The West Seattle Crime Prevention Council hosted a meeting on April 19 with Jim Curtin, community traffic liaison for the Seattle Department of Transportation and West Seattle resident, to gain insight on SDOT’s process for making changes to roads and create an opportunity for residents to voice their concerns – primarily on the safety of 35th Ave s.w., often called I-35.

Although Curtin has been on the schedule for this month’s WSCPC meeting for some time, the topic is of particular relevance after the tragic April 13 collision at the intersection of Juneau and 35th that took motorcyclist Andrew Seffernick’s life.

An overall drop in collisions

Curtin opened the session by handing out a spreadsheet illustrating yearly collision averages for intersections in West Seattle and spreading the good news:

“I am glad to report that collisions in West Seattle in general are down 9.5 percent since 2001, which is pretty significant,” Curtin said, adding collisions are down throughout Seattle.

Although he said the drop can be attributed partially to road changes, such as putting in lights or implementing a road diet (reducing a four-lane road to two lanes of traffic with a center turning lane), another factor may be the downturned economy: less people working means fewer vehicles on the road, leading to fewer collisions.

As an aside, Curtin explained the most common reasons for collisions citywide. Topping the list is failure to grant right of way, followed by inattention (cell phones, eating, wild children), tailgaiting, improper turns, speeding, DUIs and right of way to pedestrians and bicycles.

Problem intersections along 35th Ave

The spreadsheet titled “West Seattle Collisions at Intersections” listed the yearly average for collisions over two five year periods: 2001 through 2005 and 2006 through 2010 and only included collisions where police were called to the scene and generated a report.

35th and Avalon Way tops the chart (please click the photo at top for a picture of the chart) with eight reported collisions per year from 2001 through 2005. The total dropped to 7.2 collisions from 2006 through 2010. The intersection on many attendees mind, Juneau and 35th, was an exception to the downtrend with 4.4 in the first half of the decade, rising to an even five in the latter half.

Curtin said the number of collisions at 35th and Juneau do not meet SDOT’s threshold for justifying a light at the intersection at this time, but that they are looking at other solutions including barring left hand turns. The fatal collision on April 13 was caused when the motorcyclist, traveling northbound on 35th, collided with a southbound car turning left onto Juneau. Some members of the audience spoke up in opposition of the “no left turn” idea, stating it simply moves the problem north or south creating more problems at a different intersection.

Curtin said fatalities do not factor into SDOT’s equation for justifying lights at an intersection, only collisions. Another factor playing into the decision is serious cuts to funding, making it difficult to move forward with expensive changes to roadways, according to Curtin.

Ultimately, Curtin said, ““I think in the case of 35th, we’ve got a lot of people speeding … and that’s really the root cause of all the problems out there.”

Slowing down 35th

“A road diet or rechannelization has been on the table for a long time (for 35th) … we are still studying it and want to make sure we do it right so we don’t have to go back and make changes,” Curtin said of SDOT’s stance on reducing the West Seattle thoroughfare to single north and southbound lanes with a turning lane in the middle.

Curtin said SDOT considers a road diet for any road that has between 20,000 and 25,000 cars traveling it in a day. 35th currently clocks in at 23,600 a day, putting it in that feasibility zone.

In the meantime, radar speed limit signs, mobile speed monitors, red light cameras and SPD officers handing out tickets are the currently employed tactics. Curtin said the current average speed on 35th is 38 mph southbound and 39 mph northbound. Captain Steve Paulsen, commander for the SPD Southwest Precinct, said that speeding has been reduced on 35th since 2005 – thanks to the above mentioned changes – but it still remains a problem.

“It’s hard when SDOT is looking at improvements because you look at 35th and Avalon and 35th and Morgan and like I said earlier these are … intersections with the highest form of traffic control that we can provide and we still have people getting into collisions and we still have pedestrians getting hit,” Curtin said. “It’s a behavioral issue. To a certain extent it has a lot to do with who’s behind the wheel and when and what they are doing …”

Captain Paulsen added it is a tough balance between slowing down traffic and still providing a route for people to get where they need to go in a timely manner. While a road diet on 35th would certainly slow down traffic and many would be in favor of the change, he said there would be a strong contingency opposed to slowing one of West Seattle’s major north-south roads.

Curtin said the best route to voicing opinions on traffic issues in West Seattle is to contact local elected officials and the city council since they are the ones allocating funds. SDOT is aware of the issues, he said, but without funding making changes is a tall order.

A final note: Captain Paulsen said over the next few weeks speed limit enforcement along 35th will be heavy.