidRide H line are set.  Good bike and walking c0nnections are vital for people to safely get to and from the farther-apart RapidRide bus stops. It is time for safe routes to ride, walk and roll in Delridge.

New speed humps on SW Juneau St from Croft Place to Delridge Way SW.
New speed humps on SW Croft Place.
New speed humps on SW Juneau St from 26th Ave SW to SW Croft Place.
SDOT crew working on greenway improvements on SW Juneau St at Delridge Way SW
Bike detector to trigger the stop light on SW Juneau St at Delridge Way SW.

East Marginal Way – with SDOT

Notes from May 17 meeting at Seattle Department of Transportation

Attending from SDOT:

Dongho Chang, City Traffic Engineer

Monica DeWald, Traffic Management Division, Pedestrian & Bicycle Program

Christopher Eaves, Traffic Management Division, Port and Freight

 

Attending from West Seattle Bike Connections:

Sakaru Tsuchiya, civil engineer specialist in pedestrian and bike facilities

Bob Anderton, attorney at Washington Bike Law

Jeff Hallman, VP of West Seattle Bike Connections, industrial design engineer

Don Brubeck, President of West Seattle Bike Connections, architect

 

Dongho Chang led the meeting, inviting our input. He noted that SDOT’s concern is to improve safety and legibility of the bike route for the benefit of bike riders and car and truck drivers. SDOT has been out observing conditions, doing traffic counts and talking to other stakeholders over the past two weeks since Lance David’s death in the crash at Hanford on May 1. We used a video from Monica’s bike commute from West Seattle to look at specific conditions.

 

Mayor McGinn has proposed allocating $700,000 in saving from the Spokane Street Viaduct project to immediate short-term improvements to East Marginal Way and WS Bridge Trail bike facilities, and $200,000 to design for ultimate long-term improvements. The engineering design would be enough to have a project ready to be eligible and competitive for construction funding grants.

 

This funding requires City Council approval.

We need to let City Council members know that we want this to happen!

 

Our requests for short-term improvements:

  1. Patch the pavement in bike lanes and at crossings.
  2. Sweep the streets on a frequent basis, due to deteriorated pavement.
  3. Build a safe crossing at Horton or Hanford, efficient for bikes, predictable for drivers.
  4. Fill the large puddles and provide drainage.
  5. Improve the sidewalk on west side to make it a safe, usable pedestrian/bike path. Move fire hydrants, trees between Spokane and Horton, utility poles and signs out of the sidewalk on the west side.
  6. At S Atlantic St/Alaskan Way transition to Portside Trail at Terminal 46:
    1. adjust the aiming of the traffic light video sensor to better detect northbound bikes in bike lane;
    2. add signage or pavement graphic to show northbound bikes where to stop;
    3. change southbound signal to be normally green instead of normally red for southbound ped/bike traffic, with vehicle sensors to change it to red southbound and green east-west or northbound left when needed.
  7. Request Port of Seattle to improve sightlines at terminal entries and exits by making fencing transparent or revising it for better sight triangles at curb cuts.
  8. Promote the improved multi-use path on Spokane St east of East Marginal Way to 6th Ave as option to get into SODO or other destinations to NE.

 

This funding requires City Council approval.

We need to let City Council members know that we want this to happen!

 

Long-term:

  1. Physical barrier separating bike from vehicle lanes on East Marginal Way from Spokane to Atlantic, connecting WS Bridge Trail to Portside Trail to Central Waterfront.
  2. Safe crossing at Horton or Hanford for bike traffic to SODO.  Bike detectors, flashing beacons and right-on-red restriction if crossing is on north side of intersection.

 

We discussed pros and cons of location of separated cycle-track or multi-use path.

 

  • One-way cycle tracks each side are good for fast riding without bike/pedestrian conflicts, but probably take too much right-of-way width and have challenges with intersections at Hinds, Horton and Hanford.  Deletion of center turn lane is probably not an option due to queuing needs for trucks at terminal entries.

 

  • A wider two-way multi-use path on the west side from Spokane to Hanford, crossing over to a two-way cycle track on the east side from Hanford to Atlantic would avoid conflict with Port terminal entries. However, it still requires a lane crossover in heavy traffic at Atlantic to get back to Portside trail on the west, so that would still be discouraging for many potential users.

 

  • A two-way cycle track or wide multi-use path on east would be more “legible” and direct, and avoid the need for crossing East Marginal and making one or two lane cross-overs when going northbound. However, this requires more driveways to cross and has pedestrian conflicts.

