The flashing-beacon signs are in at 35th and Kenyon, the first big step in the work to bring back a marked crosswalk there, nine years after one was removed there. The plan to reinstall one, as requested by local business owners during planning for the 35th SW Safety Project, was confirmed earlier this year.
Just last week, SDOT’s Jim Curtin had told the West Seattle Transportation Coalition that the 35th/Kenyon crosswalk installation was about to start (and he told us today it should be done “within a week or two” depending on weather). He was at the WSTC meeting with updates on the planning for Phase 2, as well as Q&A. He said SDOT is continuing to work on its promised report about the first year since Phase 2 rechannelized 35th to one lane each way plus a center turn lane for most of the stretch between Holly and Roxbury.
For those who contend the rechannelization has driven drivers to side streets, Curtin told the WSTC that the volume on 35th is down a little, most notably just north of Roxbury, which SDOT interprets as an indication that Arbor Heights residents are taking other routes – Roxbury or SW 106th, depending on where they’re going. Delridge volume is down slightly on the south end, up a bit on the north end. And SDOT is observing side-street traffic volumes, Curtin said, to either verify or debunk the contention that people are diverting to residential roads.
On 35th, post-rechannelization, hey’ve had a reduction in crashes involving drivers hitting parked cars, which is “the #1 crash type in the city of Seattle,” no right-turn crashes, a major drop in left-turn collisions, no pedestrian collisions, but rear-end crashes are up, especially on weekends.
That’s expected to be alleviated, he said, by new signal timings, which are being worked on right now – they were mentioned at the August community meeting, and Curtin replied to our followup question today by saying “we’ve gone to longer signal cycles on Saturdays to accommodate higher volumes of vehicular traffic between noon and 6 PM.”
He also told the WSTC that Roxbury signal timings are being worked on, and that left-turn signalization is being looked at for 35th/Barton.
What’s next? As explained in August, they’re still evaluating possible options for Phase 2 – see page 7 of the presentation. SDOT is “slowing down,” Curtin said, because of the decisions to be made about the route for West Seattle’s next “greenway” (have you taken the online survey yet? deadline is Sunday).
No date set yet for the next community discussion, he told us today as part of our followup exchange: “We’re developing the Phase 1 report now but we do not have our next set of meetings planned just yet.”
P.S. The WSTC meeting also included a vote to endorse Sound Transit 3, the Regional Proposition 1 ballot measure you’ll see on your November ballot – 5 WSTC board members for it, 1 abstaining, none against.
WSTC also saw a presentation of the city’s plans for the waterfront, once the tunnel’s open (still skeptical? tunneling is about to hit the halfway mark, WSDOT said today). We don’t have toplines for the latter but we did get the meeting on video and it’s the first presentation, if you want to watch:
The West Seattle Transportation Coalition meets fourth Thursdays, 6:30 pm, at Neighborhood House‘s High Point Center.
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