Pedestrian lights now live on 15th Ave NW

Meghan Walker Ballard

The pedestrian lights installed on 15th Ave NW between the Ballard Bridge and NW Market St. are now live. Work was delayed slightly as crews were waiting for equipment to arrive, which now allows pedestrians to cross 15th at NW 53rd St.

The Seattle Department of Transportation has developed a new crosswalk, with a center island and pedestrian lights. SDOT says the crosswalk was necessary to help pedestrians cross the busy arterial, which carries an estimated 50,000 vehicles and 15,000 bus passengers every day.

With the new addition, cars are no longer able to use the center lane for turns at 52nd, and a new bus lane replaces the center lane from 53rd to 51st.

For more information on the project, plus other “spot improvement” SDOT is working on around the city, click here.

51 thoughts to “Pedestrian lights now live on 15th Ave NW”

  2. I’d like to nominate elenchos to take the first steps across the road. At night. Wearing all black. With malfunctioning lights.

    1. Good choice switching to a new screen name to post this. Cowardly, but you know the score. Wishing guys who disagree with you on the internet dead is a totally normal and healthy thing which in no way suggests you have psychological problems.

      Always the fascist way: get rid of the ones you don’t like. Find a way to just get rid of them, and that’s going to fix it.

      1. I found something elenchos and I agree on. Totally uncool Vision zero. “Cowardly” doesn’t even begin to describe your comment. Must be plenty other places online that you can go troll.

  3. “… the crosswalk was necessary to help pedestrians cross the busy arterial, which carries an estimated 50,000 vehicles and 15,000 bus passengers every day.”

    And the estimated pedestrian traffic is expected to be at least a half dozen or so per day… with another dozen crossing into traffic at 54th and 52nd streets anyway.

    I’d love to hear about the thought process that went into this decision… was any metrics or data used to support the need and/or the expense? Or just anecdotal… someone saw a couple people without common sense run into the street cause they were too lazy to cross at Market? Can’t wait until the construction on a bike lane commences.

    1. It’s little more than a hobo culvert so they can migrate back and forth from their meth spawning grounds in the campers of Freelard, and then bring their baggies back to Ballard to enjoy with their fry.

    2. Ah, I see you don’t pay attention when on this stretch of road. It’s a long section of road without any safe crossings. It’s been improved dramatically now. And yes, a proper bike lane would help a lot, but I don’t see it happening until the Ballard Bridge has significant work done on it.

          2. Again, show your math that getting from the vicinity of 53rd, across 15th, results in only “three blocks one way, five the other” with the previous configuration. I’ll let you ignore friction, the width of 15th and the incline.

            I’ll wait (just kidding, I won’t).

      3. Appreciate the condescension. I guess I paid attention long enough to notice a crossing at Market Street and under the Ballard bridge. Maybe you can define “long” for a “long section of road” cause perhaps now they can add pedestrian crosswalks at other “long” stretches… maybe 52nd street and 54th. Make it like 2nd Avenue in Belltown… a crosswalk/traffic light at every single corner, all of which will still be ignored regardless of red light or green. Maybe add a few more on I-5 for people that wish to cross the freeway.

        1. As a point of clarification to John above, all I meant in my original comment was that I hoped the decision to build the crosswalk was an informed decision, based on metrics or analysis. If so, fine. As opposed to a kneejerk reaction to someone reading a newspaper or hearing about someone being injured and the immediate reaction was: “That’s terrible, we should build a crosswalk.” That’s all.

          And yes, I do pay attention cause I’ve been driving through that corridor every day for the past 11 years so I’m familiar with the traffic pattern and pedestrians that I observe (not many). How about you?

          So for the first run-through yesterday at 5pm, I did get stopped at the crosswalk, but guess what? Nobody was walking across. I guess they got tired of waiting and since it;s slow-moving traffic, they probably crossed against the light anyway. Ahh… progress. But hey, pedestrian has the right of way even if they want to walk in front of a green traffic light without making eye contact with a large moving motor vehicle.

          1. Same with me this morning. Light turned red during morning rush hour, no pedestrians!

          2. Wow, you’re seriously not going to get over that, are you?

            It’s indisputable that you were inconvenienced for what must have been upwards of one minute. Possibly as many as TWO minutes? Possibly. Because a traffic light was behaving unexpectedly. That’s what happened. It happened to YOU! That’s a big thing to face.

            In a perfect world, a light should not have turned red. But it did. You stopped and waited for 60 seconds or so.

            Do you need to take some more time to share with the group how you felt during your period of inconvenience? How did you cope during your 1-2 minutes of inconvenience? Breathing exercises? Prayer? Perhaps making a list of all the other times you have been inconvenienced, so you can be sure to hold a grudge for all of them?

          3. I think he’s simply trying to convey (based on admittedly early casual observations from people who actually travel through this corridor every day and have a slightly informed opinion) that it was possibly a poor use of money where the need most likely does’t exist. Just thinking the money could have been better spent.

