City Crash Zone
posted by on May 4 at 14:06 PM
As Jonah reported yesterday and the Seattle Times reported today, the Seattle Police Department is cracking down on “aggressive drivers”—asshole drivers who endanger themselves and others—with a new squadron of scary-looking Dodge Chargers. The team will prowl aggressive-driving hot spots such as Rainier Ave. S., Aurora, the Alaskan Way Viaduct, the West Seattle Bridge and (who knew?) Sand Point Way.
The Seattle Department of Transportation has tracked traffic fatalities in the city since 2002 (185 fatalities recorded, including just five so far in 2007). According to spreadsheets provided by SDOT and compiled by me, the most dangerous streets in the city are:
• 15th Ave. NE, with four fatalities— one at NE 86th St. in 2005, one at NE 52nd St. in 2004, one at NE 143rd St. in 2003, and one at NE 70th St. in 2002.
• 23rd Avenue South, with three fatalities—one at E. Yesler Wy. in 2006, one at S. McClellan St. in 2005, and one at S. Judkins St. in 2004.
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Wy. S., with five fatalities—one at Beacon Ave. S. in 2004, one at E. Yesler Wy. in 2004, one at E. Yesler Wy. in 2003, one at E. John St. in 2003, and one at 35th Ave. S. in 2003.
• 8th Ave. NW, with three fatalities—one at NW 90th St. in 2006, one at NW 78th St. in 2004, and one at NW 95th St. in 2004.
• The West Seattle Bridge, with three fatalities—all in a single accident in 2006.
• Southbound Alaskan Way, with nine fatalities—one at the Columbia St. on-ramp in 2006, one at the Columbia St. on-ramp in 2005, three at the First Ave. S. off-ramp in 2005, one at S. Holgate St. in 2005, one at Yesler Wy. in 2005, one at the First Ave. S. off-ramp in 2004, and one at the First Ave. S. off-ramp in 2002.
• North Aurora Ave., with ten fatalities—one at N. Northgate Wy. in 2007, one at N. 68th St. in 2006, one at N. 115th St. in 2005, one at N. 73rd St. in 2005, one at N. 85th St. in 2005, one at N. 115th St. in 2004, one at N. 128th St. in 2004, one at N. 59th St. in 2004, one at N. 49th St. in 2004, and one at N. 89th St. in 2003.
• Roosevelt Way Northeast, with four fatalities—one at NE 47th St. in 2005, two at NE70th Street in 2005, and one at NE 80th Street in 2004.
But the biggest, baddest offender by far was a street I’ve written about before: Rainier Avenue South, with an astonishing nineteen fatalities since 2002 : one at South Holly St. in 2006, one at S. Oregon St. in 2006, one at 39th Ave. South in 2006, four at 57th Ave. South and Ithaca Place in 2006, one at South Thistle St. in 2005, one at S. Cooper St. in 2005, one at S. Edmunds St. in 2004, one at S. Frontenac St. in 2004, one at S. Kenny St. in 2004, one at S. Carver St. in 2003, four at S. Cloverdale St. in 2003, one at S. Hudson St. in 2003, one at 75th Ave. S. in 2003, one at Ithaca Pl. S. in 2003.
According to SDOT, there have been 1,743 collisions on Rainier in the last three years, 643 of those in the past year alone. This shouldn’t surprise anybody who’s ever driven, walked, or ridden a bike on Rainier—people use Rainier, a fairly direct north-south route with few stoplights, as a freeway to get from Seattle to Renton and points south, driving 50, 60, 70 miles an hour in what is supposed to be a 40-mph zone.
Although the city has an “action plan” in place to try to reduce accidents on Rainier, most of the elements of the plan are things like improving signal timing (which improves traffic but allows cars to go even faster) and cracking down on jaywalkers. (The plan does include some new pedestrian-priority signals and speed-reduction measures in particularly high-collision intersections like S. Hendersen, but doesn’t directly address the need to slow down traffic on Rainier as a whole. Instead, it focuses on enforcement and spot improvements.) The city’s action plan, like the city’s bike master plan, includes no immediate improvements for bikers; Rainier, which has no bike lanes whatsoever, is the only route into Southeast Seattle north of Seward Park. Instead, the city proposes to install “bike friendly storm grates.” Bus service on Rainier is, likewise, notoriously horrible; the 7, which runs down Rainier toward downtown, arrives sporadically and stops every two blocks. Meanwhile, development on Rainier remains overwhelmingly car-oriented; a new mega-development at Dearborn will include roughly 1,000 parking spaces.
