SDOT says this West Seattle sign is fake

A reader in Arbor Heights sent us that photo a few days ago, wondering if that sign on SW 100th west of 35th meant a speed camera was on the way. We hadn’t heard of one – SDOT hasn’t installed any new ones in a few years – so (after going over to see the sign firsthand), we inquired. SDOT spokesperson Dawn Schellenberg told WSB today, “The sign is fake. We’re asking our crews to remove it.” As for new speed-camera installations, sh also told us, “We’re currently evaluating several locations across the city for new school-zone speed cameras and should know more next year about which locations may move forward for implementation.”

anonyme September 24, 2019 (2:39 pm)

As there’s no such thing as enforcement in Seattle, I can’t see what difference the sign makes one way or the other. For that very reason, I can completely understand why some fed-up citizen took matters into their own hands.

Steve September 24, 2019 (2:47 pm)

If they want to make it accurate, simply change it to “NOT ENFORCED.”

HD September 24, 2019 (3:05 pm)

I have been in contact with a Sargent with SPD regarding the flagrant speeding down and red light running on Fauntleroy and they had told me SDOT was adding a camera on Fauntleroy by Fairmont Elementary. Hopefully that comes to fruition.

Jort September 24, 2019 (3:06 pm)

It may be “fake,” but it should be real. There should be automated, camera-based speed enforcement on every street in the city. You go one mile per hour over the speed limit, you get a ticket. Period. That’s one way to dramatically cut down on the unbelievable carnage in lives, injuries and property damage that automobile drivers cause every day on our society. If people don’t like following the speed limit law, time to say “BYE BYE” to driving.

Nora September 24, 2019 (4:34 pm)

Must be nice to have a perfectly calibrated speedometer. I’m usually going the limit or a couple below, and I’d be getting tickets all the time if there was no margin for error
- Tsurly September 25, 2019 (6:38 am)
  
  It’s a Speed LIMIT , not the speed you are required to drive. If you are worried about exceeding it due to the precision of your speedometer, drive well under the limit to be sure.
  - S - in West Seattle September 25, 2019 (8:10 am)
    
    Not true, you can be ticketed for driving to slow also.
    - Tsurly September 25, 2019 (9:48 am)
      
      Here is a good discussion on the topic:https://blog.seattlepi.com/seattle911/2009/04/24/can-you-be-ticketed-for-driving-too-slow-3/If we were speaking about driving on highways, I may be incorrect, but not on neighborhood streets.
Olafur September 24, 2019 (6:06 pm)

LOL – Jort has gotten multiple people upset again, which is his/her/their only real purpose. Hold the printed name up to a mirror and you’ll see what it really is…”troL”. Keep us laughing, Jort!
- Michael September 25, 2019 (4:43 pm)
  
  Do you have a magic mirror that doesn’t reverse the letter “R”?Jort is a blatant troll but let’s not give them undeserved credit for being clever.
Peter September 24, 2019 (6:15 pm)

Oh come on. I hate cars too, but I’ve driven lots of them. Driving at exactly the speed limit and never one MPH over is not possible. For one thing, neither cars’ speedometers not the cameras are that accurate.
Josh September 25, 2019 (6:20 am)

I just rode my motorcycle from West Seattle to Peru, and I realized in the US speed limits are just revenue generators. If you actually want people to move slowly, speed bumps are such a pain in my butt literally! There’s some Latin American rule that every small town needs one speed bump per resident! I hate em, but man it works. I think it’s probably environmentally unfriendly to stop and accelerate all the time – but people move very slowly for the one-time price of concrete, no enforcement or bureaucracy needed!

sw September 24, 2019 (3:08 pm)

Nice work, citizen activists! Very well done.

The King September 24, 2019 (5:57 pm)

Activists? How do you know this isn’t some scammer whose intentions were to send fake ticket in the mail with a P.O. Box set up to collect money.
- Eric1 September 24, 2019 (9:22 pm)
  
  LOL King. Right… Because it is so easy to figure out the mailing address of someone if I simply capture their license plate number on a simulated traffic camera. That is way too much expense and trouble to set up just to get some license plate numbers. I could collect 10X the number of plates rolling through a nearby parking lot with my phone. If I somehow had access to the state license plate database, I would then hope that 10% of the recipients are foolish enough to send a money order to a P.O. Box? And then I would have to pray that the cops wouldn’t figure out my scam before I paid off the camera, signs and the bribe for the database? Wow….
  - The King September 24, 2019 (10:16 pm)
    
    Fake tickets have been a problem in the region since at least 2014, hand held thermal printers are fairly cheap now and have the capability of looking just like a real ticket. Just drop an envelope in a residence mailbox with a ticket in it and apparently people are paying them since this has been a problem for at least five years now. To assume this is some “activist” is naive, what if I were impersonating a police officer out here just pulling people over, would I be an activist or breaking the law?
- Jort September 25, 2019 (8:43 am)
  
  Because that’s literally not happened, like, at all?

