Your comments are needed Tuesday at an Open House for several proposed street reconfigurations in Mid-Beacon Hill. The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is planning changes for several roads in Mid-Beacon to address safety, provide traffic calming, improve pedestrian crossings, and install bicycle facilities. These changes will implement a “Complete Streets” approach, in which the street is redesigned to enable safe access for all users, including pedestrians, cyclists, transit users, and drivers, as well as children, seniors, and people with disabilities.

15th Avenue South between South Bradford Street and South Oregon Street (the red line on the map below) currently consists of four travel lanes with parking restricted at the morning and evening peak rush hour. Motor vehicles often travel significantly faster through this corridor than the speed limit of 30 mph. SDOT is proposing to remove on-street parking from both sides of the street, remove one northbound travel lane, widen the travel lanes and install dedicated bike lanes in both directions.

15th Avenue South between South Oregon Street and Swift Avenue South (the green line on the map) currently consists of one travel lane in each direction with parking on both sides of the street. There are marked school crosswalks at South Dawson Street and South Shelton Street for Maple Elementary School and St. George School as well as a school speed zone for Cleveland High School. SDOT is proposing a combination of a bicycle lanes where the road is uphill and sharrows where the road is flat or downhill. On-street parking would be removed from the east side of the street between South Lucile Street and South Dawson Street, and from the west side between South Dawson Street and South Angeline Street. Removing street parking in this alternating fashion will provide some traffic calming at the school crosswalks.

South Columbian Way between Beacon Avenue South and South Alaska Street (the blue line on the map) currently consists of four travel lanes. SDOT is proposing to remove one downhill lane and install dedicated bicycle lanes in both directions.

These proposals, when completed, will create continuous bike facilities from downtown Seattle and North Beacon to Mercer Middle School, Cleveland High School, Mid-Beacon Hill and Columbia City. If approved, these changes would be implemented in 2010. This project is funded by the “Bridging the Gap” transportation levy approved by Seattle voters in 2006.

You are invited to stop by the Open House and view project plans, provide feedback and chat with the project team. The event is Tuesday, August 24 from 5:00 – 7:00 pm at the Jefferson Community Center Meeting Room, 3801 Beacon Avenue South. You may also email your comments to walkandbike@seattle.gov or call 206-684-7583.

(Much of this article is adapted from SDOT’s press release describing the project. Thanks to Peg Nielsen for sending it along.)

View “Complete Streets” changes in Mid-Beacon Hill in a larger map