Lake Forest Park Council talks traffic safety (and more cameras)

Lake Forest Park traffic camera

By Oliver J. Moffat

Traffic and pedestrian safety were on the agenda at the Lake Forest Park city council meeting recently. Studies recommended more speed cameras.

The LFP council reviewed studies on August 14 that recommended adding automated speed cameras while lowering speed limits on Bothell Way (SR522) and Ballinger Way (SR104). 

Another study recommended installing new crosswalks across 178th Street and Ballinger Way. At the same meeting, the municipal court told the council the automated tickets have caused workload challenges. 

The council also reviewed a plan to buy two new police cars using money from the traffic cameras.

One traffic study reviewed by the council recommended installing high-visibility marked crosswalks across Ballinger Way and 178th Street.

One crosswalk should be built across Ballinger Way (SR104) near the entrance to the Forest Park Condominiums. The crosswalk across Ballinger Way should include Rectangular Rapid-Flashing Beacons (RRFBs) because of speeding and visibility on the state highway, according to the study.

A rendering shows the recommended crosswalk and curb geometry changes at NE 178th St and 40th Ave NE

The study also recommended a crosswalk with flashing beacons and curb geometry changes be installed at the intersection of NE 178th Street and 40th Avenue NE.

Speaking about the proposed safety improvements at the intersection of NE 178th Street and 40th Avenue NE, Deputy Mayor Tracy Furutani said, 

"I really like this part of your report, and one of the things that I very much appreciated about it was … these changes to the geometry of the intersection really would help with those people who take that curve way too fast… I've almost been hit a couple of times on my bike there, so I really appreciate the fact that this will slow people down at that intersection."

Cars speed along 178th Street at the intersection of 40th Ave NE where a recommended crosswalk could be built
(Oliver J Moffat)

Nearby residents agree. Residents who live near 178th and 40th told the city council in public comments the intersection is unsafe because of increased traffic.

Mayor Tom French said the city may be able to use revenue from traffic camera fines to pay for the crosswalk at 178th and 40th. “I do believe that there are maybe some short-term kinds of things we can do. We do have the funds to pay for these improvements in the [traffic camera] fund,” French said.

The city could also use ticket revenue to fund more traffic safety studies in the future.

Councilmember Jon Lebo advocated for the city to use a data-driven approach to prioritize its traffic safety projects. 

"I very much appreciate the comments that we get from the community, because they are the ones who are experiencing this directly,” he said.

“But I also would like us to have … a big picture, and … that we are more data-driven, and that we have an opportunity to be more global in the approach… Because there are tools out there that we can use, not just put rubber tubes across the road, to gather the information. I'm concerned that … our list may just be because somebody called and said, ‘somebody's speeding on my street tonight.’”

According to another traffic study, the speed limit on the southern segment of Ballinger Way (SR104) should be reduced to 25 mph, and the speed limit should be enforced with a new automated traffic camera near Lake Forest Park elementary school. 

According to the state highway speed limit study, because of its proximity to LFP elementary and the town center, the speed limit should be lowered on Ballinger Way south of 35th Avenue NE from 30 to 25 mph. The city has formally petitioned WSDOT to lower the speed limit on Ballinger Way.

The report also recommended lowering the speed limit to a consistent speed of 35 mph along the entire Bothell Way (SR522) corridor. Currently, the speed limit is 40 mph for most of Bothell Way in Lake Forest Park. Lowering the limit to 35 mph would make the speed limit consistent with Kenmore and Bothell. Seattle's SR522 segment is 30 mph.

Speaking about pedestrian safety at the intersection of SR522 and 145th Street, Councilmember Larry Goldman said,

“I live near there. I find it to be a dangerous intersection. I actually kept a road journal for a full year of all the incidents I had as a pedestrian, and I found that on average, once every 10 days, I was nearly hit by a car trying to cross that intersection.”

Goldman would like LFP to work to improve safety at the intersection. “My observation is that the Seattle DOT does not care about that intersection. They have made it more hostile to pedestrians, and so I think it's gotta be us. If we don't look at that intersection, no jurisdiction is going to,” he said.

Another study recommended installing automated speed enforcement cameras on Bothell Way (SR522) north of NE 165th Street and another camera on Ballinger Way (SR104) near Lake Forest Park Elementary School. 

That study found an additional traffic safety camera on 178th Street was not necessary because existing speed and citation data showed "much improved driver compliance" and "very few vehicles are traveling 5 mph over the speed limit" after activation of the Brookside Elementary 24/7 cameras last year.

A car drives in the School Walk Zone near Brookside elementary where automated speed cameras enforce the speed limit 24 hours a day (Oliver J Moffat)

Although the Brookside cameras are expected to generate millions of dollars in new revenue for the city, they have also come with increased costs.

The influx of tickets has created workload challenges for the Lake Forest Park municipal court. According to LFP municipal court Judge Jennifer Johnson Grant, activating the 24/7 Brookside Elementary cameras on 178th last year tripled the number of infractions filed and doubled the number of hearing requests received by the court. 

A chart from the LFP Municipal Court shows increasing case filings
after the 27/7 school walk zone cameras were activated 

If current trends continue, the city could issue 48,000 photo tickets this year, up from 22,000 tickets previously.

In a 4-to-3 split, the Lake Forest Park city council recently decided to send a ballot measure asking voters to fund police and public safety services. Despite cutting nearly half a million dollars in expenses from the budget, the city is still facing almost a million-dollar deficit per year.

In his April State of the City address, Lake Forest Park Mayor Tom French countered criticism that the cameras money would be misspent, 

“We are going to be dedicating those funds to making sure that our streets and our sidewalks and our pathways are safer for everyone. Sidewalks, crosswalks, and other safety measures will be funded from traffic safety cameras.”

Pushing back against critics who say the city will misspend the traffic camera revenue, he said, “There is no revenue grab. Anybody out there who wants to say that there is a revenue grab, I'll say it to their face. There is no revenue grab, and they better back it up because it is not true; it is a total red herring.” 

He added, “We cannot use these funds for operational purposes; they are not eligible to be put into operational purposes.”

To help comply with state spending restrictions, LFP keeps revenue from the new traffic cameras in a separate Traffic Safety 002 Fund. The city expects to receive $8 million over the next biennium in revenue from the new 24/7 School Walk Zone cameras at Brookside Elementary and has budgeted nearly $3.5 million of expenses from the fund.

To cover increased workload from the cameras, the city budgeted $2,148,500 from the traffic cameras for salaries and benefits for 3 police offices, 2 court clerks, and part of a public works employee. 

At the August 14 meeting, the city council also reviewed a proposed amendment to the 2025-2026 Budget that would allocate an additional $169,886 for two new police cars and $26,500 for additional court costs from the traffic camera fund.

The city will also use speed ticket revenue to pay the traffic camera company $912,000, and earlier this year the city budgeted $660,000 from tickets to fill a funding gap in the 40th Place NE & Ballinger Way roundabout project.