At 8 a.m. this morning, members of the Ballard community and representatives of Seattle Department of Transportation met at the corner of Market Street and 24th to discuss changes to that intersection.

SDOT has proposed changes to that intersection to make the #44 bus route between the University District and Ballard more reliable. The Ballard District Council argued that the proposed changes will negatively impact other drivers and bus routes.

Peter Hahn, director of SDOT, and his colleagues invited Catherine Weatbrook and members of the Ballard District Council to take a look at that intersection during morning traffic and listen to the concerns of the community.

Warren Aakervik and Eugene Wasserman spoke on behalf of the Industries along Shilshole Avenue while Beth Miller from the Chamber of Commerce spoke about the interest of business along Market Street.

"In a situation like this we believe we ought to be out in the field to listen to the community and get a new perspective," Peter Hahn said.

SDOT's proposed changes will mostly benefit the East-West lanes and include adding another East-bound lane and installing new controllers and times lights.

"This intersection operates less efficiently than other intersection because of the split-phase traffic," said Eric Widstrand, SDOT's city traffic engineer.

"With the new eguiptment, timing should be a little more efficient," Widstrand said. "But you won't get the full benefit without a geometry change."

Eastbound traffic, currently a two lane road, will receive and additional lane for separate left, right, and through lanes. Westbound traffic, too, will have an additional lane for a left turn onto Shilshole Avenue.

Warren Aakervik expressed concern for the turn radius for big trucks when the roads become narrower to make room for an additional lane.

The north and south bound lanes may get an arrow changes but SDOT's real interest is the East-West approach while the community argues the North-Sound lanes cause the biggest problems.

Southbound traffic sometimes gets backed-up to 65th street, Catherine Weatbrook said, encouraging the SDOT official to return during afternoon rush hour when traffic is worst.

"The geometry of this intersection does not work for this kind of traffic," said Aakervik.
"The 44 [bus] is not having any trouble, but the North-South traffic is. East-West only gets backed up on Sunday afternoons, the real problem is North-South."

Weatbrook expressed concern that changes are based on modeling and once construction has finished, problems may arise.

"Modeling is not an exact science," Widstrand admitted. "But the timing [of the lights] can be changed easily."

"Even a new paint stripe isn't going to cost millions," Peter Hahn added. "But we'll have to wait to reevaluate the intersection after we give traffic a few months to get used to the changes."

In addition to the lane changes along the East and Westbound lanes, SDOT proposes to remove some parking spots on the West-East approach and limit curbside parking during rush hour.

Hahn said they'll take the concerns into consideration as they continue to find the best solution for that intersection.

No construction date has been set yet but construction would start in 2012 at the earliest.

See drawing of the proposed changes, here.