Meridian Park parents want traffic safety on 175th; “Every child should be able to walk and bike to school without fear”
Sunday, May 5, 2024
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| Meridian Park students and parents cross 175th street Photo by Mike Remarcke |
By Oliver Moffat
On school days, Everton Drakes walks with his daughters to Meridian Park elementary - his older daughter rides a scooter while his little one rides along in a push car.
The ride to school requires crossing both Meridian Ave and 175th street, an intersection littered with car crash debris and plagued by traffic jams and speeders.
Drakes and a cohort of parents from the Meridian Park PTSA want the city to pay more attention to safety near Shoreline schools and are trying to build support for automated traffic enforcement cameras near the school.
While neighboring cities including Lynnwood, Lake Forest Park, and Seattle have long embraced the use of traffic cameras, the Shoreline city council has opposed their adoption.
Recent changes to state law expanded where cities can deploy cameras and allows city employees to review tickets where previously a police officers needed to review each ticket.
The law requires cities complete an equity analysis to prove traffic cameras will not disproportionately target historically over-policed neighborhoods.
To discourage cities from using traffic cameras as a long term source of revenue, after three years, the city has to share revenue with the state.
The city is actively working on improvements to the 175th street starting with the intersection of 175th and Meridian Ave.
The city wants to widen 175th on the west side of I-5 to make room for pedestrians and bicyclists which could cost over $88 million and require chopping down 274 trees.
Meanwhile, on the other side of town, a road diet on the east side of I-5 would shrink 175th from four lanes to three while adding bike lanes and could cost an estimated $2.3 million (without removing trees).
The city council will discuss the 175th street project again at the June 3rd city council meeting.
The city council will discuss traffic enforcement cameras at the June 10th meeting.
The ride to school requires crossing both Meridian Ave and 175th street, an intersection littered with car crash debris and plagued by traffic jams and speeders.
Drakes and a cohort of parents from the Meridian Park PTSA want the city to pay more attention to safety near Shoreline schools and are trying to build support for automated traffic enforcement cameras near the school.
“Every child should be able to walk and bike to school without fear of the intersection near their school. These are children. It’s not fair to them,” said Drakes.
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| A screenshot from photoenforced.com shows the location of traffic cameras in cities neighboring Shoreline |
While neighboring cities including Lynnwood, Lake Forest Park, and Seattle have long embraced the use of traffic cameras, the Shoreline city council has opposed their adoption.
Recent changes to state law expanded where cities can deploy cameras and allows city employees to review tickets where previously a police officers needed to review each ticket.
The law requires cities complete an equity analysis to prove traffic cameras will not disproportionately target historically over-policed neighborhoods.
To discourage cities from using traffic cameras as a long term source of revenue, after three years, the city has to share revenue with the state.
The city is actively working on improvements to the 175th street starting with the intersection of 175th and Meridian Ave.
The city wants to widen 175th on the west side of I-5 to make room for pedestrians and bicyclists which could cost over $88 million and require chopping down 274 trees.
Meanwhile, on the other side of town, a road diet on the east side of I-5 would shrink 175th from four lanes to three while adding bike lanes and could cost an estimated $2.3 million (without removing trees).
The city council will discuss the 175th street project again at the June 3rd city council meeting.
The city council will discuss traffic enforcement cameras at the June 10th meeting.
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2 comments:
This is another good argument why Shoreline Schools should close Meridian Park if they have to close any elementary school -
Meridian Park Elementary is the largest elementary school in the district serving almost 600 students in two programs. Closing the school with largest population of students makes absolutely no sense.
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