(Image: CHS)
Three years after somebody painted a guerrilla crosswalk at Harvard and E Olive Way — and the city promptly removed it — the Seattle Department of Transportation has installed the real deal.
CHS reported this summer on the construction notice for the project to add the new crosswalk and pedestrian crossing signs and signals, expanded sidewalks at the east corners of the intersection, street markings and flexible posts.
CHS reported here in November 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.”
In 2024, CHS reported on the continued delays as funding for the crossing was tied to a federal transportation grant. Matt Baume, a neighborhood writer, has been documenting crashes at the intersection just west of Broadway for a decade and wrote to D3 Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth to share his concerns after yet another crash, that time involving three cars and several passengers including a family with a small child.
While the federal cash came through in early 2023, city leaders and SDOT didn’t get around to the project until this fall. UPDATE: “SDOT was awarded the grant in 2023, but funds were not available until the grant was obligated in November 2024,” a department representative tells CHS.
The SDOT project could be one of the last for Adiam Emery who stepped into leading the department on an interim basis this spring. Mayor-elect Katie Wilson who has started the Transit Riders Union organization in 2011 will be naming her City Hall team as she prepares to take office in January.
Capitol Hill rogue street and transit projects, meanwhile, continue to mark areas of the neighborhood in need.
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Damn right and we were right the first time.
Meanwhile, the City is way overdoing it on installing “No Turn on Red” signs at signalized intersections. Many completely uncalled for (do they meet MUTCD warrants, like some of the stop signs do not?). What is the climate footprint of an unnecessary no-turn-on-red sign, delaying traffic and adding to greenhouse gases, hmmm? Or is nannying more important?
The City is schizo, either overdoing it or underdoing it, such as the absurdly long time (three years since acknowledged as appropriate) to get this legit crosswalk installed, contributing to at least one more pedestrian injury collision in the meantime. Do we need Goldilocks and the third bear to get it “just right?”
You can google maps directions and take you wherever you are going?
Get a life okay?
“What is the climate footprint of an unnecessary no-turn-on-red sign, delaying traffic and adding to greenhouse gases, hmmm? Or is nannying more important?”
YES! YES! YES! You are correct! And??????
YOU ARE THE PROBLEM! I just told you how to fix your problem. And everyone else. Take a DIFFERENT ROUTE! Or raise taxes for infrastructures.
This notion that “no turn on red” is a new thing downtown. Seriously? The train nobody wanted is packed during games and commutes. THAT is actually reducing smog. Not a crosswalk/no right turn.
Are you serious? Talk about outdated NIMBY tactics…geez
most cars don’t idle at stops any longer…duh
most times I hear a engine cut out at a stop the driver starts it right up again like they’re gonna die without burning gasoline
cars do it automatically. no shit…lol
common sense still does
Right on red was only even a thing so that rural/suburban areas could put up timed lights (in the pre sensor days) and not have schmos sitting there at a deserted intersection for 5 min while the light made its cycle…. It was *never* meant to allow self centered urban drivers to shoot the gaps in pedestrian and cross traffic on busy streets. We should have eliminated it long ago.
Also? One way streets. Again, better flow…lol
Marco, you’re nuts about this.
Yes! There are MANY intersections where “no right on red” signs have been put up, and where there is very little pedestrian traffic, and where it is perfectly safe to turn right on red. They City has been very indiscriminate as to where they install these signs.
I LOVE the new “No Turn on Red” signs and I wish it was made a blanket rule. As a driver, I hate the pressure of having to carefully look all over for everyone to safely turn right on red while I’m imagining drivers behind me getting ready to honk because I’m not moving fast enough. There is no reason to turn right on red. Is it really that important to get to the next red light faster? Relax.
Great news!!
Awesome
Decades overdue, but a very welcome sight. Nice job.
This crosswalk should have been installed years ago! I’m glad to see that it has now been done.
As for the Guerrilla crosswalk, while I agree that it wasn’t the best idea to put it in the way it was done, as long as it wasn’t out of compliance with roadway design standards, I see no reason why it couldn’t have stayed in place. Washing it away was a slap in the face to the entire neighborhood, and a great way to strongly discourage citizens from getting involved in making their city a better place to live.
Or maybe we could just start enforcing the law that ALL intersections (whether or not they are painted) are crosswalks unless specifically signed as not… A few well placed ticket stings every once in a while might help to get the message through….
Oh and BTW and don’t forget you are supposed to STOP and wait *behind* the intersection until the pedestrian is at least one full lane away from the side of the street you are traveling on, so on a typical two lane arterial that means stop and don’t go until the pedestrian is finished crossing… Yes, I am giving you the hairy eyeball when you keep driving at me… just stop for f*ucks sake. 99% of the time your big rush just gets you to the next red light anyway…