Mayor Mike McGinn today announced new funding for a Safe Routes to School project on North Beacon Hill. The project would install curb bulbs, curb ramps, and a pedestrian island at the complicated intersection of Beacon Avenue South and 14th Avenue South, near Beacon Hill International School.
Other projects in the Safe Routes to School program include pedestrian improvements near West Woodland Elementary School in Ballard, and improvements near McGilvra Elementary in Madison Park. The $800,000 for the plan comes from the city’s Real Estate Excise Tax, which is required by law to go to fund capital projects such as these.
View Planned pedestrian improvements at Beacon and 14th in a larger map
Why not just a stoplight? And while we’re at it, how about a light at 14th and College, and 23rd and college?
And why, oh why, of why, did the city put in that great staircase on College between 13th and Beacon, which dumps pedestrians out into Beacon avenue without a sidewalk? To walk down to SODO, you have to cross Beacon on a curve, walk down a bit, and then cross again on a curve. It’s ludicrous.
Safe routes to schools sounds warm and fuzzy, but there are serious pedestrian challenges on the hill. They need to be addressed.