READER REPORT: Fauntleroy kids beg drivers to slow down

| Fauntleroy | Safety | West Seattle news

Speaking of protests … Jason sent photos and info about this street-side advocacy action that local kids in Fauntleroy did this afternoon:

Cool to see: a child-driven protest against to-fast drivers on 45th between Concord and Henderson. It’s been a problem here since the bridge closure made people use this route as a shortcut.

According to one of the kids (Lola, holding the sign):

“We hope to get drivers to drive slower and pay more attention to kids who cross back and forth. In the past we’ve seen teenagers driving way over the speed limit and not letting us cross first. We started yesterday at a block party while we were pretending to be police officers and saw cars driving too fast. We pulled the ‘20 is plenty’ signs from the ground and waved them in the air. It seemed to work — people were slowing down, waving, smiling and happily honking. So we thought we do it again today.

“When we yelled ‘20 is plenty’ some people rolled down their windows and yelled ten is plenty! We made paper signs saying ‘20 is plenty’ and had a petition sheet for people to sign if they agreed with us.

“I feel like some of the cars might have listened and acknowledged that there were kids who need to cross the street while others ignored us and kept driving like 30 mph over the speed bump. We hope that we can keep doing this until everyone slows down. Today we set up on the side of the road on a speed bump hoping that cars would see us and slow down. We also have some requests that the speed bumps could be a little bigger, and we need a painted crosswalk and another roundabout.”

The Fauntleroy Community Association has long agitated for more SDOT attention there and elsewhere. That section of 45th has a big project in the works to the north – the culvert replacement, which FCA and Seattle Public Utilities will update at 6 pm Tuesday at The Hall @ Fauntleroy (9131 California SW).

B June 8, 2025 (10:15 pm)

Right on!

JustSarah June 8, 2025 (10:25 pm)

Yes! You have allies just a bit farther north on the 8000-8300 block of 46th!

Serious replies only June 9, 2025 (12:05 am)

but don’t the kids know that traffic engineers originally designed the street for 30, 40, maybe even 50mph so now it’s my God given right to go 60? don’t listen to those new “speed kills” traffic engineers, they’re just fools that become blurs as I fly by them at 70.

Sally June 9, 2025 (1:59 am)

Slow down in white center neighborhood around Taco Time, please people are using the streets behind taco time as a way to avoid the traffic lights and to find parking spots for all the bars in the area especially 17th and 18th and 19th Ave SW people are speeding down the residential streets and don’t slow down at all when people are going on their walks and children are out riding their bikes and people walking their pets. I’m glad to see that the children are telling people to please slow down before they end up hitting one of them with a car and killing them.

North Admiral Cyclist June 9, 2025 (5:43 am)

The kids should not have to do this, but glad it helps. We adults need to be responsible, think twice and slow down. What’s the hurry?! Whatever you think you are doing, it’s not worth the risk of injuring pedestrians and bicyclists.

Ann June 9, 2025 (6:29 am)

So proud of our young neighbors! This has been a problem for awhile. Glad they are advocating for the community!

I love sane driving June 9, 2025 (6:55 am)

Plus Fauntleroy Highway between Morgan Junction and Alaska. Especially the half closest to Morgan Junction. People drive waaaaaaay too fast there for cars trying to cross Fauntleroy and for pedestrians.

Pookie June 9, 2025 (7:30 am)

Same problem in Arbor Heights when the bridge was closed. SW 106 and 35th SW became a freeway of speeders and it never recovered. It is now very typical to have people going 40mph on these streets. It would only take a week of emphasis patrols and reckless driving citations to get the message across to these idiots!

Mike June 9, 2025 (7:35 am)

48th at the bottom of Erskine is a race track too. The so called, “speed bumps” are merely gentle undulations in the road which nobody slows down for.

Lincoln Park Mom June 9, 2025 (8:59 am)

As someone who lives in the neighborhood and uses this street daily, I whole-heartedly agree! Well done youngsters. You are our future and you are making a positive difference for our neighborhood and setting a good example. This road was not designed to handle the amount of traffic that uses it. It’s a residential street and should be marked as such.

Sick of speeders June 9, 2025 (9:16 am)

Parents fly down 44th Ave Sw to get to Madison in the morning and afternoon moms carpooling kids who would never do this in their neighborhood lots of kids walking who are in danger along with the cat that was killed about a month agoshame on all of you who don’t give a damn

Julie June 9, 2025 (11:53 am)

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Yes, one day as a crossing guard for an elementary school I had on a special hat, orange vest and one of those flags that crossing guards use and I actually had a man with a car full of children drive right past me as I held out the flag that said stop 🛑 and this was the actual entrance to the school and at the time there was other adults at the 4 way stop holding out their stop flags for cars to stop. I was actually standing in the middle of the crosswalk that went directly into the school holding my stop flag when the person almost ran me over and almost ran over a group of children who were crossing the street in the crosswalk as he drove into the the school. I hated having to do crosswalk duty due to almost being killed.

wetone June 9, 2025 (9:53 am)

I agree we have a problem with speeders and accountability. Wish we could get SDOT to install speed bumps or traffic circles on our street. Your little awareness eye opener is was well intended, but where is the common sense with young kids in the street along with a seating area? A true disaster waiting to happen. Having worked on roadways for years I’ve seen way too many close calls and a few damaging incidents involving irresponsible bad drivers. This was with properly set up traffic control and safety gear. Stuff happens very quickly and a moving object takes time to stop. If a good responsible driver coughs or sneezes while driving by @20mph something like this could’ve resulted in disaster.

