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SDOT wants your input on how to make NE 75th Street safer

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013 by

Responding to concerns raised by residents, the Seattle Department of Transportation is working with the community to review roadway conditions along NE 75th Street and nearby roadways.

Since collision data shows that the majority of collisions are caused by behavioral issues such as speeding, distraction, and impairment (driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs), SDOT will pair roadway modifications with new enforcement strategies and area-specific educational outreach.

Early Improvements

Following through on commitments made in community discussions over the past year, the City is already moving forward with several initiatives immediately to enhance safety in the area:

- The bus load zone for Eckstein Middle School on NE 75th Street was repainted in April 2013. Please respect the signs and pavement markings to ensure student safety

- Flashing beacons to enhance the visibility of the school zone speed limit will be installed this spring

- School zone speed enforcement cameras will be installed on NE 75th Street in 2013

- The intersection of NE 68th Street and 25th Avenue NE will be evaluated for a traffic signal

- The crosswalk at NE 68th Street and 25th Avenue NE will be remarked with fresh and highly visible paint

SDOT previously made the following improvements to help address roadway concerns in this neighborhood:

- Pedestrian countdown signals (which countdown the number of seconds left to cross the street) and new east/west left turn signals were installed in June 2011 at NE 75th Street and 35th Avenue NE

- A new marked crosswalk to cross the south leg of 30th Avenue NE at the intersection of NE 75th Street was installed in May 2012

- Pedestrian countdown signals were installed at the school crosswalk signal at NE 75th Street and 31st Avenue NE in 2013

Get Involved

A series of community meetings have been scheduled to listen to community concerns, share traffic data, and develop strategies to lower vehicle speeds and reduce collisions. These meetings are open to the general public and all are welcome.

Issue Identification Meetings – April-May 2013

Purpose: Review existing conditions and traffic data, discuss toolbox of potential improvements, and hear concerns and ideas from residents

- Tuesday, April 23rd, 6-8:30PM,
Ravenna-Eckstein Community Center, 6535 Ravenna Ave NE

- Thursday, April 25th, 2-4PM,
Wedgwood Presbyterian Church, 8008 35th Ave NE

- Wednesday, May 1st, 7-9PM,
Calvary Christian Assembly, 6801 Roosevelt Way NE

 

Read more about the NE 75th Street Road Safety Corridor Project, here. 

Posted in Advocacy, Around town, Commuting, Road & Trail News, SDOT | 1 Comment »

Spokane Street Viaduct savings to be used for transportation investments

Wednesday, March 20th, 2013 by

Mayor McGinn spoke at the Spokane Street Viaduct completion ceremony last December. Photo courtesy of SDOT

The City recently completed its largest  transportation project in three decades, the Spokane Street Viaduct, and managed to come in under budget.

These cost savings, achieved through favorable bidding climate and strong oversight of the $163 million project, will now be used to invest in various transportation projects, the city announced today.

Mayor Mike McGinn and Seattle Department of Transportation Director Peter Hahn announced that these funds, totaling$11.75 million, will be invested in sidewalks, basic road maintenance, upgrades to the city’s traffic signal system, work to complete the Burke-Gilman “Missing Link” and support for Seattle’s updated Transit Master Plan.

“We are working hard to capture these savings and spend them on the things that Seattleites care about,” stated McGinn. “That’s why we are using these dollars to support pedestrian safety, invest in basic infrastructure upgrades, road maintenance and planning for the future. I thank our Department of Transportation for their stewardship of taxpayer dollars in their work to bring in Spokane Street under-budget.”

The work that will be funded by these savings include:

- Major road reconstruction – $3.5 million
- Freight corridor improvement – $1 million
- Repair of two city-owned retaining walls – $700,000
- Additional funds for crack sealing program, a pothole prevention technique – $200,000. This nearly doubles the Mayor’s budget for crack sealing to $450,000
- Bike Master Plan implementation- $1 million
- Sidewalk improvements/Pedestrian Master Plan implementation- $1 million
- Neighborhood Street Fund – $1 million
- Adaptive Traffic Signal study and work on recommended projects – $2.5 million
- Support for Transit Master Plan implementation – $800,000
- Only in Seattle funding for infrastructure investments in neighborhood business districts – $50,000

The funding for this work is included in Mayor McGinn’s Supplemental Budget proposal to the City Council for the first quarter of 2013.

“By completing the Spokane Street Viaduct project under budget, we are able to fund needed transportation investments elsewhere in Seattle,” said Hahn. “These resources will help make walking, driving and biking easier and safer for everyone.”

Posted in Burke-Gilman Trail, Missing Link, News, Road & Trail News, SDOT | No Comments »

U-bridge closures next weekend

Friday, March 15th, 2013 by

Image courtesy of Google Maps

The University Bridge will be closed the weekend of March 23-24 in order to make in-water repairs to be to the north fender of the bridge which was damaged in an earlier marine accident.