    3. It’s crazy! There have been cars stopping to turn holding up traffic. U have to drive all the way around to turn into a store! They’re going to lose business. Is this a City Council project?

      1. Those holes in the center divider will be plugged up, so that will stop the left turners from doing the now illegal left turn.

        Lose business? Are you serious?

  4. This will actually be a great cutoff for drivers looking to bypass the extended delays at Market and 15th and on Leery…essentially 53rd becomes a cut through express lane to access the Ballard Bridge. Hopefully Google Maps takes a few years to catch onto it in their directions to UBER and Lyft drivers.

  5. It’s no longer the wild west on 15th up to market. Now we don’t have to deal with the selfish drivers with their car’s butt sticking out into traffic as they make illegal turns onto 52nd

  6. This is great! But let’s be clear here. The problem isn’t pedestrians wanting to cross where there wasn’t a marked crosswalk, it’s that vehicles fail to stop for pedestrians where there are unmarked crosswalks (at every intersection). As we saw recently, such failures to follow the law can result in death.

    Now we need to get them to add a crosswalk on 83rd. Vehicles never stop here even when I’m well off the curb in the first lane of traffic.

    2. If you’re trying to cross at 83rd and expect traffic to lock up their brakes and come to a screeching halt, you need a lesson in common sense. Seriously? You got 85th a few blocks to the north and 80th to the south. So we’ll back up traffic into one of the busiest intersections in the city. I suppose if you wanna cross a busy stretch of Aurora, you’d expect a crosswalk there, too. Hell, there’s no crosswalks between 60th and 65th… let’s build a couple there.

      1. 30 mph is slow enough to see and recognize a pedestrian attempting to legally cross. If drivers are “screeching to a halt”, they are going too fast and that’s great justification for another signal at 83rd!

        1. And 30 mph is the maximum; it’s not the speed everyone is entitled to go at all times. The default for any street is drivers have to stop in crosswalks, marked or not. RCW 46.61.235

          If obstructions like parked cars or bushes prevent you from being able to stop in time for pedestrians or bikes using crosswalks, then you have to slow down to whatever speed allows you to see them in time.

          The more they add signals and crosswalk markings, the more it creates the false belief that those are the only places you can cross. If anything, remove as many as we can and keep up enforcement so drivers get the message that it’s their job to open their eyes and see people. All the orange and white paint and flashing lights does is train drivers to ignore everything that isn’t hi viz.

      2. Expect traffic to stop? No. I’m certainly not that naive.

        However, I do enjoy pointing out the hypocrisy of drivers… Apparently in drivers’ mind it’s fine for drivers to break the law — failing to stop for pedestrians, speeding, using their phones, eating, etc. — while chastising bicyclists and pedestrians for breaking similar laws. It’s okay for a driver to tell a pedestrian to go 10 minutes out of their way for the driver’s benefit, while the same driver complains about the addition of crosswalks and bike lanes that offer the slightest inconvenience to the driver.

        I’ll also point out the hypocrisy of the folks that break those same traffic laws and also spend endless electrons complaining about how the lawless homeless population breaks all sorts of laws with impunity.

        Want a better Ballard, a better, safer community? Well in between your rants about the homeless and the city counsel how about taking a look in the mirror and adjusting your own actions? If you’re feeling powerless I guarantee that your own actions are something that you can actually control.

        1. It goes both ways. I always try to obey all laws while driving, especially the ‘ignore the phone’ one that seems to plague so many. And my biggest ‘that’s idiotic’ moment is that every intersection is a pedestrian crosswalk. But I get it. Drivers are agitated, they’re in a rush, bikers are agitated, pedestrians are agitated. I try to always make sure drivers see me when I’m trying to cross, because even if I’m within the law to cross ‘at any intersection’, a car still outweighs me by quite a bit. Wish I could say I see other drivers around me doing the same, but sadly, I don’t.

        2. I walk across 15th at 77th and I usually wait until there are no cars coming in either direction. Law or not, I just can’t imagine stepping out into the street and expecting everyone to stop. I suppose that comes from growing up back east. I even wave turning cars to go ahead and proceed and not wait for me.

          I still find it mystifying that pedestrians don’t make any effort to make eye contact with an approaching car though. I know, I know… IT’S THE LAW… but it just seems weird to me… and a little unsafe. Sometimes there are conditions and circumstances that aren’t ideal for just assuming a person is seen or a car can reasonably stop (backlit against the sun, clothing, obstructed views, condition of the road like snow, etc.). It’s not always a speeding or distracted driver. Personally, I never look at my phone while in motion.

          1. For pedestrians, it’s better to use your peripheral vision and hearing to track where the cars are, rather then look directly at them. Approach the lane like an oblivious fool, appearing as if you will walk right out into traffic. When you make eye contact with a driver, you’re giving them permission to step on it. They know that you know they’re coming, and they know you’ll get out of their way.

