Following the early-fall study and traffic revision of Dorffel Drive in the Denny-Blaine neighborhood, Madison Park Greenways leader Bob Edmiston published a report. The report, released in November, didn’t recommend the revision study for permanent implementation.
The road sees a lot of cut-through traffic from drivers who live both inside and outside of the neighborhood and a lot of speeding. In fact, before the revision study, one driver was clocked at 77.7 mph. Overall, traffic volume wasn’t reduced, but speed was.
Not everyone was happy with the study, as we reported in an earlier issue of the Madison Park Times. For people on Dorffel Drive, “for the first time in forever, [they] had a safe street to live and walk on and were delighted,” Edmiston said. Others weren’t happy with the changes, saying it felt more dangerous, but people didn’t specify what their actual problems were, he said.
The traffic revision at the island on Lake Washington Boulevard created confusion and aggression in drivers, according to the report, and Edmiston suspects that may be one of the reasons people felt the study made the road more dangerous.
Residents of other streets in the area were also afraid of impacts from the study, like those living near Leschi St and 36th Avenue, who were afraid the cut-through traffic would come to them, Edmiston said.
“The traffic-counter data disproves that as a legitimate fear,” he said, noting after some diversion in the first few weeks of the study, people were driving on Dorffel again.
It’s no secret that people weren’t happy with the experiment, and they showed it in a variety of ways, from vandalizing the traffic-revision signs to driving aggressively and writing angry letters, Edmiston said. He felt a lot of people had a difficult time actually articulating what they didn’t like about the study.
There was an “insufficient level of feedback” so Edmiston went out to record video and observe what was going on. As he viewed the video, Edmiston found a number of problems with the traffic revision. With the left side of the road blocked off, people weren’t sure how to handle the intersection with the island in the middle of Lake Washington Boulevard, Edmiston observed.
And there were “legitimate, real issues, which must be addressed and were not in the experiment,” he said. The good news is, now he knows what the problems are if they decide to move forward with a permanent solution.
‘A complex fix’
After the six-week study finished, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) gave Edmiston the counter data, and he compiled that with his video and survey data to “extract the core issues” from the study. From that, he created a master list of issues, the biggest of which are detailed in his official report.
The traffic data from the study was compared to data collected in April, but Edmiston suspects that data may have been lower-than-average because it coincided with The Bush School’s spring break.
The traffic diversion eliminated top-end speeding and reduced all other speeding, too. “I’ve never seen a simple treatment be so effective at causing people to drive safely over such a long time,” Edmiston said.
At the conclusion of the study, Edmiston notes that there are still some unanswered questions, like why so many people from out of the area use that street, rather than a main arterial. One possible solution for this could be signage that directs people to popular destinations like the state Route 520 bridge.
The problems with the revised traffic configuration were significant enough that Edmiston recommended not to make this a permanent solution for the intersection. The purpose of the experiment was to learn whether the recommendations made in the 2000 traffic study made sense, and they did just that, Edmiston said.
Edmiston was glad SDOT was able to get in contact with more people who were affected by the experiment, but right now, there is no plan for a follow-up study.
The long-term goal is to make the neighborhood’s back streets safe enough for kids to use as safe routes to school, while also not interrupting drivers, Edmiston said.
For now, “we don’t have funding because we don’t have something we want done,” he said. “We don’t have a plan.”
The current revision proposal isn’t something that would be funded; the intersection is complicated and requires an equally complex fix, he said. The study did provide a lot of information to inform a design process when and if it happens, though.
Back to the drawing board
Next year, Edmison will dedicate his energy to the intersection at East Madison Street and McGilvra Boulevard East, which received a $90,000 grant for a design process. The following year will be spent applying for funding to implement the design, which he expects to cost about $400,000. 2016 would be the soonest Edmiston and the Madison Park Greenways would have the time to address Dorffel Drive again, especially since the neighborhood can only apply for one grant at a time.
As far as Edmiston is concerned, “it’s back to the drawing board of having the Denny-Blaine neighborhood figure out what [kind of neighborhood] they want to live in.” If the residents decide they want a more walkable neighborhood, it will take an engagement process, Edmiston said; if they don’t want to address Dorffel Drive, then it probably won’t change.
Edmiston mentioned the area schools are interested in creating safer routes for kids to walk and bike, which would mean four fewer car trips per student each day.
“Ultimately, we have to do what’s best for the greater good,” Edmiston said. “It’s important for us to maintain or improve livability of the neighborhood.” The speeds on the street now are “completely unacceptable behavior. That livability on that street is gone.”
Doing nothing would be condoning the behavior and continuing the “downward spiral,” he said. “I just hope the community decides to pull together and decides they want safe streets.”
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