A photo Matt Baume sent to city officials showing yet another crash at Harvard and Olive
Even with a new representative on the city council more dedicated to public safety, transparency, and access, “One Seattle” slogans from City Hall, and leaders paying lip service to the importance of pedestrian and bike rider safety as they shape the city’s next billion dollar transportation levy, it still takes a hell of a lot of work and a few squeaky wheels for the Seattle Department of Transportation to add a needed crosswalk at a dangerous intersection on Capitol Hill.
Matt Baume, a neighborhood writer, has been documenting the crashes at E Olive Way and Harvard Ave E for about ten years, all the while trying to get safety improvements put in place. With new leadership in the district, Baume wrote to D3 Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth in January to share his concerns after yet another crash, this time involving three cars and several passengers including a family with a small child.
Baume thinks much of the danger on E Olive Way and Harvard Ave is due to cars blocking the “no turns” signs, which makes it challenging to spot crossing pedestrians.
“I understand that city crews are all overworked, and that there are a lot of other unsafe intersections all over Seattle that need attention. But taking a YEAR to just put some paint on the curb is bonkers!,” Baume told CHS. “Hollingsworth’s staffer said that there’s nothing they can do to escalate the issue with SDOT, and I find that hard to believe. What’s the point of having council members at all if they can’t direct city departments?”
Baume has asked if the city can paint the curbs red to discourage illegal parking, which blocks visibility at the intersection.
Somebody else went farther. CHS reported here in 2022 after a guerrilla crosswalk was installed at the intersection — and quickly wiped away by the city. “We have heard the message loudly and clearly that the public wants more crossing and safety improvements,” SDOT said at the time. “We appreciate the passion which has driven someone to paint their own crosswalk, however this is not the right way to voice your desire for change.”
These community efforts come as SDOT has had plans for years to improve the crossing. Earlier in 2022, the city included pedestrian improvements including new markings and new access ramps at E Olive Way and Harvard in a roster of projects to be part of $50 million in new federal grants to improve street safety. Belmont at Pike, Harvard at Seneca, and 10th and Pike were other area crossings on that list.
That federal cash came through early last year. A year later, Baume was still writing emails and taking pictures of banged up cars.
Officials say changes are finally coming.
“We are planning to paint a new crosswalk at E Olive Way and Harvard Ave E,” Ethan Bergerson, press secretary for SDOT, told CHS. “We will design more robust safety features than just paint to alert people driving to stop, including flashing lights to indicate when a pedestrian is crossing the street.”
City workers washing away the rogue crosswalk in 2022 (Image: @c_chrisafis)
SDOT’s upcoming pedestrian improvement plans in Capitol Hill and the Central District include updates to traffic signals and redesigning the intersection at E Olive Way and E John St to address a crash pattern of left-turning drivers, Bergerson said.
Hollingsworth, who included stories of her neighborhood lobbying efforts for improvements at the dangerous 23rd and John intersection as part of her campaign, is engaged and her office anticipates SDO “beginning a project at this intersection sometime in the next year,” Anthony Derrick, Hollingsworth’s chief of staff said.
“As part of the improvements at this intersection, Councilmember Hollingsworth has also advocated for re-marking the no-turn arrows and emphasizing the no-parking restriction,” Derrick added.
Derrick said Hollingsworth is also actively reviewing the Seattle Transportation Plan, which will guide the work SDOT does in coming years. Mayor Bruce Harrell released his proposal for the plan earlier this year, which outlines the 20-year vision for the city’s sidewalks, streets, and public areas.
Hollingsworth’s office says it has identified a handful of issues around pedestrian safety in D3 that she hopes to see incorporated into the Seattle Transportation Plan, like improving the safety of Lake Washington Boulevard, introducing traffic-calming measures near public schools and areas with high levels of drive-by gun violence, and increasing and updating sidewalks and pedestrian lighting options throughout the district, Derrick said.
