Pictures of a new sign at Pine and Summit from neighbor Jason Thompson in the CHS Facebook Group
Pictures of a new sign at Pine and Summit from neighbor Jason Thompson in the CHS Facebook Group
The Seattle Department of Transportation is back at work trying to transform the Pike/Pine corridor into a safer place to walk, ride, and drive — sometimes one 4-way stop sign at a time.
The department’s crews last week made the latest installation in a series of new all-way stops added to E Pine and E Pike on Capitol Hill.
“Crews worked in wind & rain today to add signs at Summit Ave & Boylston Ave,” the department said. “We’ll add one more at Belmont Ave as soon as weather allows”
CHS reported here in October on the plans for the E Pine intersections to join a similar re-engineering of E Pike’s core to better control traffic and improve safety from I-5 to 15th Ave, upgrading intersections on the only remaining Pike/Pine blocks not already controlled by a traffic signal or a 4-way stop.
Pictures of a new sign at Pine and Summit from neighbor Jason Thompson in the CHS Facebook Group
The crossings have been the scene of multiple collisions and pedestrian injuries over the years and are home to some of the city’s most utilized — and maybe most risky — unprotected crosswalks. Pine at Boylston regularly qualifies as one of Seattle’s most dangerous crossings.
SDOT says the work should be completed with one last reconfigured intersection at Belmont. The work is being accompanied by temporary signage to help people with the changes.
UPDATE: SDOT says the work is done — “I want to let you know that the stop signs at Pine St and Belmont Ave were installed on Saturday. So all three new sets of 4-way stops are now complete.”
CHS reported last August on similar changes on E Pike below Broadway to add new 4-way stops. That work followed installations in 2021 creating new 4-way stops around upper Pike/Pine at some of Seattle’s busiest crossings.
The Seattle Bike Blog examined the new all-way strategy and its potential for improving safety here:
So is Pine Street the correct context for stop signs? I am very interested to find out. And we should be prepared for the answer to be, “No” or “Meh.” A stop sign is a very low-cost tool that is surely an important strategy for creating more quality crossing opportunities along our city’s many streets on which people driving consistently fail to yield to people in crosswalks (marked and especially unmarked).
“[T]he best solution is a street design in which all traffic is calmed to the point that no stop signs are even needed,” the Bike Blog concludes.
SDOT will be taking on a more complete overhaul of a portion of Pike and Pine soon.
Another more significant change is coming to Pike and Pine below Bellevue Ave as the city completes work on an overhaul to improve walking, biking, and driving conditions between the waterfront and Capitol Hill. As part of the plan, the city will install new bike lane protections and rework Pike and Pine in downtown and on Capitol Hill below Bellevue into one-way streets.
Downtown, ground was broken on the project earlier this year. There is no schedule yet for the work to complete the $17.45 million Pike and Pine transformation but the work is expected to be completed in 2024.
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The way to do that is to remove the tents, have more visible officials in the neighborhood, and address known issue spots (like 3rd ave downtown)
this is a post about traffic safety on capitol hill. give it a rest, jesus. they haven’t done anything about 3rd for decades, what makes you think they’re going to start now because you complained on a blog about a different neighborhood.
Point is that everything else right now is stupid – and like putting a bandaid on a patient’s big toe when they lost their arm and gushing blood.
The city’s only, primary problem is people living on the streets and surviving in inhumane conditions. The rest will solve itself when people are not afraid of existing in the city’s public areas
removing tents is a bandaid and does nothing but terrorize those who are already suffering. until we start addressing the real reasons why so many people are suffering through addiction and homelessness nothing will change.
I’m glad it will be less likely for me to be hit when trying to cross but people have still ran the Pike ones.
Can’t help but wonder what the emissions impact is of all of SDOT’s efforts to destroy arterials and force millions of cars a year to stop and start dozens of times a day. I don’t think there’s enough talk about this. Consider the following research:
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1135482_poorly-timed-traffic-lights-add-to-greenhouse-gas-emissions-here-s-an-estimate-of-how-much
and take a look at figure 5 in this report:
https://www.accessmagazine.org/fall-2009/traffic-congestion-greenhouse-gases/
here’s an easy solution: don’t drive
I live in the area and these stop signs are needed, there’s been too many times I’ve almost been hit, along with everyone else I know who lives and works here.
Instead of asking well is human safety less important than some emissions impact, start pushing for them to turn some of the pine/pike corridor into pedestrian-only routes.
Accuracy: there’s not even a half a million cars in Seattle, let alone millions.
Actually, you are wrong. There are millions of trips per year, which I stated. This is accurate. You are not wrong. Thanks, tho.
Apologies, I mean that “you are wrong”, not “you are not wrong”. I’m talking about trips per year, not citizens per city.
