(SDOT camera image, looking south over the intersection)
Just in from SDOT:
We’re happy to report that the protected bike signal at the Harbor Ave SW and SW Spokane St intersection has been activated today and the diagonal bike crossing is open.
This comes more than a year after completion of the rest of the improvements at the intersection – a community-initiated Neighborhood Street Fund project. SDOT had initially blamed the delay on “waiting on the arrival of a new programming chip.”
Yayi will obey the laws of the road & expect others to do as well. I’m glad you can bike to work – I cannot.
Is the “No Right on Red” sign turning from Spokane Street to Harbor Avenue that is supposed to light up when pedestrians and cyclists activate the signal installed and working? I didn’t notice it when I biked by about noon today.
As a bicyclist using the corridor frequently I’m not on board that this is an improvement? I see added delays for all users, and bicyclists heading to Admiral Way hill still need to cross strait as they do now and are likely more vulnerable!
Added delays are a reasonable trade off for a safer and more predictable crossing. Use the bike signal to cross the street and head up Admiral, as you will have control of the intersection.
MJ delays are part of the plan. While our city hasn’t been as transparent with their intentions as others, the plan is to create gridlock to the point where you get frustrated and scream for solutions, their answer will be public mass transit. Getting you out of your car is the environmentalist extremist way. Which will lead to a major problem in the event of a natural disaster.
Oh man, the king, you found us out. We thought we could quietly institute UN Initiative 51 without anyone noticing. Our first step was to install bike signals at lots of dangerous intersections, but it had nothing to do with making people safer. All we really wanted was to force you onto ‘public mass transit’ to give you a case of the cooties. After that, we were going to use our secret city council leverage (they’re all in our pockets! muahaha!) to pass a city ordinance requiring that everyone wear hair shirts, patchouli oil and birkenstocks. Finally, we were going to sneak into your kitchen and replace all of your cookies with tofu biscuits. But now that you went and blew our cover, I guess we’ll just have to get back to tie dying our shirts and singing along to our joan baez records. It’ll do for now, but we’ll be back when you least expect us. Lock up those cookies. Signed, Environmentalist Extremist.
You actually think like the governor. If he has his way you won’t be able to buy or register a new gasoline powered vehicle after 2030. You shouldn’t be making decisions on what type of vehicle best fits your budget.
Yeah, if you haven’t noticed, the Earth’s on fire. The age of internal combustion is coming to an end.
“The world will reach a point of no return if we don’t do something now”….Al Gore 2006. I guess they postponed the end of the world.
Maybe you shouldn’t be making decisions on how much car exhaust we have to be subjected to. It’s your money versus our health. We have plenty of projects to help people driving fossil fuel powered cars. Look at all the highways from which bikes and pedestrians are banned, the new tunnel, etc. This project was about helping people who are not using fossil fuels to get around.
This is conspiratorial thinking to a comically absurd and mind boggling level. It also licks of self-victimization.
“NO, IT’S NOT THE INCREASED VOLUMES OF PEOPLE IN CARS THAT ARE CAUSING TRAFFIC!!! IT’S THE GOVERNMENT CHANGING HOW THE LIGHTS ARE TIMED!!!!”
The experts agree on one thing: the best thing you can do in a natural disaster is to get in your car and drive around, hopefully filming with your cell phone in one hand and holding a dog on your lap. #preparedness
Nobody believes SDOT’s obvious lies about the reason for the delay. We know the delays were because Durkan is against biking.
TsurlyAs a cyclist who has ridden through this intersections 100’s of times I personally never had an issue. I certainly hope bicyclist can still choose to navigate the intersection with the westbound car green time and not be forced to wait through an entire signal sequence!The westbound car phase provides a lot of green time thus I rarely have to stop to wait!I get the fact some cyclist may prefer the new system, but many others see the change as adding delay.MJ
Thank you, MJ for sharing your preferred method of biking. You do you. This project was community generated and selected in 2016 for funding. It came to fruition through input from the neighborhood and biking community to address safety concerns for people using the trail and intersection. Hopefully drivers in a hurry to get to Alki will respect the No Right on Red sign when it is activated.
According to your past posts, you are a fair weather cyclist that only rides during nice weather. I ride 12 months a year no matter what kind of weather and have had several near-misses at this intersection during the fall/winter when its dark and pouring rain.If a few more minutes of waiting to cross this intersection is a burden, that is a reflection of your fitness/riding abilities, not the added safety measures of this intersection. Work on improving your fitness and get faster to make up time between stops and quit griping about a significant and needed safety improvement for this intersection.
MJ, cars will be stopped in all directions when the bike signal is green. How could that possibly make it harder or more dangerous for you to bike across the intersection? Also, if you’ve ridden through that intersection hundreds of times, I find it hard to believe you’ve “never had an issue”. More likely, you’re blissfully unaware of how many times your life was spared when drivers happened to be paying attention.
Huge improvement! A long time in coming, but vastly better than the previously existing condition.
Yay! Will give it a try this afternoon. Unfortunate it opens at a time
when Avalon is a hot mess during construction. Definitely looking
forward to those improvements when they’re done, too.
Agreed that it would have been better for it to open sooner. However, I found that it gives me an opportunity to get out in front of the cars heading up Avalon rather than having to jockey for position at the same time.
MJ. If I, as a driver, have to stop at a red light and wait then you, as a biker, do too. What makes you above the law? Typical narcissistic attitude that the rules apply to everyone but you. I pray you are not hit by a vehicle who has the right of way and not noticing you breaking the law.
TsurlyI’m very fit and actually rode several times in January. I never said I was against the bike crossing, all I said is that it is not a benefit to all users including some bicyclists. Thus the term improvement is based on what perspective you are looking at it.MJ
I rode there today. Not sure why they didn’t set up the signal to work both directions. You cannot cross heading east as you don’t have a button to launch the signal. Instead, you still have to go the old way if heading east, 2 signals, one northbound at Avalon and Spokane and then the second signal heading east crossing Avalon/Harbor Avenue at Spokane street. So cyclists and pedestrians still have the safety risk when cars are turning right on Harbor Avenue.
Sorry, comment time is over.
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