Hollingsworth’s office is also assessing the proposed $1.35 billion transportation levy. The levy proposal includes $107 million in Vision Zero and School Safety funding over the next eight years to lower the rates of traffic collisions—including severe injuries and fatalities—via targeted improvements to intersections, sidewalks, streets, paths and crossings.
A larger and possible even more dangerous nearby intersection got a SDOT overhaul late last year. CHS reported here on the protected-lefts, and a “BUS ONLY” lane joining the busy mix of transit, bikes, pedestrians, and cars outside Capitol Hill Station at Broadway and John.
In the meantime, Hollingsworth’s office is trying to do what it can to connect other city resources like parking enforcement to help make the area safer.
“Our office has also been engaged with the community on this specific intersection at Harvard and E Olive Way. We have escalated this intersection to the parking enforcement team in an attempt to reduce the number of people parking in the no-parking zone on the east side of the street corner,” Derrick said.
Baume says he has seen more tickets on cars that are parking in unsafe areas. But he still questions why the work to make the crossing safer hasn’t been completed.
“At the end of the day, it just seems really clear that the city isn’t allocating enough resources to making streets safer for the most vulnerable users,” Baume said.
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Need full pedestrian stop light here, drivers in this city are the plague
An alternative and perhaps practical view, vehicles allow for distribution of goods to our very dense area, out of area drivers support local businesses and support city revenue by metered parking or by pay by hour lots, or, you are a local neighbor, that you, poster, likely has a lot of common humanity with, that just needs to get to where they need to go. Often times public transportation doesn’t get to a worksite, to a family member, or to goods of need. Imagine being a working middle earning person that has lived here for many years, has established community, that enjoys their quality of life, and has their employer relocate to a transportation dead zone with no work from home option. What kind of monster would shame them for needing a car for having a pretty good reason to get from to point a – b (have you used Access? Do you need to where you need to get to on time or on a practical schedule?) What about those with physical limitations, should we say they aren’t welcomed here because they walk to wherever they are going is a very real, and physical hardship for them to remain independent?
The comment’s main point was that lights are needed but that they won’t happen because the city is very car-centric, which is of course frustrating to those of us who don’t want to get into accidents as drivers or hit as pedestrians. I really don’t think you need to take it as personally as you seem to have here.
Hell yeah, everyone who drives a car in this city is a terrible person. Very mature comment, Richard! Thanks for chiming in.
It was a bit of an abrasive way to say it, because it impugns the individual driver for a using a shitty mode of transport even though there’s often not a viable alternative offered by society, as SoDone so emphatically pointed out.
BUT, Richard is so correct. I drive a car, and can 1000% say with certainty that drivers ruin the fabric of Seattle and any other city. Similarly, I use a smartphone, but I hate what they do to our collective attention span. I can walk and chew gum. I take this self-awareness with me when I’m forced to do these activities that we all “have” to partake in under our current flawed structures, and try to be a better person and advocate for the change I want to see…in this case, by being a slow-ass driver and using my phone as infrequently as possible. It’s not much but it’s something.
Don’t be mad at Richard just because he’s understandably upset at the scourge auto-focused infrastructure has unleashed on our growing population. We can do better…or should I say our representatives SHOULD do better if they claim to want a cleaner and healthier Seattle.
hahaha, right? Not even other car drivers will vouch for the ecosystem of drivers when having to deal with them, but if a ped is like ‘y’all are not good at the thing you do every day’ now a car driver takes exception to the charge that drivers in the PNW are loopy for a host of reasons?
Why are you always the hit dog that hollers, my goodness.
Thanks, Matt Baume! It’s great news that this intersection is getting some attention. In addition to the danger to pedestrians trying to cross, one of the biggest crash dangers is the number of drivers who completely ignore the right turn only signs and zip straight across the intersection. Its location at the crest of the hill makes it especially difficult for eastbound drivers to see. I don’t know how many times I’ve waited behind a car trying to go straight and wondered if I was also waiting for an accident to happen.
