Followup from SDOT on the Admiral/California signal

A little more today from SDOT on the source-of-much-discussion Admiral/California signal timing. Here’s what Marybeth Turner found out for us:

SDOT did change the signal timing around a month ago and has been actively monitoring the traffic since then. Based on our observations, the corridor is operating very well during the AM and PM peak times. We will make some minor changes to the signal timing at the intersection of California Ave SW & Admiral Way SW for the off-peak and weekend periods. That will extend the green time for eastbound and westbound traffic within the next couple of weeks. If your readers have additional concerns, please e-mail them to SDOT at traffic.signals@seattle.gov

Please do take her up on that request – comments on this item are great TOO (and when you e-mail us about concerns, that helps us ask authorities the right questions), but if you also send them to SDOT as requested here, they’ll also circulate directly into mailboxes that matter.

Scott October 9, 2009 (4:15 pm)

Umph, like finding out about black squares.
I know it wasn’t about kittens, or lost dogs, or a break in at someone’s home, or a sponsor… but it could have been asked.

WSB could have broke the story, rather than a local newspaper.

WSB October 9, 2009 (4:25 pm)

Scott, I did ask the first time, and they told me they didn’t know what I was talking about. I told you that the first time around. The second time around, I did *not* get a chance to ask, and the P-I did before I did, and that’s going to happen sometimes – we literally look into about 30 things every day, day in and day out (tracking court cases, people in jail, road work sightings, what’s that new restaurant, and more). We break probably half a dozen stories here every day. I wish we could do more but we don’t have the $ yet for full-time staff – eventually we will. We try our best but we’re far from perfect – TR

Scott October 9, 2009 (4:43 pm)

Yep, still no mention of it on here either.

JO October 9, 2009 (5:10 pm)

Keep up the great work WSB! We appreciate all you do.

DownOnAlki October 9, 2009 (6:06 pm)

I left this same comment on the previous article, but I will rewrite it here as well as email the address listed – thank you.
The last few weeks I have noticed the timing of the California/Admiral intersection has definitely not been in my favor – not once. It takes at a minimum 4 light cycles to go through. I am driving east bound on Admiral towards the bridge. From what it looks like to me, the cause of the delay is the cars parked on the south side of Admiral, in front of the cleaners. This causes a blockage in the second lane when a car tries to turn south onto California, because there tends to be pedestrians that they are waiting for. By the time the pedestrians cross, and it is clear for a turn, the light is yellow/red. So much for any car trying to get through the light. My suggestions are:
–make this intersection an all walk, so cars don’t have to wait for pedestrians to make that right. Safer for pedestrians too.
–eliminate parking on Admiral.

I’ll send the same email – thanks!

Todd October 10, 2009 (10:24 am)

Thank you for the follow up WSB. I am glad they are going to look at the timing of this signal, especially on the weekends. I agree with DownOnAlki and the suggestions they made.

zgh2676 October 10, 2009 (11:56 am)

I forwarded this message to the email address above:

Dear Marybeth (or To Whom It May Concern):

As much discussed on the West Seattle Blog and amongst frustrated neighbors, the new timing of the light at the above mentioned corner has been creating delays never before seen. There seem to be worse times than others, but is particularly bad in the afternoons between the hours of 1 PM through 7 PM. I believe there are a few obvious reasons for this:

1) The parking on the south side of Admiral WY SW prevents a useable turning lane to help facilitate the flow of forward moving (Eastbound) traffic. If the parking were to be eliminated permanently, or at least through the hours mentioned, I believe the problem would be lessened significantly.

2) The light timing is too short to allow traffic to flow through the intersection. There are other intersections to consider here as well. The need to adjust timing at the corners of 41st Ave SW & Admiral WY and 42nd Ave SW & Admiral WY to allow traffic to “release” eastbound on Admiral before the light changes on the corner of California & Admiral. If the correct (and longer) timing sequence of these lights can be adjusted (seemingly easily) then there will be no cars sitting still at the intersections while their light is green.

3) The walk signals at this major intersection are not independent of the traffic signals. This creates a pedestrian blocking of the right-hand turn lane especially during the hours when schools let out. If there were a dedicated “All Ways” walk signal each round of lights, then the cars would not be held up by pedestrians and pedestrians would be safer as well (this is of primary concern here of course).

All of these adjustments would seem reasonable to be made permanent but may only need to be adjusted during morning AND AFTERNOON peak and school hours (Just so long as it addresses the problem adequately).

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.

carraig na splinkeen October 10, 2009 (1:50 pm)

We have definitely noticed the change of wait time on Admiral at California—while there are contributing factors (e.g., on-street parking, 3 signalized intersections on Admiral in a small amount of space–at California, Metropolitan Market, and Barencutts) those have been there all along. The green time going east/west is now much shorter and SDOT needs to recalibrate, since people are side-running on neighborhood streets, which is not what should happen.

Jenava October 10, 2009 (9:11 pm)

Off subject, but have they adjusted timing at Fauntleroy and Alaska recently as well? We waited to turn left onto Fauntleroy from AK an inordinately long time today (Saturday).

Sorry, comment time is over.