In order to make the bus routes through Ballard more reliable, the Seattle Department of Transportation is making changes along Market Street, including to the intersection of 24th Ave NW and NW Market.
Last year a pilot project was proposed to make major changes to the intersection, but after meeting with the community and doing analysis, that pilot project has been scrubbed. “The original plan for 24th and Market, to convert the right-hand lanes to transit and right turns only, would have worked as a pilot,” Bill Bryant with SDOT tells us. “However, the current plan – found to be superior to the original plan – does not include converting those lanes. Instead, the signal would be upgraded into a more modern operation and lanes would be re-striped on Market in the immediate vicinity of the intersection.”
Right now the signal is on a timer, but with the changes, Bryant says, vehicle detection equipment would be added to the intersection. The specific design of the project is expected to be completed in April and construction could start sometime between late this year and late 2012, Bryant says.
…and will then be changed to adequately address pedestrian use.
It never ends around here.
I’m not anti car or anti-anti-car. Join me in the malaise.
At least they spend good money when they change their mind.
I’ll call it stimulus.
That intersection right there? 24th and Market? Yeah… Here’s what needs to happen there:
Soutbound 24th the right hand lane need to be turn only Westbound onto Market.
Northbound Shilshole onto 24th the right hand lane needs to be turn only Eastbound onto Market.
Those two areas on 24th have immediate merges at the intersection every signal change there are multiple near collisions as people try to merge into traffic. It’s a mess and someone, probably a cyclist, is going to get killed there.
I blame the problem on dry dock related gawking, especially when the Northwestern has been hauled out. Also, the ladies who sit outside Ocho being too sexy while eating tapas needs to be addressed.
Those right turn-only lanes would be the best thing they could do with funds.
Thanks god they are doing this. The amount of time cars sit and idle in that intersection is insane. If this city updated more traffic lights to sensors as opposed to timers the environment would be a lot better off. BWM did research years ago that Seattle could cut emissions by 15-20% if they updated the traffic lights.
The problem southbound on 24th is not that the right lane is not right turn only, but that there are two lanes possible for a left turn, but hardly anyone uses the left one. The middle lane gets backed up and drivers that want to go straight move to the right lane so that they can get through before the light turns red again.
Also there is a lot of traffic that takes more than one lane to turn for example double buses and trucks. I am only there as a pedestrian so I hope the changes have an improved walk signal too.
Yah, and then you need to merge left back into one lane on Shilshole Ave without taking out the Yankee Diner or any cyclists on the B-G missing link. Nerve, experience and obnoxiousness required.
This intersection is a complete clusterf**k – so many things wrong with it, it’s hartd to know where to start.
Here’s one that shouldn’t be too controversial….
Currently, going eastbound on Market, if you want to turn right onto Shilshole, the curb lane has about one or maybe two car lengths available. It’s legal (and dafe) to turn right there, so if you’re lucky enough to be first in line and you move into the right-most lane, then you turn, and you’re on your way down Shilshole quickly. But because the curb lane is so short, all the right turning traffic gets hung up behind the non -turning traffic in the next lane. It’s very frustrating to be sitting three cars back, but you can’t get over to the right lane to make the right turn because cars are parked almost right up to the corner.
To make matters worse, trucks frequently sit there in that same lane blocking all right turning traffic while they unload for the bars there on the corner.
This all causes traffic to back up all the way to Taco Time during busy times. It’s moronic. It could be very easily fixed, and would get a LOT of traffic moving – it would eliminate a major choke point. Here’s how to fix it:
Get rid of the on street parking on the south side of Market Street from Shilshole/24th all the way to 26th – the mayor and the rest of the Ballard car haters should love that, it will remove parking. But it would get all the traffic moving that is waiting to turn right onto Shilshole that backs up for blocks and blocks (and which impedes the cars that are just trying to go straight through on Market St).
Ticket any truck that blocks this lane with a big fine. Station a cop on that corner during morning rush hour – which seems to be when the beer trucks like to sit there blocking the lane – and hand out tickets for a week – they’ll get the message.
This would make a huge difference, and would require little effort.
There was a time when the unofficial speed limit in Ballard was 13 mph and there was maybe 5 cars moving along NW Market at “rush” hour!. ;) Now its Grand Central Station! The lights now are timed for naps, they NEED to be updated though. (I miss old Ballard. Ah, change!)
The now-nixed “pilot project” actually did what you suggest.
If I remember correctly, it was to permanently remove the first two spots in front of Market Arms, and to eliminate the next four spots during at least the morning rush hour.
And now that plan is no more…
I couldn’t disagree more. The back-ups that are already bad would only get worse.
Hi all, this is Bill from SDOT. The re-striping part of the current plan includes removing the easternmost spot in front of Market Arms and not allowing parking during the morning rush hour for the next eight spots to the west. It also includes removing four spots on the north side of Market in front of the gas station and the old Jacobsen Marine building.