My name is Garry Lund and I am an estimator for Gary Merlino Construction, the firm that was awarded the contract to repave California Avenue in West Seattle.

I have lived in West Seattle since 1967 and have witnessed several near misses between cars and pedestrians at these two mid-block crosswalks.

I believe an in-pavement crosswalk lighting system will be the most effective system for the two mid-block crosswalks. I was told that they had already narrowed the choices to the two mentioned in your article and further stated that there wasn't enough safety data related to the effectiveness of this type of crosswalk and therefore it was not considered as an option.

The in-pavement lighted crosswalk is a relatively new type of crosswalk system that involves flashing yellow lights installed in the pavement for the full width of the crosswalk. The lights are raised above the pavement similar to a raised traffic marker button and are usually located outside the tire tracks. A push button post is located at the sidewalk so pedestrians can activate the flashing lights and alert cars that someone is about to use the crosswalk.

King County installed this system in White Center (16th Ave. SW and SW 102nd Street, at the crosswalk by the Dairy Queen) which is similar to the California Avenue situation and I have seen how effective they can be.

The problem in White Center and at the Junction is that there are four lanes of travel for cars (two in each direction) and when a car in the right lane stops to let someone cross, usually the car in the left lane (or ones going in the other direction) don't stop for the pedestrians and the pedestrians have to stop in the middle of the crosswalk to avoid being hit.

The other issue is the impact to the cars; with this in-pavement system, after the cars stop to let the pedestrians cross they can continue immediately. If a traffic light is installed, it would be timed to stay red for short periods of time and cars would not be allowed to continue until the signal turns green, regardless of how fast the pedestrians crossed the street.

Also the raised "speed bumps" would only slow down cars a little bit but they still may not see the pedestrians trying to cross.

If you haven't seen these types of crosswalks before, I suggest you go to White Center and see for yourself how effective they are, especially at night. This type of system is not for every crosswalk, but they are most effective where there are more than two lanes of traffic and where there is no traffic signal, which is why I think it is the perfect solution at the Junction mid-block crosswalks.

I know some other cities in the region are using them (I think the city of Renton has some), but for some reason the city of Seattle is cool to the idea. I proposed this same system a few years ago when Merlino had the contract to replace the sidewalks in the Junction and got a similar response.

I also sent a similar e-mail to Mayor Nickels hoping he would at least consider this type of crosswalk system. Hopefully I can at least drum up some discussion for the in-pavement lighted crosswalk.

Garry Lund

Westwood