It will take more than a curb bulb to safeguard the crosswalk on Admiral Way at 47th Avenue Southwest, Admiral District residents told city transportation officials.

The crosswalk is at a five-way intersection on a descending curve. The painted crosswalk has long had warning signs posted along Admiral Way and a "crosswalk" sign hanging above. Additional lighting was added a few years ago to brighten the intersection.

The Seattle Department of Transportation plans to extend the curb bulb on the south side of Admiral Way at 47th from the sidewalk northward across the curbside parking area. That should help reduce traffic speed, said Wayne Wentz, the department's director of operations. It also should better define the crosswalk. The signs hanging above the crosswalk will be replaced with more vivid ones.

The 47th Avenue crosswalk is getting more attention from the city since Tatsuo Nakata was struck and killed there Nov. 14 by an eastbound car coming uphill. Nakata was chief aide to Seattle City Councilman David Della. That's why Della as well as Councilman Tom Rasmussen and Council President Nick Licata all attended a public meeting about the crosswalk at Hiawatha Community Center Dec. 18. An investigation of Nakata's death is still underway.

"We'll make this a special priority," Della told the approximately 40 people at the meeting.

Neighbors complained for years to the city about the danger posed by the crosswalk. But there was no record of any pedestrian accidents at the crosswalk for the past 11 years, so transportation planners figured the existing warning signs, the crosswalk sign hanging above, and the painted crosswalk itself were sufficient.

People at the meeting were skeptical that a curb bulb will help much. Many of them spoke up for a pedestrian-activated traffic signal at the crosswalk.

Drivers get so accustomed to seeing warning lights that are on constantly they forget about them, said resident John Dodd. A pedestrian-operated signal would come on at a variety of times, which would cause motorists to pay more attention to the crosswalk, he said.

The city installs about five pedestrian-operated signals per year, Wentz said. They cost upward of $60,000 each. The city put in six such signals this year and plans to install 10 more in 2007.

Other people at the meeting suggested lights be embedded in the street pavement along the crosswalk outline.

A lot of people were mad at motorists.

"No one respects crosswalks," said a man.

One attendee described seeing four cars stop to allow a pedestrian to cross Admiral Way, only to have a fifth car turn into the center lane to pass all of the waiting cars. The driver slammed on the brakes when he realized someone was in the crosswalk, but then cut off the waiting cars and continued on his way after the pedestrian passed.

The day before the meeting, another man looked both ways before stepping onto Admiral Way at the 47th Avenue crosswalk. Suddenly a car was coming at him.

"I jumped out of the way at the last second," the man recounted. "I looked at the driver and he gave me the finger."

Another man said Admiral Way motorists frequently flip off pedestrians trying to cross. He wasn't sure whether it was because of "driver apathy or disaffection."

"I step into the street and people ignore me," he said. "Drivers basically don't care about pedestrians. They don't want to wait five seconds."

Carol Longfellow has complained to the city for years about the 47th Avenue crosswalk.

"The city has always blown me off," she said. "They say no one died. Or they say, there's no money.

"People speed up when they see me in my red coat and cane," Longfellow said, her voice straining as she continued. "They try to hit me. It happened with a bus. It happened with a sand truck. Even a police car did it."

Longfellow gets around in an electric cart but dares not try to drive it across Admiral Way.

"It's not that they don't see you," Longfellow said. "They don't care!"

A man said 48th and 49th avenues increasingly are being used as arterial streets, which adds traffic volumes to those streets' intersections.

"We feel like sitting ducks," he said. "The whole area needs to be checked (for pedestrian safety)."

The Seattle Pedestrian Advisory Board wrote a letter to Governor Christine Gregoire and Mayor Greg Nickels Dec. 12 about recent pedestrian accidents and urged an immediate campaign to educate drivers, pedestrians and police that, by state law, all intersections are legal places for pedestrians to cross a street.

"Breaking this law should come with fitting, but serious punishment," the Pedestrian Advisory Board wrote.

"Public attention has turned to the glaring lack of consequences for hitting and even killing a pedestrian who is legally crossing the street," the board letter stated,

The Pedestrian Advisory Board also recommended stronger enforcement to keep parked cars at least 30 feet from an intersection.

It's time for people to think of pedestrians and bicyclists as "shared mobility" the letter stated, meaning drivers have to share the road with people on foot or riding bikes. The board suggested including information about pedestrians and bicyclists in the state drivers' training manual.

Some meeting attendees took issue with drivers who are distracted from piloting their vehicles.

People told of seeing motorists driving on Admiral Way while talking on cell phones, applying makeup and shaving. One woman went by steering the car with her knees while she turned to discipline children in the backseat.

A woman whose son was hit by a car said there is an effort to pass a distracted driver bill through the Washington Legislature.

Another man described seeing Nakata's body lying on Admiral Way shortly after the accident last month.

"That changed my outlook on life," he said.

The man made the bright orange-red flags that soon appeared on each side of the crosswalk. He also waved homemade safety signs at passing motorists for days after Nakata's death.

Other people complained that Seattle police officers rarely enforce the 30 mph speed limit on Admiral Way.

"I see police on the east side of Admiral Way (east of California Avenue)," said a woman who described herself as a runner, mother and car driver. "But not on the west side."

"Enforcement is paramount," said a man. "I've lived there 21 years and I've never seen any enforcement. And I'm retired SPD (Seattle Police Department). It bugs me."

On Admiral Way - from California Avenue to 49th Avenue - there were 221 car wrecks over the past 11 years, said Gregg Hirakawa, spokesman for the Department of Transportation. Eleven of those accidents involved pedestrians.

Citywide there were 450 pedestrian accidents in 2005 and 377 in 2004. In 2003, there were 432 pedestrian accidents.

Two years ago, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration named Seattle the safest city in the U.S. for pedestrians.

Tim St. Clair can be contacted at tstclair@robinsonnews.com or 932-0300.