Another issue that could be addressed is the difficulty to make that right turn from Harvard to eastbound on John since the new lane configurations went into effect. It used to be much easier to make the turn safely when both lanes went eastbound. It seems more clogged now, especially with the no turn on red at Broadway backing up traffic.
I don’t know the accident rate, but I’m also surprised there isn’t a crosswalk at 17th and Union (it’s a school and a park!), and at 14th and John since Safeway no longer uses their main entrance on 15th. I assume it’s due to their proximity to a lighted intersection, but still.
Where are we with teleportation these days?
The whole block of John between 14th and 15th is a gigantic unofficial crosswalk, especially east of the jug handle, and it’s been like that for 15 years.
I dunno how dangerous it is though. I don’t remember seeing that many accidents there.
There’s a crosswalk at (nearly) every intersection… painted or not. pedestrians won’t be safer until drivers actually face some sort of consequences for not respecting the rules. Paint doesn’t stop anything.
Yep!
No, but it does make pedestrians more visible, which is I think the intention with the ask here.
In my mind, that’s not where much of the danger comes from. The danger is distracted driving, entitlement, and an extreme lack of traffic law enforcement. No amount of paint, either on the road or the curb, is going to change poor driver behavior. Until people start feeling the sting in their bank account from traffic tickets being issued, you’re going to continue to see horrible behavior and accidents.
I’ve had several close calls in the marked, 4-way stop intersection, at Belmont & Pine, with motorists who can’t bother to stop and/or yield to a pedestrian crossing the street in a crosswalk. So, while I support getting a crosswalk at Olive & Harvard, we should manage our expectations of it being the solution to the accidents happening there.
Some wise upstarts even painted one there given the need and the city destroyed it thinking they know better than the people that actually walk there.
It’s likely a legal liability for the city to leave unsanctioned crosswalks on public roads. If that wise upstart wants to be fiscally responsible for any legal action that comes from an unapproved crosswalk, please work with the city. As a tax payer, I don’t want my dollars going to lawsuits. Better, use your vast wisdom to work at SDOT and be the loud voice to get things done in a heap of government bureaucracy. Stupid little things like crosswalks take time, review studies, fiscal approval, planning based on budget, and finally a long implementation process. Fix all those things as a productive and engaged citizen. A post here doesn’t do anything for progress.
I mean, people taking it upon themselves to do a thing should be the signal that maybe the city should do all the bureaucratic things to deliver it through supposed legitimate channels, it doesn’t have to be anything more than that.
As for your idea about working for SDOT…keep that bird brained shit to yourself, as we can observe every single person already there, already superiorly motivated and personally vested with desire to do transit things, basically does half of what they could at twice the expense. The answer to everything can’t possibly be ‘mount insurgency campaigns I would hate and oppose to deliver the things you think are good’, like this is what centrist Democrats lead and end with on every single question of whether Democrats are any good at what they do in deliverables, e.g. “If you think you can do better then you should run for office” which is a signal that they can’t imagine better and won’t stick around if the insurgency works out and they don’t see themselves as the primary constituency and party base.
More roundabouts and lane narrowing, less paint. Paint doesn’t do as much as the people of this city deserve.
Paint doesn’t do anything…
Not ranting at you Kyle.. I think you already understand, but at all the awful drivers out there..
Not sure how to get it pounded into the skulls of drivers, but one more time… There ALREADY is a crosswalk at nearly every intersection (unless it is specifically signed no crossing), whether or not there is paint on the roadway. Unless it’s placed somewhere that wouldn’t otherwise legally be a crosswalk (like mid block) paint on the roadway is just a reminder… I’ve been screamed at, sworn at and threatened for crossing at unmarked intersections.. told I’m crossing illegally, to go to the light… no.. All intersections are crosswalksAll roadway intersections are legal crossings for pedestrians whether or not they are marked, with very few exceptions. These include places where an official sign prohibits crossing, and between adjacent signalized intersections (RCW 46.61.240).
