By Oliver Moffat
Shoreline received $2.3 million for a road diet on NE 175th, but the city scrapped a road diet in 2018 after businesses complained
In December, the city of Shoreline received a $2.3 million grant from WSDOT to implement a road diet on NE 175th Street from 5th Ave NE to 15th Ave NE - one of the city’s most dangerous roads.
Shoreline received $2.3 million for a road diet on NE 175th, but the city scrapped a road diet in 2018 after businesses complained
In December, the city of Shoreline received a $2.3 million grant from WSDOT to implement a road diet on NE 175th Street from 5th Ave NE to 15th Ave NE - one of the city’s most dangerous roads.
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| A map from the WSDOT website shows the locations of 10 years of fatal and serious injury crashes along NE 175th St |
NE 175th Street, especially at its intersection with 10th Ave NE, has seen a high number of injury collisions involving pedestrians and bicyclists.
Since the city cancelled a road diet plan in 2018, there have been 32 serious-injury crashes on that segment of road and in 2020, a fatal collision occurred at the intersection at 10th Ave.
Last year, pedestrian, fatal, and serious injury crashes in Shoreline hit record highs.
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| Proposed safety improvements for 175th and 10th the city cancelled in 2018. A fatal collision occurred at the intersection in 2020 |
In 2018, after injury collisions doubled on NE 175th, Shoreline commissioned a peer-reviewed technical analysis that recommended repainting the stripes from four to two travel lanes with a center turn lane and bike lanes during a routine repaving project.
Studies have shown safety projects like this (sometimes called road diets or re-channelizations) reduce crashes, save lives and are relatively inexpensive to complete.
A nearby road diet in 2003 on 15th Ave NE between 150th and 175th resulted in slower speeds, decreased traffic volumes, fewer crashes, and a 30.9% drop in the number of injury collisions.
But in 2019 the city quietly rolled back the NE 175th Street road diet plan, saying only that a “combination of factors” led to the decision.
The city’s 2018 technical analysis showed the road diet would make intersections at 8th and 10th safer for pedestrians by improving visibility and reducing the number of lanes pedestrians needed to cross.
And traffic engineers found that the road diet would make the street safer for drivers, especially while making left turns at 8th and 10th.
The council has directed city staff to build bike lanes along 175th street since at least 2011, when, after public hearings and review by the planning commission, the council adopted a Transportation Master Plan including a Bicycle System map with bike lanes on 175th.
The city council and planning commission again directed the city to build bike lanes on 175th in the Transportation Element of the recently adopted Comprehensive Plan.
In 2016, the council passed Shoreline’s Complete Streets ordinance mandating that all road projects include safe and convenient improvements for people walking, biking, and using public transit; under the ordinance, road projects are not supposed to only benefit motorists.
According to the 2018 technical analysis, although the road diet could add travel time for drivers on 175th, those delays would not have exceeded the city’s congestion maximums defined in the 2011 Transportation Master Plan and the 2022 Transportation Element.
When the city council last discussed the NE 175th road diet in 2022, staff said the city met for hours in contentious meetings with business owners concerned about congestion before deciding to cancel the road diet in 2018.
A city spokesperson said work on the project hasn’t started yet and before spending grant funds, they will conduct a preliminary study to assess traffic delays and congestion impacts and may return the funding and explore other options.
Will the same “combination of factors” lead the city to return the $2.3 million grant this time?
Yes, please prioritize safety over saving drivers a few seconds.
ReplyDeleteI don;t care about the bike lanes but anything that would make it safer for me as a pedestrian and driver at the intersection on 10th is welcome. I sometimes catch the bus there, and often cross while walking my dog. I've lost track of the times drivers turning or running the red have put me in danger. I try to make eye contact with driver before I cross, but with dark tinted windows so common now I can't tell where the driver is looking - OR instead of a road diet how about a traffic camera? ps: in the summer drivers heading west on 175th from 15th are blinded by the sun just before 10th - it's almost impossible to see the light or pedestrians
ReplyDeleteI attended a meeting a few years ago when the road diet was presented. The city really failed in the presentation. They had posters around the room but didn't position them properly. The main presentation was by an engineer - not a career noted for public speaking. I was surprised the city didn;t have a ""planner" or marketing person present the info. Staff from a local business were very vocal and made several points that could have been easily refuted but the engineer just wasn't up to the job.
ReplyDeleteWho cares if a road diet is gonna harm Frank lumber‘s business. pedestrian safety should be placed well above his business
ReplyDeleteA 4 lane setup is useful because it allows drivers to pass people puttering along at 20. I guess the center turn lane will have to serve the same purpose once they put in the road diet.
ReplyDeleteIt’s an arterial. Leave it alone!
ReplyDeleteI live very near 10th and 175th. I walk my dog every day and we cross 175th often and have no problems. We just wait for a break in the traffic. I also make left turns off 175th and have had no problem. When 15th N E was reduced to one lane in each direction it made it much more difficult to turn left because there are more oncoming cars squeezed into the one oncoming lane. It will also make crossing more difficult for the same reason. There will be fewer gaps in traffic.
ReplyDeleteBut people keep getting hurt and dying here isn't that bad?
DeleteThis will be an interesting process to follow. If "road diet" translates into one eastbound lane, that would help a great deal, as vehicles go speeding down that hill with regularity due to no enforcement. What's interesting about the map from this article is that it shows that a fatal accident was reported at 10th NE and NE 175th, but also on 15th NE and NE 180th in a 25 mph segment.
ReplyDeleteI really wish the city would reconsider a road diet for 15th between Safeway and 180th, we would greatly benefit from a shared center lane. A right turn only lane turning onto 175th going south on 15th would also prevent a lot of chaos.
ReplyDeleteI think it’s ridiculous to open this article with a correction that states “Sims and the current owners of Frank Lumber … disagree that road diets will make the North City neighborhood safer.” The article that follows includes the peer reviewed technical analysis commissioned by the city and concrete data.
ReplyDeleteIt’s not relevant that some people (not experts) don’t think road diets will make the area safer. Those people are wrong, as the article makes crystal clear.