Neighbors and Seattle’s City Hall have begun the process of doing something about the conditions that led to the death of Capitol Hill resident Max Richards who died last week after being hit by a driver while crossing the sloping street at Belmont Ave E and Bellevue Place E.
Completing a legislative process begun long before the 79-year-old was killed, Seattle safe streets advocates celebrated the City Council’s passage Monday afternoon of new rules that will drop the speed limit by five miles per hour to 25 MPH on many arterials across the central city including Broadway, Pike, Pine, and Madison. Meanwhile, the speed limit will drop to 20 mph on 2,400 miles of non-arterial streets across the city. Under the approved changes, around 500 new speed limit signs will be installed. The city would then enter a warning period before police officers begin enforcing the new speeds. The move is part of Mayor Ed Murray’s Vision Zero plan to end traffic deaths by 2030.
The new rules won’t apply to the busy Belmont Ave E route where Richards was hit by a driver while walking his dog Wednesday morning, September 21st. But a Seattle Department of Transportation official says a traffic study will be done at the intersection to provide engineers with data to assess the traffic flow in the area and possible safety changes.
City of Seattle officials, meanwhile, have been silent about the death even as Monday’s speed limit legislation was passed. Mayor Murray did not mention Richards in his discussion of street safety investments during Monday’s address on the 2017 budget proposal. Meanwhile, District 3 representative Kshama Sawant has also not publicly addressed Richards’ death. UPDATE 9/28/2016: Following this post, Sawant posted messages of condolence — and said her office is joining the call for crosswalks:
Our condolences to friends & family of Max Richards. We absolutely have to work to end pedestrian fatalities. https://t.co/z00N0wYI5p
— Kshama Sawant (@cmkshama) September 28, 2016
Neighbors are pushing ahead for more. A petition started by Lucas Thornblade is asking for community support for the creation of marked crosswalks at the intersection:
We, the undersigned, are residents and business owners of the community near this intersection.
We believe:
-that this intersection (Belmont Ave E & Bellevue Pl E) is unsafe for pedestrians because there is no marked crosswalk
-that vehicles have poor visibility of persons on foot or bicycle
-that vehicles often drive at speeds in excess of the posted 25 MPH limit
-that because of the steep grade, crossing at an alternate location is difficult for those with limited mobility
-and that, despite implied crossing rights at this intersection, vehicles regularly fail to yield to those waiting to cross
We petition the SDOT to:
-urgently reevaluate the need for safe pedestrian crossing at this intersection (Belmont Ave E & Bellevue Pl E)
-install striped pedestrian crosswalks at this intersection
-consider the addition of In-Roadway Warning Lights (IRWL) at this intersection
-consider the addition of pedestrian crossing signs at this intersection
“Please help us to make this a safer part of our neighborhood,” the petition concludes. You can add your name to the petition here.
Advocate group Central Seattle Greenways is also hoping to work with Richards’ wife to organize a memorial walk recognizing the life of the professor of English literature and “ask the City to fund the safety improvements required to achieve the Vision Zero goal of no fatalities or serious injuries on our streets by 2030.” The group, unfortunately, has become quite experienced at organizing similar events across Seattle.
UPDATE 9/29/2016: A memorial walk for Richards will take place Sunday, October 2nd:
Memorial Walk for Max Richards
Sunday, 10/2/2016 from 1 to 3 PM
Bellevue Pl E and Belmont Ave E
Max Richards was killed crossing at Bellevue and Belmont on Wednesday morning, September 21. Max was walking his dog in a legal crossing. We want to make sure this crossing and every crossing in Capitol Hill is safe for people who walk.We will gather at the place where Max was killed. We’ll stop and remember Max, then walk to Cal Anderson Park to discuss ideas for how we can make streets better for walking on Capitol Hill. Along the way you can get to know your neighbors and hear about their stories about the difficulty of walking around Capitol Hill.
The crosswalk at 15th and Union is another dangerous crossing for pedestrians even though it is marked and has a flashing light. People just don’t slow down enough on the downhill and routinely speed here. I’m sure there are many others.
..and good luck with getting any changes. I wrote to the mayor’s office about the dangerous intersection above and got a long winded response from a city official about how there are only two traffic safety officers in the entire city. I later got an e-mail saying my case was closed.
Union in the mornings southbound is a collection of speeders and light runners. (Both drivers and cyclists) I have witnessed on occasion pedestrians with the right of way having to jump out of the way. On Capitol Hill speeders and people probably driving under the influence (of whatever) are a daily challenge for pedestrians just trying to cross the street. Wouldn’t it be nice for some problem streets and intersections to get attention before someone ends up dying rather than after.
Union runs East-West
I contacted the city of Seattle to install marked crosswalks for other dangerous intersections, but the answer was that the city is data-driven and will install marked crosswalks based on crash data…. this means they will only react to events like this instead of anticipating them.
Yes. The City is ignoring Vision Zero best practices in looking at leading, rather than lagging, indicators.
This is a great visualization of how it’s supposed to work if you actually value human life, like Sweden:
P.S. That image wasn’t the best example, but it’s just the industrial safety inverse pyramid.
