(Additional details of Monday night’s meeting added 9:40 am Tuesday – scroll down)
Story and photos by Jason Grotelueschen
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
About 40 attendees from Delridge and other West Seattle neighborhoods gathered at Delridge Community Center tonight to discuss Mayor Mike McGinn‘s Walk/Bike/Ride initiative – its goals and potential effects on the area.
Here’s how the initiative is described by the mayor’s office:
Walk/Bike/Ride is a multi-year initiative that supports projects and programs making walking, biking, and riding transit the easiest ways to get around in Seattle. It serves all people, regardless of age, income, ethnicity, or ability. It uses transportation investments to create quality places and reclaims our streets for communities.
It was the third of four community meetings around the city this month (Bitter Lake and South Beacon Hill happened earlier; Northgate is next week) at which organizers are seeking answers to the question: “What needs to change in your neighborhood in order to make walking, biking, and riding transit easy?”
Tonight’s event in the Delridge CC gym kicked off with an introduction from the mayor’s transportation policy analyst Rebecca Deehr, followed by a presentation from Barbara Gray from the Seattle Department of Transportation (above), and a lively Q&A session.
Before and after the session, attendees conversed in an adjacent “open house” area featuring information about SDOT’s Transit Plan, Bike Smart Seattle , Seattle’s Pedestrian Master Plan, Streets for All Seattle, Metro’s RapidRide and other regional initiatives.
Tony Mazzella from SDOT answered questions and handed out “survey ballots” to attendees (if you couldn’t make it to the meeting, you can complete this online ballot to share your opinions). The ballots are intended to help the city prioritize transportation projects such as sidewalks, bus stops, transit options and bike lanes that support the overall goal of encouraging alternative means of traveling in and around the Seattle area.
The Q&A session covered a lot of ground, but concerns about several recurring issues emerged:
. Problems with safety and a lack of bike/pedestrian-friendliness on major roads like Delridge Way and Highland Park Way, and at several key intersections.
. Issues with maintenance and usability of connecting roads.
. Too much distance to major pedestrian hubs like The (Alaska) Junction and Morgan Junction, and a lack of comparable hubs in the Delridge area.
. Lack of “east-west” transit options for getting between Delridge and those commerce hubs.
According to Deehr from the mayor’s office, the mayor considers the 2011-12 budget process to be an important next step in “seeing how much we can prioritize these infrastructure improvements.” She says the office hopes that citizens “consider Walk/Bike/Ride as a way to advocate for change in their neighborhoods.”
(Tomorrow morning, we’ll add additional Q&A notes from the meeting.)
ADDED 9:40 AM TUESDAY: Some highlights from the Q&A session are below. In most cases, responses were fielded by Barbara Gray from SDOT or from other attendees, and notes were being taken to bring back to the mayor’s office:
. UPKEEP OF ROADS, SIDEWALKS, STAIRS: Several attendees asked questions about the city’s commitment to the quality of roads and sidewalks in Delridge and Highland Park and surrounding areas. “Putting a bunch of new lane markings on terrible roads isn’t going to help,” one commenter said, with nods of agreement from around the room and follow-up comments about “deep grooves in the pavement .” Commenters agreed on several trouble spots such as Highland Park Way (“that asphalt sidewalk is a ‘death trap’ with branches and moss – between West Marginal and 16th,” one person said), and Holden Street near 12th and 16th (“very bad for pedestrians.”) Also noted was the unique topography of the neighborhood (“very hilly” with “stairs everywhere”) and a perceived lack of maintenance that makes existing trails/stairs and sidewalks unusable in too many spots. Gray agreed that work needed to be done, and cited the efforts of community activists like Chas Redmond (who was in attendance) in raising awareness and improving walkability of neighborhoods. Attendees and officials at the meeting agreed that while dollars for new projects are important, it’s even more important to “maintain what we already have” and not ignore it.
. MISSING SIDEWALKS: While maintenance is key, several attendees noted that there are large areas of the neighborhood that don’t have sidewalks at all. Gray acknowledged this and discussed the city’s efforts to maximize its budget for sidewalks. Also suggested was the idea of adding wheelchair/bike trails to the areas that “already have stairs, and could easily be expanded” such as along Graham to the Longfellow Creek watershed.
. SLOW DOWN, PARK SMART: Many attendees raised concerns about safety (“It’s not safe for my kids to ride bikes on most of these roads,” one said) and cited the number of fatality accidents in the past year as evidence of that (particularly on/near Delridge Way). Gray agreed with attendees that it’s important to control drivers’ speed, and to enforce existing “must park 30 feet from stop signs” regulations to improve visibility for everyone using the roads. “Buffered bike lanes” and another methods of “separating vehicles from bikes and pedestrians” were repeatedly mentioned during the discussion.
. THE “GROCERY PROBLEM”: Many agreed that while they try to use transit and alternative commute options for work, they “need a car to get groceries” because of a lack of transit options for getting from Delridge to “the grocery stores near California Avenue.” Gray mentioned the mayor’s overall goals of creating vital “urban centers” closer to where people live (one commenter said “I’d never have to drive if I had a grocery store, library, and dog park within walking distance”), but acknowledged the challenges with “east/west” transit in West Seattle. Another commenter suggested the possibility of a “grocery bus” that would circulate between the neighborhoods and the major grocery stores, with the cost largely subsidized by the stores themselves. Another suggested a “transit center” (perhaps located near the West Seattle Bridge) similar to the one that serves the Northgate area, as a closer alternative to the Alaska Junction (which is “the only transit hub we have in West Seattle,” he said).
. HELPING EVERYONE: Attendee Jake Beattie, executive director of the Seattle bicycle advocacy group Bike Works, lauded the goals of Walk/Bike/Ride but noted that “as I look around the room, I’m not sure that all of our people are represented.” Gray agreed that a key part of Walk/Bike/Ride was to engage with communities of color and low-income areas (a community meeting for Rainier Beach is planned in the fall, for example). Beattie also asked about an “education component” to the program, and Gray responded that it’s a huge part of the initiative – residents need to be aware of what options they have, and how to use them.
. WORKING TOGETHER: In response to a question about how the initiative solves the problem of various departments “not working together when they need to,” Gray said that the Walk/Bike/Ride initiative involves numerous stakeholders like DPD (Dept. of Planning and Development), the mayor’s office, SDOT, Parks, Seattle Public Utilities, Public Health, Dept. of Neighborhoods, City Light, and others. She said that it often takes a “major project or initiative like this” to clarify roles and strengthen cooperation.
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