Tracey September 24, 2019 (3:32 pm)

What does fake mean in this instance. Clearly a city sign. Did SDOT put it up by mistake or were they trying to pretend there was a camera. What about the one on 35th near Camp Long…is that “fake”too? It has been there for years.

WSB September 24, 2019 (5:37 pm)

You can buy this exact sign online; took me one query to find it. As for the spot on 35th, that is a holdover from the ‘speed van’

https://westseattleblog.com/2010/04/police-photo-speed-van-to-target-west-seattle-speeders-on-35th-sw/
- Tracey September 25, 2019 (2:30 am)
  
  Wow. If drivers can’t distinguish between real and fake traffic signs how can enforcement stand up in court? Perhaps an SDOT logo or something on the “real” traffic signs. Shall we assume the speed van from 9 years ago no longer operates but they decided to leave up the sign?

KBear September 24, 2019 (3:44 pm)

We’re not allowed to have photo enforcement (except in school zones), because state legislators who don’t even live in Seattle don’t want to get caught speeding, running red lights, or driving in the bus lanes.

Peter September 24, 2019 (6:12 pm)

Spot on.

Trurhhurts September 24, 2019 (3:45 pm)

The real reason speed, and other laws don’t get enforced is that NOBODY-and that includes you Jort want them enforced. In the real world everybody drives. Jort, in prior post’s you’ve said you know all about WS traffic because you drive eveerywhere. The problem is that all of you on your high horse will at some point break a traffic law. You don’t want to pay the fine. You all just havn’t figured out how to make law’s that only apply to those you’re pointing your finger at and to get yourselves exempted. I have yet to read an article in WSB,or in other media about all of you going en mass to city council chambers(insert your excuses here) and have yet to see any of you outside a store with an initiative petition to sign(insert excuses here).

Lola September 24, 2019 (4:02 pm)

I think it is great that someone took the time to have that sign made. I guess having safe streets is un-heard of in Seattle as well. Bravo.

Jon Wright September 24, 2019 (4:06 pm)

City enforces nothing. Frustrated citizens erect a fake sign. City’s solution is to remove the sign. Just like the bus lane vigilante downtown who was admonished by the city. Note to city government: if you enforced something now and then, we wouldn’t need to take matters into our own hands.

D Del Rio September 25, 2019 (5:28 am)

In the past, I have received a few speeding tickets. After having to pay the fine, I definitely started to watch my speed when on the road. Nowadays, I can’t remember the last time I have seen someone pulled over for speeding. Maybe if they enforced our driving laws, we wouldn’t have to put so many of our arterials on “road diets”!

Gato September 24, 2019 (4:51 pm)

Um @Jort – can you cite facts for West Seattle about carnage everyday? And think through a bit the cost of monitoring every street in the city.

sw September 24, 2019 (7:44 pm)

Well, we do seem to have a preponderance of flipped-over cars around here. Does that count as carnage? Speed certainly is a major contributing factor to this local phenomena.
- WSB September 24, 2019 (8:08 pm)
  
  The rest of the city seems to have more of a carnage problem but we had a particularly deadly month just this past July. After a few years without a vehicle-related death, three people died after being hit by drivers in West Seattle.
- Gato September 25, 2019 (1:23 am)
  
  Yes – there is carnage. (Speed may be one factor. Inattention may be another.)No – it is not daily.

flimflam September 24, 2019 (5:24 pm)

someone has a LOT of free time on their hands…

Jeff September 24, 2019 (5:26 pm)

I’ve always suspected that a couple of the signs at the bottom of Atlas Pl (road closed ahead, one way, do not enter) are sightly less than legitimate. I also never have any reason to drive up that way, and the signs don’t stop me from walking, so I’ve never really looked into it.

T September 24, 2019 (5:33 pm)

Who or whom ever faked it did a good job at making it look like a real SDOT sign.

Sunuva September 24, 2019 (5:34 pm)

As someone who lives on this street, I have two things to say. 1) This sign (and the other one eastbound) haven’t done much to stop the speeding down our street. Seems the signs have gone unnoticed by the scofflaws. 2) Our neighborhood needs some real speed deterrence and police monitoring. I was surprised when I saw the signs but was hopeful it might make a difference. There is absolutely no enforcement of speeders in this neighborhood, including near AH Elementary, and I support whoever took this into their own hands to try to make a difference. People are putting up “Slow” “Children at Play”, etc signs all over our area. Hoping people finally take notice.

