If you’ve driven on 15th Ave NW lately, you’ve likely noticed the new lights being installed on NW 53rd St. Crews have been developing a new crosswalk, complete with a center island, pedestrian signal and curb ramps. However, work has been slightly delayed as they wait for additional equipment to arrive. The Seattle Department of Transportation estimates that the pedestrian signal will be installed by the end of August or early September.
SDOT says that the half mile between Market St and Leary carries an estimated 50,000 vehicles and 15,000 bus passengers every day; a designated crosswalk will hopefully prevent pedestrians from having to dangerously dash across the road.
There will also be some changes to traffic flow, as the pedestrian island will replace the center turn lane on 15th at 53rd. There will also be a new bus lane from 53rd to 51st, where the center lane then disappears leading to the bridge. This means that cars will also no longer be able to use the center lane for turns at 52nd.
For more information on the project, plus other “spot improvement” SDOT is working on around the city, click here.
Photo: SDOT rendering of new crosswalk at NW 53rd St
Depressing this is delayed. This would’ve made the Subway robberies so much easier for our valued community members.
It’ll be like a salmon ladder for hobos.
Thankfully, I don’t have to use 15th to get into Ballard. I do wonder how much of a traffic impact this crosswalk is going to have – is it going to be one of those ‘on-demand’ ones like by the QFC on 24th? Because that one is pure chaos. If it was a metered/timed crosswalk, that would work better in terms of keeping traffic flowing.
Did someone say “chaos”?
That’s our mission!
Based on the SDOT rendering, it would appear to be a “half signal”, similar to what’s installed on Leary or 45th in Wallingford:
https://www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/programs/transit-program/spot-improvements
There would be a stop-light N/S and crossing lights E/W, and would be metered. I’ve actually crossed here successfully w/o a light, but took some creative yelling and colorful gestures, so if you want chaos, I guess we can stick with what we have now…
such a stupid waste of an idea…
that crosswalk ALL THE WAY up at market street, like three blocks away, is just too far, huh?
It’s not 3 blocks away if what you want is right across the street; it’s 6 blocks away. Why should pedestrians have to walk 1000′ out of their way to avoid inconveniencing people sitting on their butts? I’m somewhat sympathetic to the people riding transit, but not for the people in private vehicles.
no wonder we are such a fat country….
We’re a fat country because of artificial bs they put in our food. We as humans should be avoiding fillers and cheap crap that corporations put in our food to boost profits. Until they I’m avoiding greed and paying a little extra for organic/local/pesticide free.. The less ingredients in a packaged item the better.
We’re fat because we got lazy, then the social justice crowd enabled the fatties with their victim nonsense. It’s simple gluttony and sloth. Grow up.
We’re fat because for the last 100 years city planning has been dominated by the auto/oil lobby. Any attempts to make cities more livable, walkable and transit friendly was quickly squashed through infusions of corporate cash.
So, on the contrary, this kind of project is exactly the kind of thing that will make us a little less fat. It makes the idea of walking around Ballard a little more efficient, a little less burdensome , and thereby encourages people to walk instead of drive.
I think that most people in our community support this sort of change.
What a load of pure BS. You lost any credibility when talking about the “last 100 years” here. Cars and oil heat WERE the norm. It’s what we had. And today, due to your votes, we are over-represented by the cycling lobby; Mike O’Brien being #1, and a fool at that. Who elected you as the fitness czar here? More social engineering is what I see. That and lazy assed millennials who really do feel the world revolves around them. My neighbors have 5 cars and a boat in their driveway. They’re good solid democrats too. They’re never part of any problem.
Why do I drive past so many fatties on bicycles then, especially when I have a BMI of 23.5 sitting in my SUV?
“Why do I drive past so many fatties on bicycles then, especially when I have a BMI of 23.5 sitting in my SUV?”
Because mild to moderate cardio exercise like casual (not pro level) cycling won’t burn off a 4,000 calorie daily intake. In fact, it just makes you even hungrier. A few miles on a bike is fun but unless they’re cranking out 25 miles per day or more forget it.
Yep.
Americans are fat because taxes subsidize our food. If we had to pay the real cost we would eat less like Europe.
Subsidies force people to stuff their faces all day? I don’t buy it. Plus, food costs are way up all over, especially here. More likely lack of discipline from tattered families, children placated with food by dysfunctional parents which becomes a multi-generational problem. Oh, and now we’re “celebrating” all this dysfunction and normalizing it. Imagine telling smokers that “smoking is healthy” or saying “anorexia is beautiful”. Bunch of PC nonsense to cover our societal failure with a hug and a cookie. Sadly, literally.
I consider myself a Ballard pedestrian and find that crosswalk location silly. The one at Market is close enough and the delays to already backed up traffic are not worth whatever marginal benefit there is to pedestrians. Unlike the new Leary crosswalk, I see little pedestrian demand at that location.
Mainly bums scuttling across there. They should have built a culvert instead.
Abve ground or below ground?
What’s cheaper?
For those of us that live off 51st-54th who want to go to a brewery or anywhere on 51-54th but on the other side of 15th, walking all the way to Market to then walk all the way back down is dumb when I can just cross the street and be there.
In the mean-time Elon Musk is prepping for the colonization of Mars which could precede first day ribbon-cutting for the $65,000,000,000.00 rail run to Everett, WA., by as many as 2 years.
I think that comes to about $2,000,000,000.00 per mile.
Are they planning on blocking off all of the center lanes on 15th to turn onto 51-54th then? Also making it so people on the west side of 15th on one of those streets cant make left hand turns onto 15th now too?
This project is already causing major problems. They eliminated the center turn lane but left a gap in the median at each of 51st, 52, and 53rd. So now cars are coming to complete stops in the drive lane to make illegal left hand turns.
I will pay homeless $5 each to walk through the crosswalk every 5 minutes for three hours during rush hour.