 

Dongho said that the majority opinion so far from various stakeholders is that a separated route all on the west side would be best.  We noted that if that approach is taken, there will still be a need for a safe crossing into SODO and east to Fourth Ave S for some bike riders at Hanford or Horton, and safety on west side will require considerably more width, much better sightlines at terminal entries, and consideration of bike/pedestrian conflicts.

 

For short-term fixes, Monica noted that the poor soil and pavement conditions mean that any paving patching or overlays are almost immediately destroyed by truck traffic. The long-term plan is to completely repave this road as a heavy truck haul route with much more robust paving, In the meantime, patches and street sweeping can help some. Monica noted that filling for drainage fixes have not worked at the puddles. There is nowhere for the water to go. It just moves the puddles, then the patch deteriorates and it moves back.

 

Dongho said that they are now looking at a short term multi-use path on the east that would widen the sidewalk by taking planting area and bike lane area, raising it up with ashalt paving and a curb. This would provide the width needed for two-way bike and pedestrian traffic and get bikes up away from the puddles. This could be accomplished within the proposed funding and not require lengthy land negotiations with the Port or BNSF.  This is not yet decided.  SDOT is exploring options and inviting suggestions.

 

This funding requires City Council approval.

Please let City Council members know that you want this to happen!

 

 

 

Freight Advisory Board Meeting Notes

April 16, 2013
EAST MARGINAL WAY
Peter Hahn, SDOT Director, updated the board on issues concerning freight movement. Some of them also concern bike movement. One is East Marginal Way, which he and Christine Wolf, Port of Seattle Seaport Transportation Director, described as the #1 priority for improvement. The “poster child”. The Port wants haul routes redone to support heavier truck loads to make ship-to-rail transfers efficient and competitive with the ports in Long Beach and elsewhere. East Marginal Way is the next big step, along with the current flyover ramp at Altantic and the upcoming underpass at SR99 on the truck haul route to the Argo rail yard. The Sonics Arena project Memorandum of Understanding commits $40M to freight mobility, which could be spent on East Marginal Way. What does it mean for bike transportation in West Seattle? Improvements to East Marginal, along with the 5way intersection at Chelan, are the keys to the city. Improving that road will make it safe and easy for thousands more to commute by bike instead of car to downtown. This will get cars out of the way of bikes and buses. Use of currently illegal 98 ton super-chassis rigs increases safety risks for all road users. If we can work with the Port and SDOT and WSDOT to get a cycle track on East Marginal as part of this rebuild, it will be a win for everyone in our community, including truckers, shippers, bus riders, car drivers and all of us who depend on a thriving Port of Seattle and international trade for our livelihood.

IMG_2253

CARMAGGEDON, THE SEQUEL
When the tunnel boring machine is going under SR99 this September or October, the highway will be closed to traffic, just in case it should collapse. We can help mitigate this problem if we can get more people onto bikes to ride downtown or to the water taxi. Let’s help show people what we can do to reduce traffic congestion!

SDOT is about to start an Industrial Area Freight Access Project study that is part of development of the Freight Master Plan. The FMP will follow the Bike Master Plan currently under way, and the completed Pedestrian Master Plan.

WE COVER THE WATERFRONT
Steve Pearce and Mike Johnson of SDOT presented the mid-way design concept for the Central Waterfront. This gets plenty of coverage elsewhere, so I’ll just mention that the preferred bike route alternative, for safety and separation of pedestrians and bike riders, is a two-way cycle track on the west side of Alaskan Way, separated from both the pedestrian promenade and the vehicle lanes.

Preferred by all stakeholders including the freight board members at this meeting. Pier service entries will be mid block driveways, for right-turn-in and right-turn-out only, as most are now. This has the advantage of narrower curb cuts and slower speeds than straight-in crossings at intersections, and works better with the pier layouts, but has the disadvantage of poor visibility for truck drivers on their right side.

The cycle track will have curves, markings and raised paving at crossings to alert riders to watch for pedestrians and vehicles, and will be designed with attention to sightlines for vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists. This option seemed like it would serve the widest range of riders and be least likely to be taken over by wandering tourists. I say this after navigating dozens of dogs, skaters, runners, strollers and oblivious ice-cream cone consumers in the separated bike path instead of the pedestrian walkway on the Alki Trail this afternoon.

Don Brubeck