According to signs posted around Volunteer Park, the western loop road will be closing to motor vehicles beginning Friday, June 12th. It will be available for use by pedestrians and cyclists only. Apparently, this will be a full-time deal as part of the Healthy Parks, Healthy You program.
It looks like vehicle-blocking posts will be installed to prohibit traffic at the 12th & Prospect entrance, the loop entrance (just west of the conservatory) and the loop exit (just west of the water tower).
I searched high and low on the Seattle Parks and City of Seattle websites but was unable to find any links to share with further details.
UPDATE:
CHS wrote about the closure plan in February — Plan to close Volunteer Park western loop to cars
This will make it harder for all those married men who tell their wives they are going to the store and then park on that drive to wait for someone to get in their passenger seat for a quick bj.
I am not necessarily opposed to this closure, but I really don’t understand the reason for it. The “western loop” road gets very little traffic, and there are no safety considerations that I know of. Will closing it really get more people to take a walk, or bicycle ride, through Volunteer Park? (I doubt it).
Does anyone have any thoughts on exactly what this will accomplish?
I believe closing the western loop will cut down on cruising… the creepy guys sitting in their cars.
Yeah, it probably has nothing to do with safety, pollution, health of the park, or a healthy you: it seems pretty obvious that it is a rubric for the real purpose to shut down the cruisers as others have mentioned. But not a bad thing really. It’s kinda creepy walking through there when you absolutely, positively know why those people are sitting in their cars.
Maybe things have changed in past year, but I would think I would have seen more SPD reports of this kind of activity if it was so prevalent.
Why not close the loop?
Justin, you don’t see police reports because the police don’t do anything about it. These guys/cruisers/parkers are doing their thing all hours of the day and night and the police are rarely in the park and are even more rarely called in to enforce anything.
I agree w/others here that this is an attempt to shut down the cruising and has nothing to do w/any supposed “healthy you” initiatives.
It’s obvious that the lower loop was closed to discourage the cruising traffic. It should also be easy to infer from the clever title that cruising is considered by some people as unhealthy. That’s why the closure is to make a healthier park and healthier cruisers?
It’s been pretty obvious over the last 5 years that the goal of the parks department has been to get the cruisers out of the park. First it was the shutting down of the restrooms, then it was the cutting down all the trees and bushes, and now it is shutting down of the of the western loop. So now on a busy weekend where are people going to park? On the streets nearby the park making it more difficult for residents to park. And I will never be comfortable walking on the street anyway with all the bikes going down that hill at full speed. And the cruisers will still be there….they’ll just move…..maybe by the playground….problem solved.