Seattle September 24, 2019 (5:43 pm)

Atlas rd is a skinny one way rd. It’s listed on google maps as a one way rd also.

ArborHeightsRes September 24, 2019 (6:34 pm)

As a Arbor Heights resident I am upset that whoever did this only put up one sign. I will help pitch in a few dollars if they would buy more and put them up on 106th, 35th and Marine View Drive.

Name Goes Here September 24, 2019 (6:54 pm)

So on 16th Ave SW cross of Myrtle or Orchard you know the big strip that leads to South Seattle College and Sanislo Elem. They have a sign there for I want to say at least 2yrs .. I haven’t seen any camera but the sign has been up for awhile. Any chace that’s fake too?

WSB September 24, 2019 (9:20 pm)

We reported on that one three years ago:
https://westseattleblog.com/2016/06/seen-on-16th-sw-no-its-not-a-school-zone-speed-cam-preview/

zdap September 24, 2019 (8:23 pm)

This will be accompanied by fake tickets and fake collections calls.

1994 September 24, 2019 (8:34 pm)

There is another 30 MPH hour sign (but no photo enforcement appendage) on the eastbound lane on SW 100, just east of the cross street 39th, is that one fake too? It appeared about the same time as the one in your photo.Seattle Times today said things are getting worse on the roads. Maybe SDOT needs to revamp their attempts at improving things, their safety ideas aren’t working, time for new thinking.

Bus rider September 24, 2019 (9:15 pm)

Can sdot get rid of the traffic signs for school bus loading at the old vacant lot of denny south of thistle too?

westsideDAD September 24, 2019 (9:16 pm)

The 2 spots on 35th with Speed camera signs are legit. There is a white mini van they move around. It’s usually parked at the High Point Guadalupe school right near the crosswalk during school 20 zone times. They move it down near the golf course hill occasionally but mostly it’s at the school. There is a another older mini van parked down by the golf course hill but it’s not it usually, somebody who lives there. Watch out! ha.

John September 25, 2019 (7:45 am)

Atlas is not a one way road. Historically it has always been two -way and still is. The change being referenced is the addition inthe last ten years of the “Do not Enter” signs at Beach Drive intersection. If Atlas was one way only it would be marked as such at the top and it is not. Google maps is not the Bible and only provides routes. The signage was likely added at the request of residences on the Atlas to reduce short cutting from Beach Drive that was likely exacerbated by Google maps promoting the long time short cut.

Chemist September 25, 2019 (12:15 pm)

Those “Do Not Enter” signs at the intersection between Atlas and Beach Drive go back to the oldest google maps capture available, back in October 2007. I can see where it’d be a very narrow roadway on Atlas at that entrance/exit to have two vehicles attempt to negotiate who goes first.

Mj September 25, 2019 (10:09 am)

Impaired and inattentive (texting) driving are the major contributing factors to safety.

Former Mayor of Alki September 25, 2019 (10:48 am)

Forget about the sign, the speed limit on this road and 106th should be 25mph with speed bumps. There is insufficient pedestrian infrastructure and the neighborhood is full of families, causing an incredible safety concern caused by all the maniacs screaming down the road at 35mph+. I’ve been in touch with the city and I was notified that the speed limit should be 25mph, but they haven’t been able to change out the signs yet do to an existing project backlog.

Oberto September 25, 2019 (10:55 am)

Have any of you talked to your neighbor’s??. WSB has said most tickets are handed out to people in the neighborhood. Saw an article in the Times a while back. SPD had done a speed enforcement around schools. 75% of the tickets were given to parents dropping off or picking up their kid’s. And i have to agree with an earlier commenter that since nobody actually does anything to get vehicle law’s changed what is their problem???

Peter September 25, 2019 (11:09 am)

Is the speed limit sign fake, or just the photo enforced sign?

atleastitssunnyoutside September 25, 2019 (11:24 am)

Hilarious. This is such a great example of Seattle passive-aggressiveness.

Aaron September 25, 2019 (1:32 pm)

So much room on that road- looks like is was designed for a 45mph speed limit! off-street parking, super wide lanes, painted stripes down the middle, these all say “arterial” not super slow neighborhood residential. I bet those complaining about speed are unaware that 80% of their neighbors go 40+ on that stretch. If nothing else, that 80% is a simple majority, and the people have spoken what they think the speed limit should be!

Former Mayor of Alki September 27, 2019 (1:17 pm)

Aaron – Arterial speed limit in Seattle is 25mph, breh. As a resident and someone who has been working with local officials to get safety changes implemented to make this road more safe, I am aware that a lot of those who are speeding are my neighbors. The issue is that the infrastructure in place does not provide a safe environment for the countless adults, kids, and pets who walk around on this road and 106th daily. Changes need to be made.