Oh, and BTW – When someone is crossing you are supposed to STOP, yes all of the way, before you enter the intersection and stay stopped, until that pedestrian is more than one travel lane away from the side of the road you are on, so unless the street is 4 or more lanes, you need to stop and stay stopped until they finish crossing… not roll through when you think they are far enough across that you won’t hit them. This pretty much never happens… even at intersections with actual stop signs.
And no, pedestrians do not need to run across the street so that you can be spared the dreadful experience of actually having to come to a standstill for 10 seconds.
Roundabouts on an arterial are not allowed, and arterials carry huge delivery trucks, ambulances, and fire trucks which are also not roundabout-compatible.
Thank you Matt!
The city is too busy giving raises to their gang of uniformed white supremacists
LOL okay
As a long term reader and subscriber, can the editor or writer comment on the ease or latency with interacting with Hollingsworth’s office? The comments as quoted seem much more engaged and descriptive of D3 issues, almost one could say informed of the issue, than previous district matters from previous council members. Joy is often represented as a cop loving, pro business capitalist that isn’t engaged in issues that directly involve D3. The write-up to me, seems yeah ‘we know’ , doing what we can , issue is more complex than snap a finger to get a cross walk painted next day. As a voter in this district, give us the neighborhood blog scoop on if this office is open and transparent to journalist requests.
I’m an old man. I’ve crossed at this corner since the 1990s. No problems ever.
Suggest some of you are just bad at crossing and expect cars to stop. Try waiting on a gap. Or if you want a crosswalk there are ones in either direction one block away.
Voice of the old school. You are most welcome Sir.
I’ve crossed there several times without issue too…. But recognize it needs something there.
Indeed, if we pretend the crosswalks don’t exist, drivers ignoring them won’t be a problem!
Brilliant!
In a big city there are multiple users including car drivers and trucks.
We have a crosswalk in either direction one block away.
At some point you need to stop hurting car traffic because of your personal war on cars. The neighborhood needs traffic being able to enter it. Olive Way is a major arterial in. Leave Harvard alone. We’re already road dieted a block west on Boylston and of course there’s a big obvious light and crosswalk at John/Broadway
How many lights and crosswalks do you Urbanist reformers need??
I’ve answered this argument here before but it never goes away, so, one more time …
The Olive Way crosswalks nearest to the Harvard intersection may be convenient enough for you, but they are a burden for the mobility-challenged. Broadway is a full block away, which means a two-block detour for anyone who wants to stay on Harvard. The marked crosswalk to the west is a bit closer but is down an incline, which means having to go back up an incline (seriously, try that in a manual wheelchair sometime).
The short answer to your question is this: All intersections along a busy arterial like Olive Way need some kind of pedestrian signaling — no exceptions. From a safety standpoint, what the law says about right-of-way possession matters less than what drivers actually see in the moment, and thus even a simple painted crosswalk is of considerable value. My personal opinion is that intersection merits a red/yellow blinker but anything at all would be a major step forward, and one that’s long overdue.
I witnessed a close call there literally last night. I’ve also walked there a lot & didn’t feel super safe crossing even though it was technically legal, because there’s a fairly big blind spot for people coming up and around the bend.
Anyway, that’s just my personal anecdotal experience. Which doesn’t in any way invalidate yours! But, I’ve found that, “it’s fine, I know this because I’ve never had any problems,” is not an awesome way to navigate the world.
There is a cross walk probably 100 feet away in front of King of The Hill/KJ’s/CC Attles… I mean it would be nice to have a crosswalk at Harvard as well, but I don’t find it inconvenient to walk an extra 100 feet… Maybe there isn’t one because of that? Painting the street and signs being put up and than replaced due to damage and graffiti don’t replace themselves, I guess you couldn’t do that to every intersection due to budget constraints. I guess we could lobby to have the protected crosswalk removed and moved to Harvard if it is that much better for you….