            It deflates their overconfidence and they have to stop. If they still don’t, well, you were only acting like you were going to step in front of them, not actually doing it.

            Drivers who were paying attention and adjusting their speed to match the conditions — glare from the sun for example — aren’t bothered. It’s the ones who weren’t going to stop who are, you know, “inconvenienced”.

          2. For the love of god Elenchos, please keep crossing the street this way.

  7. I’m glad to see the city is making the safety of it’s citizens a priority. This shows the city listens to it’s citizens and their concerns and is committed to making this a better place to live.

  8. So this morning I was driving south, and the new light turned red. I was the first car to stop, and I saw ZERO pedestrians, but there was a car on the west side that did turn south.

    I was super pissed! Is this light going to turn red for 15th if there is a car on 53rd?!?! Or did I somehow miss the pedestrian (I was the first car at the light and am well aware of the traffic change so was immediately looking for a pedestrian). The light is also very long.. the crosswalk timer started at about 20 to count down.

    1. SUPER PISSED! AAAAAAAAAAARGH!

      Driver Inconvenienced! Riots Ensue! Film at 11. Ever notice how drivers are never not super pissed?

      Here’s the thing: traffic will always suck for drivers. It’s a self-licking ice cream cone. The only way to get free and clear roads for cars is when a once thriving city collapses and becomes a ghost town, like Detroit after 2008. If you’re city isn’t dead, it will always suck drive a car. Either live with it, or find a way to get out of your car.

      2. Actually Elnchos-Nachos. When designing traffic infrastructure and multi-modal transportation policies there is a trade off between safety and efficiency. Seattle, more than any city over 100,000 people has most stringently adopted the “Vision Zero” policies as set by the non-profit Vision Zero Network. The stated objective by SDOT is literally, ZERO fatalities by any mode of transportation.

        Other municipalities take a more balanced approach that prioritizes safety and the efficient movement of pedestrians, bikes, vehicles and transit. I am very close to the regional transportation director of a large U.S. city. They have pointed out several things about Seattle’s approach such as:

        1) Lagging/rotating left turn lights. Other cities rarely implement this because it slows traffic throughput by something like 10%. It is standard in Seattle.

        2) Speed limits are set 5-15mph LOWER than the National Transportation Safety Board. This is the part of the Federal government that collects highway and roadway safety statistics and gives guidelines to what speed limits should be set at. Nearly every single larger road in Seattle has its speed limit set lower than the federal guidelines. (15th through innerbay would be 45mph (50 for where it is divided).

        3) Review process for adding lights — SDOT uses a calculation metric proposed by Vision Zero for determining if a new traffic light should be added. Nearly every other city in the U.S. uses actual incidents (i.e. serious crashes) to decide where to add lights. Seattle just puts them everywhere.

        Yes my single person annoyance to waiting in traffic for an extra 1 minute is trivial. What isn’t trivial is the aggregate time spent commuting in Seattle is for the maybe 1 life all these changes make. (Sounds harsh, but literally no other city in the U.S. has made the same decision that we have

          1. I know I shouldn’t mention this cause elenchos will probably hunt me down (and no, this didn’t inconvenience me), but tonight on the drive home, I observed a pedestrian scrambling in-between traffic, crossing at 52nd avenue (one block south of the new crossing). Yup… one block. I wasn’t angry or white-knuckling my wheel (sorry to disappoint), but I was thinking: That’s not too smart, but maybe they’ll install a crossing at 52nd street now. Sorry… just kidding.

            To be fair, I made confirmation of a real person tonight using the crosswalk. She looked happy and content and all the drivers waved to her and started a singalong and big dance number like in La La Land. So all is well.

            Let’s all be careful out there and keep an eye out for each other.

          2. Which specific cities do you mean, with these higher speed limits and driver friendly left turn signals and whatnot? The cities that wait until after someone gets hurt before doing anything about unsafe intersections? Do they have more cranes than Seattle? Is their unemployment lower? Is their economy expanding faster?

            It kind of seems like if your city’s economy is so hot that your worst problems are gentrification and no room at the bottom for those not getting rich, maybe you can afford to slow traffic down a bit and save a few pedestrian lives. Longer commutes translates to less worker productivity, but productivity is at an all time high and keeps increasing. If any city can afford Vision Zero, it’s Seattle.

          3. Thanks for the positive comments. Haven’t seen those in a long time.🙄

    2. I feel your pain. I was just on an elevator which stopped at a floor, the doors opened and nobody came in or left. I also was SUPER PISSED because of course that is an emotionally reasonable response to being delayed for a few moments.

  10. eh, there are never any cops around anyway so i’ll probably just go through the red light if there are no peds in the crosswalk….

    such a waste of time and resources. 15th and market is a mere 3 blocks away. derp.

  11. I like the Subway at 53rd & 15th, but I don’t like making left turns off of 15th. So I don’t go that way, I cross to 14th & go down & come in the back way.

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