I’m all for the city’s renewed focus on Southeast Seattle, and I don’t mean to diminish the value of economic development and affordable-housing efforts in a part of the city that faces real challenges in those areas. However, without significant changes in land use—and a corresponding reduction in auto-oriented street “improvements” on Rainier—the Valley may well be doomed to remain a car-centric, bike-and-pedestrian-unfriendly crash zone that people drive through, instead of a destination where people want to be.
Ranier Ave is one of the scariest streets I've ever rode my bike down. I used to work near Rainer and 23rd and ride my bike to work almost every day. I didn't like using the streets, but I did cause the sidewalks were even worse for riding down. The most terrifying section was the entrance to I-90 because I would have to cross in front of cars, during rush hour, that started speeding to 60mph as soon as they saw the sign to the onramp. Prayed every time I crossed that section.
This caught my eye: people use [a street], a fairly direct north-south route with few stoplights, as a freeway to get from [a] to [b] and points south. That's what the alaskan way would look like as a "surface" street.
You can't say that one intersection is "more dangerous" than another unless you account for the number of cars that go through each intersection. Or as we stat-friendly folk say, you need denominator data in order to make valid comparisons.
Ten years ago I used to ride down Rainier on a bike every day from downtown to my house at 36th S. and Horton. I doubt I'd have the nerve to do it now. I never had an accident, but the drains would force me to swerve out into traffic every so often, and it is the only street in Seattle on which I encountered malicious interference from drivers. The sidewalk is impossible, full of pedestrians waiting and waiting for buses, and lots of turnouts. We had bike lanes on our neighborhood plan down there ELEVEN years ago. They didn't make it into the plan that came back from the city, though everyone at the meetings agreed they were needed. I was fool enough to think at the time that all the talk of doing things differently was going to change land use in Seattle. Ten years later, Rainier looks exactly the same, even the broken old convenience store sign across from where Chubby & Tubby was (at least a month ago): "Chi k n togo L tto", as it read in 1995 when I moved to the neighborhood.
Act green, sit on your ass: the Seattle Way.
Not to diminish from the pedestrian-unfriendliness of Rainier Ave, but aren't those stats skewed because Rainier is just so damn long? N. Aurora coming in second would seem to reaffirm this hypothesis.
I don't feel like busting out Google Maps and doing the math, but my guess is that if you divided the number of accidents by the length of the street in miles, Rainier would come out to be a lot less scary relative to other streets.
@2: you have to assume that the surface street downtown would have stoplights every block (timed, of course). that's what the original WSDOT study assumed.
Thanks for the warning about Sand Point. I might just have a teeny bit of a habit of speeding there. Like, a lot.
How does 145th & Lake City Way rank? The people that drive through that intersection are nuts and I've had a couple people make California stops/right turns when I'm stepping off the curb into the cross walk.
What's a pedestrian priority signal? A crosswalk with a traffic signal that brings traffic to a screeching halt when a pedestrian needs to cross (the only kind that's worth a damn)? Or one of those lame-o flashing signals that lull pedestrians into a false sense of safety and that drivers completely ignore?
I'd feel a lot better about this program if half of these Hard Chargers were out looking for motorists who fail to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks.
Last time I checked, Seattle issued four times as many tickets to jaywalkers as it did to motorists for failure to yield. This is nuts!
They're killing or maiming way to many pedestrians in this city, and no place in Seattle will ever be truly "pedestrian friendly" until we see some enforcement.
@5 - from what r said @9 it sounds like it doesn't matter if there are traffic lights or not. A viaduct is the safest from the standpoint of this post as there is distinct separation between thru traffic and tourists/pedestrians, bicycles, and local traffic. putting them all on the same road is making the probability pedestrian/bicycle deaths approach 1 with time and frequency.
that is one thing that has never been even discussed in this whole debate: would a surface boulevard be a more dangerous place if even a fraction of the volume currently safely channeled through the viaduct were dumped into a pedestrian-rich environment?
