by Gwen Davis

A discussion to improve safety on 35th Ave. SW provided a dynamic opportunity for officials to hear the thoughts and voices of concerned neighbors. The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) invited community members to attend the first of two community meetings this month to improve safety on 35th. The purpose of Wednesday's meeting was to review existing conditions and traffic data, discuss potential engineering and enforcement strategies and hear concerns and ideas from residents. It took place in Neighborhood House on Sylvan Way SW.

The meeting was facilitated by Jim Curtin, SDOT project manager.

Here is what you need to know:

—> “Tonight we’re not jumping into solutions, in early 2015 we’ll bring them to you,” Curtin said. “In March or April we’ll set our final meeting and in the summer we’ll start making significant improvements. But we just want to hear from you tonight." The meeting first allowed a brief presentation from Curtin about the status of the street, followed by a question and answer session, then followed by participants breaking out into small groups to personally put thoughts onto paper, with the support and feedback of fellow attendees.

—> Curtin discussed the stats of the corridor: The current speed limit is 35 mph on 35th, although many people drive 36 to 40 mph, depending on the respective intersections, including SW Brandon St., SW Willow St. and SW Roxbury St. However, this is an improvement from previous years. “These speeds have gone down considerably since 2007,” Curtin said. The Seattle Police Department (SPD) enforcement has done an excellent job at reducing speeds. In the last three years, there have been 294 total collisions, 128 injuries and two fatalities. This is an improvement from the past 10 years which saw 1,065 total collisions, 412 injuries and five fatalities.

—> The next meeting happens next Tues. Oct. 28 at the Southwest Public Library at 3:30 p.m.

Summary of conversation:

“The size of the lanes are ridiculous,” one attendee said, which provides for terrible parking conditions. “This idea that we're not going to cut it down to three lanes is absurd.” Many other streets in the area have undergone a “lane diet” he said, and 35th needs to follow suit. “I had two cars totaled because the and speed is so bad,” he said. The cops put up a camera to reduce infractions, however because so many people speed it’s kind of a joke. “If you put 35th Ave. on a lane diet, it would [fix the.”

When another participant jumped in, presumably making an opposite case, Curtin said “We’re not doing a road diet, but we’re not not doing a road diet. You bring up a very valid point about 35th. We’d definitely have more places to park [with lane and have done more than 30 road diets in the city of Seattle since the 1970s. But we need to do our homework before we get to that point.”

“Has there ever been a traffic diet that was not successful?” someone asked Curtin. “Actually In the 1970s and 1990s, on Califonia Ave SW, that street was put on a road diet twice” in both those decades, he said. "It worked great for most of the corridor but not everywhere," because people wanted to heavily populate the shopping area.

“But that’s the beauty of a road diet,” he said. “All you have to do is repave the street."

Other issues were brought up.

“I want my kids to get over to Camp Long in a safe, effective manner,” one participant said regarding the short time pedestrians have to cross the street. If the cross times were longer, pedestrians would have an easier experience and as a plus, drivers wouldn’t be as distracted, he argued.

At one point Curtin said: ”one of the most misunderstood rules of the road is every intersection is a crosswalk, whether there’s paint there or not,” he said. “Our policy is no crosswalks on 35th” due to the nature of crosswalks on similar streets.

However, “There’s not magic bullet that makes roads 100 percent safe,” but there’s been significant improvements when these types of community member -led studies were applied to other streets in the city.