Hello Beacon BIKErs,
This is a call to anyone who is on this list that lives on Beacon Hill and wants to see our Greenway be built.
SDOT had a community open house on July 19, I saw many of you there. They collected public comments, many of which were positive. However, there have been a few individuals that have been very vocal in their opposition and their voices are drowning out the broad-based support we have for this project in our community. Please take 5 minutes to write an email showing support for the project to SDOT and Council. I have spoken with key individuals at the City and they say these emails are the single most important thing we can do right now. If you can, add why the project is important to you personally. They have heard from me and a couple other active members many times, to have a really powerful effect it would be wonderful if those of you who have not been very active could write an email.
The details of SDOT’s plan can be found here:
http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/beaconhillgreenway.htmAddress to: Brian.Dougherty@seattle.gov
CC: sandra.woods@seattle.gov, dongho.chang@seattle.gov, sally.bagshaw@seattle.gov, Douglas.Cox@seattle.gov, tom.rasmussen@seattle.gov, dsahearn@gmail.com, and anyone else you want…Thank you for your help in making Beacon Hill a safer and more livable neighborhood.
The proposed greenway would follow 18th Avenue South from the I-90 trail south to South Hanford street, where it would zigzag over to Lafayette Avenue South, then along the edge of Jefferson Park to South Dakota Street, then south on 12th Avenue South to South Lucile Street. The greenway route would have improvements and repairs to make the street safer for cyclists, drivers, and pedestrians alike, including new signage and street markings, crossing islands at certain intersections, a new left turn lane on South Spokane Street, and others. As mentioned above, details may be found here.
View Beacon Hill Neighborhood Greenway in a larger map
Done. And thank you for your work on making the bike greenway happen for Beacon Hill. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.
It would be interesting to know the perspective of those who are objecting to this. I see a couple things in the plan that raise some flags; the median at Hanford that effectively cuts off all left hand turns and the lane diet on Spokane. Both of those are fine with me, but it isn’t clear how traffic from the I-5 off-ramp and the frequently full 2 left turn lanes onto east-bound Spokane merge into 1 lane, and accomodate signalled left turns onto 15th. Is the lane diet part of a different project or is that integral to the greenway? THe plan sheet for the median at Lafayette still has 4 lanes on Spokane, so something is obviously missing. As a frequent user of that exit off I-5, it seems that changes need to go all the way back to the turn lane on Columbian, rather than expecting cars to merge once they get on Spokane. The hill up to 15th makes it critical that traffic keep flowing and drivers aren’t suddenly faced with an ending lane right after making that turn.
My email in support has been sent!
Chris, yes, I was hoping to find out myself what people’s concerns are. As of last night I didn’t have any info on that yet. I do have more info today, and it looks as if your guesses are correct. I will probably post a follow-up when I can.
Interesting. I wasn’t there (still irritated that I couldn’t make it, heh), and I’d still like to know more about this proposed median at Beacon and Hanford. Much as I love the idea of the greenway, I’m a bit concerned about that median and its impact on motor traffic for both roads…