Rainier is a drag to bike down, or up in my case. Sidewalks are an amusement ride for sure, #1.
And I used to work at the old Desimone fruit stand at 23rd&Rainier to get my way through SCCC. I showed up on my first day pedaling into the parking lot. I got a bemused look from Mr. Desimone like, "Did he say he lived north of the U-District?" But big deal, we know there's crazy amazing bike-commuters out there. After 40-60 years Desimone is closed now. The new one is alright. I wonder if they have smooth jazz playing, or the double-feature football games on sunday radio.
I gotta agree with 10. The Viaduct keeps pedestrians safe.
@ 7-
145th and Lake City would be the end of SPD's jurisdiction. So North of that you'd have to check with Bothell PD.
Two intersections that are fatalities waiting to happen are...
1) NE 45th St at 21st/22nd Ave NE, where a small driveway for 21st and 22nd outlets straight onto the right lane of 45th westbound, where westbound traffic reaches the top of a long hill that the 45th Viaduct climbs from U Village. Coming off of 21st with nothing more than a yield sign, there is NO visibility of oncoming traffic on 45th, and no acceleration lane. Cars basically go and hope nobody's coming.
2) The west onramp of I-5 at NE 45th. Cars just don't pay attention to pedestrian traffic as they either turn right at 30 mph off of 45th onto the onramp... or turn left with the green arrow at breakneck speed from 45th onto the entry ramp. Any pedestrian trying to cross with the walk signal along the south crosswalk of 45th here does so at their own risk.
And no one seems to give a crap about the obvious lethal risk pedestrians and drivers face at these intersections.
Yeah! three of them are within blocks of my house. I guess I better get some life insurance...
or move out of the part of town that has been neglected by the city for many many years, you know the one with all the black people.
"The Viaduct keeps pedestrians safe."
My theatre helps stop rape.
@16: since this post is stats heavy, can anyone point to the stats that show the number of pedestrians that have been killed by traffic on the viaduct?
You mean my own personal race track, Sand Point Way, is going to have pigs crawling all over it? Shit Shit Shit.
I guess the days of 55 in a 40 zone are right out.
4345 motorists and passengers were killed in the collapse of the viaduct during the October 30th, 2013 earthquake. It was terrible.
#13, Bothell is nowhere near 145th. Just north of 145th is Lake Forest Park. If you keep going on Bothell Way, you go through Kenmore. You don't hit Bothell for a couple miles.
So, that intersection is the responsibility of both SPD and LFPPD.
The last time I saw a cop car on the West Seattle Bridge I was going 50 in a 35 zone and he passed me on the right. So good luck with that shit.
Give drivers an inch and they take a mile. Like the wrong way parking on streets, it is actually Illegal.
Have the Charger Fleet give tickets for not stopping at STOP signs and almost in the first cross lane.
Also for those taped tail lights flapping in the wind. How about smashed cars still driving that look like they belong n a junk yard???
We also need a few more "PHOTO ENFORCED" signs at some intersections. It is amazing how the drivers manage to stop at those.
I wold like to see a report (pics) on the "PHOTO ENFORCED" intersections. How many violations were buses and cabs???? Or even police cars??
More than 600 accidents on Rainier in 2006, according to KOMO. Makes you wonder how many of those wheelchair riders on the No. 9 express bus are survivors of those accidents. You know: the same wheelchair riders you were complaining about back in November because they slowed down your morning commute, remember that?
@17 I don't understand. If you look at Erica's original post above, you'll see NINE fatalities on the Alaskan Way Viaduct, almost all of them caused by the on/off ramps. This makes me conclude that the Viaduct is WAY more dangerous than a surface street. After all, if a city surface street was so accident prone, wouldn't you expect to see Western Ave on the list above? What about 1st Ave? 2nd Ave?
Why is the Viaduct the only downdown street that seems to be killing people?
Hellorsw - this is just a testing, don't worry about it
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