Density Related? NB on CA, left turn on Charlestown?

[JayDee]

I try and use arterials if not the main drags since that is what they are there for. Charlestown used to be OK, you could get 2-3 cars to turn left on the light but in the last six months turning left is a one car affair and late light runners sometimes make that dicey. Is it density and folks bailing from Fauntleroy and then turning left at CA/Admiral SB that does it? (Don’t get me started about folks not pulling into the intersection before the light turns red…[someone will likely say that is illegal])

All of CA seems heavier in traffic terms these days from Admiral to Morgan Junction and beyond. Any opinions? And what about that ice cream parlour? I bet they served merlot-flavored ice cream to non-service dogs…

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[anonyme]

JayDee, I just think that there are too many people and too many cars here and everywhere. Just look at the thousands of new apartment units that have been built in West Seattle recently. SDOT released a statement yesterday saying that Seattle has reached a kind of saturation point with vehicles. It’s unrealistic to think that more and bigger roads can (or should) continually be built. It’s time to look at driving restrictions. The days of single occupant vehicles driving anywhere and everywhere at any time and for any reason are over. Europe has been doing this for decades. Humans/Americans/West Seattleites need to realize that continual, unlimited growth is not just unsustainable – it’s impossible.

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[22blades]

“Humans/Americans/West Seattleites need to realize that continual, unlimited growth is not just unsustainable – it’s impossible.” I agree. How can you possibly keep allowing higher density construction without any infrastructure to support it. West Seattle has TWO roads in & out along with a backwater priority for mass transit. Either developers pony up the true costs of building, or leave. If they complain that their product would be unmarketable, then I guess they have to go somewhere else within their means. Either way, our “Planning Department” needs to take a more holistic approach and start “planning” better. The word is unsustainable.

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[JanS]

and, frankly, just look around that intersection…look at the new buildings that have shot up just between Andover and Charlestown…multiply it by 20 or 30.

Anonyme…I suppose I am an exception. I work at home, and barely use my car. I have put maybe 1000 miles on it in the last year and a half. I have no need to carpool, as when I leave the island I am usually going to my home away from home, aka The Polyclinic. So I drive…alone…usually midday. I’m disabled, and there is no bus connection that doesn’t involve walking multiple blocks. I have tried Hyde Shuttle…many times the schedule is time consuming. An hour appt. at 12noon means a pick up at 10:30a, and a return at 3pm or later. I don’t have time to waste like that…no one does…so I drive, alone. Some people need their cars, even if single occupancy.

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[anonyme]

Part of what I’m saying is that transportation systems need to change drastically. And soon. Unfortunately it doesn’t really do much good to make local changes when both the local and human populations continue to explode, and the number of vehicles with them. Americans still have this idiotic notion that it is not only their right to drive, but to do so driving vehicles powered by cheap, government subsidized fossil fuels. It’s about to get worse, not better.

Also unfortunate is the truth that humans will always find a reason why they should be exceptions to the rule, valid or not. People hardly ever change behavior voluntarily. It’s human nature, and there’s just one cure for it.

Extinction.

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[JanS]

anonyme…I can’t tell if that’s a response to me or just in general…if to me, because of what I said..excuse me…I wasn’t trying to rationalize what I do. I was just stating facts. I pray to god that you don’t have happen to you that has happened to me in the last 11 years. In that small amount of time I have received 7 different fake body parts. I will be 70 in two months…and I am not rationalizing, just stating truth. The transpo system in this neck of the woods (Admiral), is going to have to have a complete overhaul, as it sucks now. And that will not happen in my lifetime. And I will continue to drive…alone…when I need to, until I can’t anymore. I will, of course, do my best to take alternative transpo, but that’s not reliable, and my time is as valuable as anyone else’s, especially since I also work. Not being able to drive would probably leave me housebound. If that’s selfish, then that’s selfish.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by JanS.

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[JTB]

JayDee, I was at the CA/Charleston intersection several days ago in the evening when a fire truck came blasting north on CA. The light turned green for Charleston and everyone headed east remained stopped while one guy headed west shot through the intersection in time to beat the firetruck by a few seconds, certainly too close for the firetruck to have had time to brake if it had been closer. One of the rare times I laid on my horn as the idiot passed by.

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[JayDee]

My hair stylist is located 2 blocks south and in November and December I was stuck trying to TL against the steady SB traffic on California for 3-4 light cycles. I have been seeing the same stylist at the same time for years and was amazed at the difficulty of turning left.

@ JTB I definitely agree — A fire truck would have killed the driver, and likely prevented them from making the call.

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[Sue]

I agree that it’s density. Last Saturday I was coming south on California from PCC and wanted to turn left on Hanford to follow the arterial over to 35th. I had to wait 4 lights to make the turn!

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