AN June 9, 2025 (10:42 am)

That stretch, sure, but at least it has speed bumps. The stretch we live on, just south of the Wildwood intersections is straight-up bananas (lookin’ at you, motorcyclists coming off the ⛴️ and SO many more, people literally speed down the hill to the 🛑 at what seems to be 40-50mph), and our stretch has kids in at least 10 🏠. Why, why must people drive so fast? Do they think it makes them seem cool? All it does is make me think they have tiny, tiny you-know-whats!

JustSarah June 9, 2025 (5:02 pm)

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Unfortunately the speed “cushions” do nothing to slow down cars on 45th. Cars just line up their wheels to minimize disruption. I agree it’s really bad south of Wildwood as well. And Barton even gets rough sometimes; about a year ago I was being closely tailed by an older woman in a luxury car westbound on Barton, and she ended up passing me by going into oncoming lanes at 41st, which is basically a blind curve. So incredibly dangerous. I posted the experience to a neighborhood group and the majority of responses were effectively “well yeah, the speed limit’s way too low, so people get frustrated and do things like that.”
- Hatcha June 9, 2025 (6:08 pm)
  
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  Don’t understand why we have these dumb speed cushions instead of proper speed bumps. Are they jarring to go over? Well, that’s the point.

Jake June 9, 2025 (11:09 am)

Need so many more speed bumps and get rid of double lanes.

Jay June 9, 2025 (12:46 pm)

I live on 18th Ave in Puget Ridge and it has a major speeding problem. I made signs and put them out in the road and park on the street to narrow the road. Anything you can do to narrow the road helps, these super wide roads have a design philosophy from the 1960s that maximizes driver comfort and compensates for inattentiveness to enable high speeds. This is why people feel comfortable going 30-40mph in a 20mph zone. There has been some friction, three people got REALLY angry but I’ve had over two dozen people stop and say they appreciate the signs. I recommend everyone do the same. Those signs and cones can be very expensive, so what I did was get a Home Depot orange bucket, a bag of cement, a 2×4, and a “slow down kids playing” sign. Combine them and you’ve got a stable and visible sign under $20. Put it a few feet off the curb to catch drivers’ attention. SDOT is not going to give us traffic calming measures in the neighborhoods, and the fire department won’t allow real speed bumps just those speed pillows. But the residents of these problematic speeding neighborhood have a lot of opportunity for DIY traffic calming with not a lot of time and money invested. The best first step? If your neighborhood has off-street parking strips, start parking on the street instead. SDOT actually recommends street parking as a traffic calming strategy on their website.

Frog June 9, 2025 (3:29 pm)

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I wonder if putting obstacles in the road would expose you to any liability if a crash results. You could of course argue that no crash would have occurred if the driver was paying proper attention — but businesses are routinely sued for injuries on their premises, and arguing that the plaintiff could have avoided injury by paying attention never gets the defendant off the hook in those cases. That includes injury from hazards that exist only temporarily and inadvertently. If you deliberately put obstacles in the road, I wonder how it would go in court.
- Jay June 9, 2025 (4:12 pm)
  
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  If someone hits one of these bright reflective signs with a neon orange base, they’re in a situation where they’re likely to kill a pedestrian. That’s my bigger concern. Speeders in my neighborhood are often texting or tossing Fireball single-shot bottles out the window. Even those supposedly paying attention never so much as glance to the side to notice you when you’re walking. I’ve been buzzed walking my dog and a stroller more times than I can count. Our city and legal system protect reckless driving over human lives, but I’d rather get hit with a fine than put my kid in a casket. Long blocks like 18th Ave are getting extremely dangerous and Seattle already has an unacceptably high pedestrian body count due to SDOT designs and decisions. People don’t understand just how many Seattle residents are getting killed in the streets these days. It’s not a game or political debate, it’s literally a life or death issue.
  - My two cents June 9, 2025 (5:49 pm)
    
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    You choose to provide a hazard to the motorists who are proving to be hazardous to you?
    - Lauren June 9, 2025 (6:51 pm)
      
      A neon bucket in the side of the street is not a hazard to motorists, come on.
    - Jay June 9, 2025 (6:52 pm)
      
      It’s not even a hazard, the road is 25ft wide and my sign is 3ft off the shoulder. Take a walk in your neighborhood around the time people are going to or coming home from work and see how you like their behavior and the risks they choose to take with your body.
    - JustSarah June 9, 2025 (6:56 pm)
      
      A couple blocks south from me, actually just a couple blocks north from where these kids were, some neighbors do the same thing. Cars parked on both sides of the road, also, to artificially narrow the traffic lane and force people to slow down. Yeah, it sucks they have to do that but the alternative is cars would fly through at 40+. As it is, they do that if they continue down Fauntleroy Place rather than diverting onto 46th.
    - Foop June 10, 2025 (12:21 pm)
      
      If this is a hazard to you then I’d appreciate you surrendering your license.