The Seattle Department of Transportation will close the bridge  Saturday, March 23, and Sunday, March 24 between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

Between those hours, the bridge will be closed to all traffic, including bicyclists and pedestrians.

Posted in Road & Trail News, SDOT | 3 Comments »

Transportation Action Agenda Progress Report highlights the vision of bicycling

Friday, February 15th, 2013 by

On Wednesday, Feb. 13, Mayor Mike McGinn and the Seattle Department of Transportation released the Transportation Action Agenda Progress Report, highlighting accomplishments from the past year and new initiatives for 2013.

Progress: Linden Avenue cycle track

“We’re working hard to build a great transportation network that meets the needs of a growing, thriving city,” said McGinn in a statement. “We’re filling potholes, planning new rail lines, and providing safer facilities for everyone using our roads.”

Progress has been made in what SDOT considers “the basics” – maintenance projects like filling potholes, (re)paving roads and replacing street name signs – as well as making roads more accessible for everyone.

Last year SDOT began construction on the Linden Avenue and 65th Street cycle tracks, installed 15 new lane-miles of bike lanes and/or sharrows, improved 47 pedestrian crossings, built 12 new blocks of sidewalk, and more.

The action agenda report promises more improvements to come in 2013, including speeding up key transit projects, improving neighborhood-to-neighborhood connections and better pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure.

“Bicycling is a great way to get around our city and should be an option for everyone,” the report states, mentioning that construction on the Broadway cycle track will begin soon and neighborhood greenways are being developed in Ballard, Beacon Hill, and Delridge.

The report also mentions that SDOT is planning more cycle tracks and neighborhood greenways across Seattle.  As a part of the Bicycle Master Plan update, SDOT will recommend cycle tracks on a network of city streets, including streets in downtown.

“It’s exciting to see the action agenda highlighting the vision of bicycling being an option for everyone, from an eight-year-old to his 80-year-old grandmother, to safely get around Seattle,” said Craig Benjamin, Cascade’s Policy and Government Affairs Manager. “We look forward to working with the Mayor and City Council to fund the network of protected bike lanes and neighborhood greenways that would make this vision a reality.”

McGinn is also working to speed up the time frame for two key transit planning projects identified in the Transit Master Plan. The first is an analysis of potential Ship Canal crossings for rail, bicycle and pedestrian use from Ballard to neighborhoods south of the Canal. The second project is planning for the Eastlake high capacity transit corridor connecting downtown to the University District.

This is good news for bicyclists as high capacity transit enables people on bikes to extend their trips by making them multimodal. More importantly, in planning these corridors, the city will also have the opportunity to plan for world-class bikeways to complement the transit lines in these corridors. When designed correctly, high-capacity transit and bicycling are complementary pieces of our overall transportation network and should work hand in hand to provide people with the freedom to safely and conveniently get around Seattle.

For more information, the full Progress Report and Action Agenda are available online.

Posted in Advocacy, News, SDOT, Seattle Bicycle Master Plan Update | No Comments »

Seattle’s first cycletrack!

Monday, October 15th, 2012 by

This Saturday I experienced the joy of riding on the first segment of Seattle’s first cyclectrack.  It was awesome.

Seattle's first cycletrack, on Linden Ave N

Actually, it was beyond awesome.  It was like skiing 18 inches of fresh snow on a sunny day with good friends.  It was, “did that just happen?” awesome.  It was so awesome I rode back and forth on it a few times, just because I could.

What made it so awesome?  Well, first, it was a surprise.  I hadn’t been on Linden Ave N in a few weeks, so when I got to 145th St I was unaware that SDOT had completed the first segment of the Linden Ave Complete Streets project, a fantastic project to make Linden Ave N safer for all between 125th St. N and 145th St. N.

Second, it’s Seattle’s first cycletrack!  I’ve had the pleasure of riding on cycletracks in Vancouver, I’ve watched in envy as cities across America built miles and miles of cycletracks, and I’ve been patiently waiting for the day Seattle would get one built.

Third, this is exactly the type of bikeway we should build more of (much more of, like 200 miles more of by 2020) if we want Seattle to become a city where everyone, from an eight-year-old child to her eighty-year-old grandmother, has the freedom to safely ride where they need to go.

In fact, when I jubilantly posted a picture of this cycletrack to my Facebook page, my friend Michelle, who’s like 71% of Americans who want to ride more, but doesn’t because we haven’t made the investments necessary for them to feel safe, posted, “I would actually bike on that!” on my wall.

Sure, it’s only .1 miles long, and we need to build 199.9 more miles of bikeways like it (cycletracks, neighborhood greenways, buffered bike lanes, shared-use trails) by 2020 if we want to become the type of city we know we should be, but it’s an important step in the right direction. So today, in addition to celebrating the Seahawks’ victory over the Patriots, let’s celebrate a the awesomeness that is Seattle’s first cycletrack.

Posted in Advocacy, Road & Trail News, SDOT | 34 Comments »

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