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It’s now easier to cross the street along E Pike below Broadway. And drivers will have an easier time turning onto the busy route used by many as a vital connection between downtown and Capitol Hill.
It’s not quite “stop signs on every block of Pike” but an effort to slow and better control vehicular traffic through Pike/Pine has expanded with the Seattle Department of Transportation adding new sets of stop signs to three busy E Pike intersections at Summit, Belmont, and Boylston.
The work follows installations in 2021 creating new 4-way stops around Pike/Pine at some of Seattle’s busiest crossings. “Based on the large number of people walking and driving through these intersections, we are adding 4-way stop signs at five intersections in this area to improve safety for pedestrians and to create a consistent traffic control network in the Capitol Hill Neighborhood,” a department spokesperson told CHS last year.
The new additions now mean every intersection of Pike between I-5 and 15th Ave is either controlled by traffic lights or a 4-way stop.
This year’s upgrades have come as a welcome surprise for walkers, bikers, and, yes, even drivers who frequent the densely packed area home to businesses ranging from Doghouse Leathers and Babeland to Amazon Go.
The new configurations include new east-west signs creating 4-way stops at the three intersections — shown in gold in the map below — that now join the traffic light-controlled intersections at Harvard and at Broadway. East of Broadway, SDOT’s 2021 work — in blue, below — slows and controls traffic with stop signs for crossings through Pike/Pine core.
At its busiest, pedestrian and bike traffic already dominated the area making for slow going even before the new stop signs. But thew new setup has mostly worked to keep the busy mix of cars and people moving.
As with the above-Broadway additions, the new intersection setups will take some getting used to. As CHS was taking pictures early Friday afternoon, the driver of a massive Recology recycling truck blew through the stop sign headed west at Boylston without even flinching. The driver figured things about by the time they reached Belmont. SDOT has also placed some temporary signage about the changed intersections to try to help people adjust and spot the new stop signs. But pedestrians, scooter riders, and bikers should be extra cautious as the changes bake in — especially when traffic is light and cars and trucks are moving at higher speeds.
The stop sign work joins 2019 bike lane additions to Pike and coming Pike/Pine bike lane improvements among ongoing efforts to improve safety in the busy area. We’ll also see what else SDOT director nominee Greg Spotts has up his sleeves as he works his way through the confirmation process.
Meanwhile, we’ve asked SDOT for more information about the latest installations and any other immediate plans for the area including E Pine intersections like Pine at Boylston where traffic concerns for crosswalk safety have been an issue for years. We’ll update when we hear back.
Woah! Looks like @seattledot added stop signs to all the uncontrolled intersection on Pike St west of Broadway in Capitol Hill. Great to see more traffic calming coming to this high ped environment! pic.twitter.com/oKXK7nrvAx
— Asher (bluesky: @asher755) (@asher_971) August 22, 2022
@jseattle Stop signs EVERY block on Pike??!! 😍😍😍 pic.twitter.com/TZ1YNKVSph
— Traevore (@everprescott) August 25, 2022
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Yaaaayyy!! Safer all around with this street change!
Now do Pine!
Yes!!!
Amen!
How does one advocate for an added sign? Seneca at Boylston suffers from blind corners and soon will be serving 2 new rather dense apartment buildings. Drivers seem to love to charge up the hill from Broadway.
https://www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/safety-first/traffic-operations
Grazie mille
SDOT doesn’t seem to take Seneca seriously as a majorly dangerous street. Some friends and I are considering just painting crosswalks, city government be damned.
You don’t need to… every intersection (unless it specifically says no pedestrian crossing) is a crosswalk, whether it has painted white lines or not. Not to mention that white lines don’t make motorists behave any better… the only thing that will change motorist behavior is tickets.
Now actually enforce them…. They do little to no good when 99% of motorists just plow through anyway, barely bothering to slow down, much less actually STOP…
There is a naivety in this city that is extraordinarily frustrating that just asking (or putting up a sign) actually prompts people to do things (or not do) things. It doesn’t. As soon as people know there are no consequences they simply do whatever they want to.
Amongst the useless things in this city is trying – the new speed limits.. setting everything to 25 without any actual enforcement clearly hasn’t lead to safer streets.. traffic deaths continue to rise. What I have observed is that it’s now worse… a few people do the speed limit, most people just do whatever they were doing before and a some people now speed even more and weave in and out of the turn lane to pass people.
Stay healthy streets…. zero enforcement and people who are not supposed to be driving on the street simply go around the signs.. I live on one and we’re back to the same amount of traffic and speeders that we always had before the signs. It’s definitely NOT just residents and deliveries coming down it. No one uses the street for walking anymore because, well, they don’t want to die…
More stop signs… we got a whole bunch of those as part of the street changes (my street was already a designated a greenway before the stay health streets initiative) People simply go through them.. some deign to
tap their brakes, but many do not..
Was about to say same. Particularly close to I-5 for too may commuters signs, lights, crosswalks are inconvenient suggestions when kids, disabled, elders, etc. are “blocking” the way between work and dinner. Oh, and the responsible, respectful, law abiding nightlife there.
Yes spot on Nandor. I see this all over the city now. Some people slow down or stop until they see it’s clear and just go through red lights too let alone stop signs. There is one by my house that I rarely see anyone stop while walking the dogs. Laws without enforcement are useless.
As a driver, I’m happy there are stop signs added here but I think stop signs would be even more helpful for both drivers and pedestrians. But heyo progress
So, win-win? 🤷🏻♂️
Awesome!
That “E Summit Ave” sign has always bothered me (it’s just Summit Ave)
Almost got splattered by a couple in a big ‘ol luxury sedan.
Watch out for people who stop, don’t see you and gas it off the line because they are tired of stopping or whatever.
I was thrilled to see this improvement. When I stopped to turn left onto Summit, I thought to myself, ‘wait, was that sign there before?’ SDOT failed to mark these changes with a ‘Traffic Revision Ahead’ sign. I watched as fully 30% of drivers just blast on through.
They actually do have those signs, but unfortunately they’re placed mostly on the sidewalk which means it can’t be seen over the row of parked cars and/or the bike lane.
Why do we even allow cars on these roads? Its absolutely crazy that pike/pine at the core aren’t pedestrian only.
I started traveling to other parts of the world for the first time and have been blown away by how lively streets are in other cities that are just purely pedestrian.
The streets became packed with people and felt so lively.
Totally agree, Austin! Pike, Pine, and many other streets and areas. Ballard Avenue. University Avenue. California Avenue north and south of the West Seattle Junction. The Pike Place Market, of course.
Gotta at least have a way for all of those businesses to get deliveries. I think making it car-free at specific times (like Friday/Sat evenings) would make sense, though.
When can we get the “death cross” at Harvard and Olive at least mitigated with flashers?