The Maple Leaf Community Council today received some welcome news: The much-requested crosswalk on Roosevelt Way Northeast at Northeast 92nd Street has been approved by the city.
Seattle’s Department of Transportation had announced plans for two crosswalks on Roosevelt: one at Northeast 90th Street between the Perkins School and Maple Leaf Ace Hardware, the other on Northeast 97th Street.
Community and council members had asked for the third crosswalk, between the Blue Saucer and the 7-Eleven, among other businesses. The city originally balked, saying there wasn’t enough pedestrian traffic there. But more studying was done and today the Transportation Department’s Brian Dougherty sent an e-mail to the council:
I’m pleased to report that SDOT will mark three new crosswalks in the Maple Leaf business district as a result of the study. These new marked crosswalks will be installed before the end of 2010 or as weather allows.
You’re welcome. I thought the same thing until I moved to Seattle and wondered why people were always walking out in front of me. It’s a state law, actually. It just happens to be more exercised here (no pun intended).
Oddly, the only street corner where you do not have to stop and allow a pedestrian to cross is a signalized corner. Pedestrians have to wait for the signal there or it’s considered jaywalking.
I believe SDOT could do great things for public safety by publicizing this one fact. I bet half of Seattle drivers do not know this rule.
@David Miller:
I was not aware that a street corner on a busy road like Roosevelt Ave implies a crosswalk. I thought when there were painted and/or lighted cross walks on a road, the other corners did not imply a crosswalk.
Thanks for the info.
@MapleLeafBob – Just to clarify, any street corner is an implied crosswalk even if it is not painted. Drivers are required to yield in that situation the same as if there is a painted crosswalk.
We work so hard for painted ones because they are (1) safer when properly designed, (2) they call attention to the possibility of pedestrians crossing, and (3) too few drivers know the unpainted crosswalk rule.
I’m with you about mid-block jaywalkers. I know drivers have to yield, but they take their lives into their hands needlessly just because they are lazy.
This will definitely help and make it safer to cross Roosevelt. Nice work by the council and thankfully SDOT was able to see the light so to speak.
The only other comment I have is to the citizens in the area, of which I am one. Please USE the crosswalks. That is what they are put in place for. I get very tired of people crossing between blocks where there is no crosswalk and then acting like they control the road and any driver who does not slam on their brakes in the last minute to let them by is the devil. Even with the new cross walk near Cloud City, you still get people crossing in the middle of the block near Roosevelt Alehouse and they just walk out into the road like they have the right of way. If there is no crosswalk, you do NOT have the right of way. Either wait for it to clear or walk to where there is a crosswalk. Now you will have more options, so there is no excuse to not use the crosswalk.
This is great news! Thanks to the MLCC for really pushing for this crosswalk. Nice job, folks!
And I’d like to echo David Miller’s thanks to Brian Dougherty. He has graciously put up with my emails on the 92nd st crosswalk for some time now. Thanks again, Brian!
This may have been a bumpy process, but the right thing happened.
Thanks to the people who sent emails about Roosevelt Way crosswalks and those who flagged the intersection at NE 92nd on the SeeClickFix map.
Thanks also to members of the City Council Transportation subcommittee, particularly Transportation subcommittee Chair Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, who helped make sure SDOT was responsive to our inquiries.
Finally, thanks to SDOT (esp. Brian Dougherty) for being a responsive and respectful partner on the entire restriping project. The process started out a little in the weeds due to communication issues, but once those were repaired things got better.
As a reminder, the striping between NE 75th and NE 85th still needs to be resolved. Watch for community meetings next spring on this issue. In the meantime, we’ll be studying transit headways, traffic patterns, and cyclist usage along Roosevelt to see if we can come up with a smart solution for that 10-block stretch to improve our community’s ability to walk, ride, and bike in our neighborhood.
For those who want to keep in the loop, in addition to watching Maple Leaf Life you can sign up for our Transportation e-mail list at
http://www.mapleleafcommunity.org/mail_list_join.html
I’m very glad for this, very glad indeed, but it’s annoying the city can’t be motivated to do anything unless there is a “study.” Since SDOT controls the budget for studies as well, it’s hard uphill work at every step to get the city to devote resources to problems residents otherwise find obvious. It’s also annoying because the city takes only reactionary, and not proactive, steps to address infrastructure issues.
Yay! That corner, with 7-11 on one side and Blue Saucer on the other, are particularlybusy crossing spots. I’m always stopping for pedestrians there.