John, that’s a terrible response from the city and does not seem consistent with the city’s aim to address safety. In this case, “data-driven” = future reported injuries and fatalities. That is exactly the opposite of their stated goals.
In addition to SDOT, be sure to contact city council members. CM Johnson reminded everyone at the renter’s summit that he uses feedback he gets from constituents to push SDOT to do better on problematic facilities.
Data driven means that they will accept reports from multiple entities with financial interests in spinning every data set they questionably collect. The city does not really understand anything. Danny Westneat does. I wish he were Mayor, with several clones to sit on the city council.
It is truly sad that the City is taking a “reactionary” approach to our pedestrian/bicyclist vs. motorized vehicle safety issues. I truly wish we, the City AND State, would adjust the Vision Zero practices and work at PREVENTING safety issues, rather than REACTING to them.
I mean, seriously, how many more people need to be killed before change is made? i’m heart broken to even ask such a question.
Hoping for positive change!
I haven’t seen many details on this accident, just that the driver was only going 10 to 15 mph; if that’s even close to true, then speed certainly wasn’t a factor. And as someone who has lived on Capitol Hill and walked everywhere for the last 20 years, I don’t think I’ve seen someone pulled over by a cop more than a couple of times here; it seems to me that the city and the police department here is far more interested in issuing parking citations instead of looking for shitty drivers. I know I see them constantly in my walks, but my cop sightings are very rare.
So you can lower the speed all you want, put in crosswalks, whatever; for the most part though I don’t think that will affect people’s driving habits, no matter how many signs they change. You have to be always on the lookout for your own safety, whether you’re walking, driving or on a bike. There are just too many other people out there doing stupid shit; texting or looking at their phones, walking or coasting through through an intersection against the light and not paying attention, speeding through our many roundabout intersections when it’s dark and you can’t see a pedestrian until you’re on top of them….
The intersection a block down the hill from this one is a 3-way stop, which I walk through every day to and from work, and the number of drivers I see that treat that as a yield (if that) is huge. It’s stupid how many times I’ve almost been hit by someone there. Last week I saw a guy speeding towards the 90-degree curve in the overpass there while holding a cellphone in one hand; he briefly took his other hand off the wheel and vigorously rubbed his eyes. If you know where I’m talking about, you should agree, that’s a stupid place to be so blase about your driving.
Which is no to say I don’t think it hurts to try changing things, I just think crosswalks and lowered speed limits give pedestrians a false sense of security. I’ve known a couple of people that have been hit by cars, and both times it was at an intersection where they had the light and were in the crosswalk.
While I agree with you and share the experience, the real solution is to rebuilt that damned street. It is a failing arterial that handles major traffic that is wasn’t built for.
So sorry about what happened.
Maybe this intersection needs all-way stop signs like the one below it? That seems like one good way to make it safer.
Still waiting to hear word from the police investigation about what happened here.
I agree. Even with crosswalks, or lowered speed limits, the visibility and skewed visibility at this intersection make driving this road really though. People need to completely stop. It forces you to pay attention again, even if you’re already doing the speed limit.
*tough
I agree! I live here and drive and walk through this intersection every day. It’s treacherous! Another point that’s dangerous is crossing Bellevue Ave where it turns to Bellevue Pl, there’s no safe way to cross to Bellevue Ct. At the very least there should be a marked crosswalk there as well. Drivers routinely come careening around the bend.
Belmont (and Roy) is extremely dangerous for pedestrians, bicyclist, and cars from the intersection of Broadway & Roy all the way down to Belmont & Lakeview. All us who use the main drag that connects South Lake Union with Capitol Hill are familiar with the broken pot-holed pavement and narrow, curvy, hilly, lanes that are forced to accommodate street parking, and is not wide enough to safely accommodate two cars much less pedestrians and bicyclists. This main drag is on steep hills, and presents a dangerous sharp narrow turn (where Roy become Belmont). The solution of course would require the road to be rebuilt. Repaved, widened (or remove street parking), and better lane markings and crosswalks.
Again, the city will fail us with infrastructure. Yes, the private sector is building all around us, yet the city fails at every task of maintaining safe and usable public infrastructure. Absolutely fails at every single possible opportuntiy. Makes you wonder what kind of corruption is at play. Did I say absolutely and completely fails the public? I wish there were more complete words to use to describe our cities complete and utter failure to manage our infrastructure.
And they should be collecting more money than at any time in history based on this unmatched time of development.
Failed. Utterly.
Yet they can spend an inordinate sum of money to make 2nd Avenue more dangerous and cause two hour backups on the now one lane in each direction on Roosevelt. So don’t say they don’t have the money. They’re just wasting it on garbage.
I would prefer that they add stop signs to every intersection down Roy and Belmont from Broadway to Lakeview. I can’t think of any reason not to.
Rob S, I agree with you about Belmont…..especially dangerous is the long block between Summit and Roy, which has a very rough pavement and potholes, and which is very narrow. The parking should be eliminated on the north side of that block.