Two of my friends were hit by a speeding car at one of these intersections a few years ago. They had terrible head injuries, and tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills. Their lives have never been the same. I’m sure there’s some amount of additional pollution as a result of the stop signs, but on balance, I’d rather not see more people life-changingly injured or killed here.
Oh you sound really really really concerned. Not letting me do whatever I want in my car is bad for the environment.
I humbly suggest that those concerned with emissions impacts of mere stop signs would likely reduce their own emissions much more by simply better distinguishing between necessary car trips and discretionary trips and making just a few less discretionary trips or combining them.
Who cares. Ideally drivers will be SO MISERABLE driving through these areas that they will choose other routes.
Once the Madison mess is fixed, there will be less traffic on Pike/Pine. We only have to wait another 18 months!
That’s how we got here. This logic is punitive and childish. The reality is that many people (many underpriviledged people) don’t have the option to bike around the city. Also, the bottom line is that the vast majority of our citizens use cars not because they are assholes, but because they need to. This is shown by the fact that SDOT has made it miserable to drive here and yet people still do. If you give a damn about improving the greater picture more than feeding your pet project, you’ll separate modes of travel and consider the carbon footprint of these decisions.
Lol, the idea that people who are poor have an easier time getting a car than a bike is a hard one to sell.
It’s not hard at all. Cycling requires fitness, and a reliable bike (and helmet, and rain gear) for commuting purposes will run you as much as a crappy but capable car. Endemic health issues related to poverty prevent bike commuting. Much of the time, poor people commute further because they can’t afford to live near work inside a city. Social stigma also plays a role. Like it or not, biking (especially bike commuting) is a rich, white activity. Go outside and count. Go outside and count in the winter. It’s undeniable.
I’d appreciate some basic respect when bringing objective arguments to the table. “Lol” isn’t a position, let alone an argument. In Seattle, the popular opinion isn’t always comprehensively researched or even reasonably thought through. I’m just trying to shed light on another angle, even if the comments mob doesn’t have the thoughtfulness to consider other opinions.
Many people cannot afford the cost of keeping up a car. I speak from experience. We deserve options and that includes not feeling like we take own life into our hands walking to a bus stop or biking to work or however we are getting around. And poor people who feel their only option is to spend huge portions of their limited resources on a car might want to have other options — they deserve to not feel forced to drain their bank accounts by driving because of underfunded transit that doesn’t allow for reliably getting to work , etc., or crappy biking and walking conditions. The solution is to give people more and better options to not drive, not to just keeping catering to the convenience of drivers, who are demonstrably very well off on average. While I’m here, most of these kinds of traffic interventions also make roads safer for people traveling cars.
There are very few other routes beyone Pike and Pine. Madison is a mess. Union is an option but is not really an arterial like those streets. What are the street options you are thinking of?
Can’t help but wonder if the only time you ever think about emissions impacts is when you want to oppose changes that you find inconvenient for other reasons.
It’s about damn time! Cars come flying down pine towards downtown so this will help. No more days of throwing yourself into the crosswalk hoping cars will stop.
Cars still go downtown? That’s news to me.
Maybe we can get some stop signs on Bellevue north of Olive? It’s the only street in that part of the Hill without traffic calming, and as such people take it doing 40+.
Comparably small, but it also wouldn’t take 17.45 million (!?) bucks to do.
Yes! Came on here to say the same thing. Bellevue is a high-speed death trap, especially since they took away our bus. There’s no reason to have 6 straight city blocks of arterial road in one of the densest areas of the city’s densest neighborhood with no stop signs, speed bumps, or traffic lights. I can’t think of any other street in our neighborhood designed like a race track.
This is great! Now to work on community out reach from police to make pike/pine safer for every citizen and not just attract the criminal drug elements.
Union turning into Seneca could use a couple of more stop signs just west of Broadway. We have so many added or soon to be added folks living in this area and some drivers just love to charge up hill and around the bend from Broadway.
It wasn’t clear to me from this article, but these intersections used to only be 2-way stop signs. (There were no stop signs on Pine Street; they were only on the cross streets.) I figured this out by looking at the intersections in Google Streetview, which has older imagery.
I’m okay with putting 4-way stops at every intersection in the city. That makes a lot of sense. Just as long as every City elected official and department head are completely banned from using cars while employed at the City for work or personal needs. No “security” or “emergency availability” exemptions.
I wonder if having the police enforce traffic laws in seattle might help?
Excellent news. Do Olive Way at Harvard Avenue next please.
I’m super happy about these changes. I have almost gotten hit at these crosswalks twice: once a lady was digging in her glove box, the other time a car tried to pass a car that had stopped for me. I hope Seattle continues to prioritize pedestrian safety!