Yesterday, Lake City residents took to the streets carrying picket signs. Their cause?
“Please stop for me.”
Lake City Way is both the heart of the neighborhood and a state highway. As such, it sees an unusually high share of traffic violence. State and city data shows that the intersection with 130th Street is among the most dangerous in the whole city for people walking.
For one hour during evening rush hour, residents crossed the intersection’s crosswalks carrying the signs. This action was organized with Lake City Greenways, and it’s only the first in what Lake City Traffic Corridor Project leaders hope will be many more. From Janine at Lake City Greenways:
This action will be the first of several, aimed at raising the awareness of those who drive on LCW that this is our Main Street and we need to be able to walk and roll on it safely. The Traffic Safety Corridor Project will engage different groups and neighbors in Lake City in future actions
Meanwhile, across the nation, New York City residents took to the streets in Jackson Heights. The group, calling themselves Three Children Too Many, rallied against death and injury on their streets.
Among the speakers were Amy Tam and Hsi-Pei Liao, a couple who lost their three-year-old daughter when a person driving an SUV struck and killed her as she was walking in crosswalk with her grandmother.
StreetFilms posted the couple’s heartbreaking and powerful speech:
The Parents of Allison Liao Speak at the Three Children Too Many Traffic Safety March from Streetfilms on Vimeo.
Comments
4 responses to “As neighbors ‘picket’ for Lake City Way walking safety, New York couple gives heartbreaking traffic safety plea”
One of the biggest challenges with LCW is that it is a state highway and as such, falls under WSDOT jurisdiction, not SDOT. While the city (and SDOT) has a Bicycle Master Plan and a Complete Streets Policy, WSDOT does not and coordination between the city and state is limited. Couple this with the current state transportation bill being hashed out with reduced support for transit, bicycle and pedestrian facilities (see Seattle Transit Blog) and it doesn’t look very hopeful for the needed improvements on LCW.
Maybe this is where the Mayor-elect can really show the city he is focused on the needs of Seattle and use his experience and connections in Olympia to help craft a transportation bill that addresses the distinct issues and needs regarding state DOT facilities within developed urban areas and improved coordination between WSDOT and SDOT.
One can always hope.
Go Janine and Friends! Great job with the action and education.
Hi, INTS:
The Traffic Safety Corridor Project is a joint project of WSDOT, SDOT, WA Traffic Safety Commission, and LC residents. We began planning last spring, looking at the copious data SDOT and WSDOT have on LCW, prioritizing intersections, looking at engineering fixes, and laying out an outreach plan. It is already funded. It will officially kick off in early 2014 with added (funded) police enforcement of speed limits, fixes in engineering and signal timing, and further education efforts that will include more billboards, more crosswalk actions, literature, and outreach. Not something we merely hope for, but have started! Because SDOT had some 2013 funding available for educational efforts, we started that component early with this crosswalk action and another in December. These will continue, too, when the TSC project kicks off.
[…] City, where the battle of NE 125th Street was fought just a few years ago. Just last week, they took to one of the city’s most dangerous intersections holding picket signs urging people to pay attention to people in the […]