Dear Editor:  
I am an 8th grader from Washington Middle School. In this letter, I hope to express a concern that you and your readers might share. I have a concern for the safety of the people who use the pedestrian crosswalk on Harbor Avenue SW at the intersection of Harbor Avenue SW and California Way SW, which is near the West Seattle Water Taxi dock.
 
At the intersection of California and Harbor, there are no traffic lights, for either pedestrians or cars. Harbor Avenue is a very busy street. I’ve witnessed that frequently, drivers do not stop for pedestrians, and pedestrians often have to rush across the street in order not to get hit. According to King County, about 216, 155 passengers rode on the water taxi between West Seattle and Downtown Seattle last year, and a lot of those people use that crosswalk. Also there is a school bus stop on a corner of that intersection, endangering the kids as well.
 
This topic is really important to me because not only that the bus stop is my bus stop, but also that my mom walks across that intersection every day to get to the Water Taxi to go to work every day. As a solution to this problem, I urge West Seattle residents to call or write to the City of Seattle Department of Transportation and petition that they install a traffic light. If you choose to, you have my permission to publish this. You can contact me at (206)933-8523. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.