Rant (but polite) for SDOT about WB Admiral Way

[JayDee]

I sent SDOT’s contact person (Mary Beth Turner) the following e-mail:

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Dear Ms. Turner:

I am sure SDOT had the best of intentions when the light at California Ave SW and SW Admiral Way was retimed to change the timing of LH turners from the start of the light to the end of the light. At first, I was perplexed, then I figured it out. But tonight, an peculiarity of West Seattle traffic was brought to bear that indicates that the re-timing may be creating a worse problem than it was intended to solve.

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As I came off the West Seattle Bridge onto the Admiral exit tonight in my car, I noticed that the lanes going up to Fauntleroy were backing up, and that people were bailing onto Admiral, along with me (though I am heading to Alki). OK, no problem. Then I approached 42nd on Admiral and the backup for the signal at 41st was across the Fairmount Ravine bridge in the LH lane. The light changed and the traffic inched forward and stopped for a red light. The light cycled, changed again, and I made it through. And stopped.

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The light at 42nd changed to green, and meanwhile traffic in the RH lane kept wizzing by (well, compared to a complete stop). The light cycled, changed back to green and I got through the light and then stopped. Now the left-hand turn lane for WB Admiral to SB California had backed up, and the last car trying to get in was blocking my lane, and the car ahead of me. Admiral WB then got the green light, but because of the new timing, the LH-turn backup just sat there and blocked traffic for the WB LH through lane, and partially for the RH lane due to jockeying. I finally got through, but I figured out the cause for the WB backup at California.

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Now remember, this is rush hour, and people bailed from going up Fauntleroy…and took Admiral instead. Why? Because they can turn LH at California…But with the new light timing, the left-turn lane backup blocks the WB Admiral through lanes, and at times, both of them. When I was stopped at 41st I noticed drivers behind me peeling off and jetting through the hood to avoid the backup.

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So while the light timing may have slightly alleviated the EB backup to 47th at times during the day, at rush hour, it appears to be creating a big backup on WB Admiral. I would argue that the sole cause of the backup is the fact the left-turn lane no longer “drains” before the WB light goes green, hence increasing the backup, and causing people to cut through the hood.

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Can SDOT please re-visit the decision to change the light timing at California Ave and Admiral Way? I realize West Seattle is getting denser, but the old light pattern didn’t seem to create such a systemic problem. In general, I have always been amazed at the volume of traffic that can be handled by Admiral Way given the size of the street. But given the backups on Fauntleroy (tied to the Fauntleroy roadwork changes perhaps?), drivers are changing their habits and causing unintentional side effects.

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Thanks for your attention to this newly created and seemingly unnecessary problem.

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I am crossing my fingers that it works. If you live in Admiral/Alki, perhaps you can also e-mail Ms. Turner at marybeth.turner@seattle.gov

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[JayDee]

To be fair, Ms. Turner replied at 6:11 on a Friday to say:

“Thank you for your message and the detailed explanation. I have forwarded this to our traffic signal engineers.”

Hey, I wasn’t at work at 6:11…

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[texas]

YES!!! that intersection has been a nightmare lately. Thank you for taking action.

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[WSB]

She is one of the SDOT people with which we deal often, in seeking information, answers to WSB’ers questions, etc. and she has been very helpful. Lately she’s been sending info outside the usual news release purview, like the quick advisory about work on The Bridge on Saturday. Now just keep an eye on the signal and see what happens. The Fauntleroy one was restored as requested, so hopefully all will play out positively here too.

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