The city of Everett needs to put in traffic-calming measures on 19th Street. It’s dangerous to have an unobstructed arterial running through the heart of a residential area.
Why 19th? This important road splits the peninsula of north Everett in half, forming borders in the Delta, Riverside, Bayside and Northwest neighborhoods. Nineteenth Street also acts as an important arterial linking I-5 to local hotspots such as Grand Avenue Park and retail-heavy sections of Broadway, while providing a popular route between Broadway and Colby avenues.
As such, 19th is often flooded with heavy automobile and foot traffic. Cars and trucks speed to and from the city, often zooming past skittish pedestrians trying to cross the street with strollers, bikes and walkers.
There is currently one intersection with a crosswalk (19th and Walnut) serving the 12 residential blocks on the section of 19th east of Broadway. This leaves pedestrians with no choice but to jaywalk through oncoming traffic at their own risk.
This doesn’t seem right.
If the city of Everett is looking for practical and inexpensive ways to make the city more walkable, livable and attractive to investors they would do well to install crosswalks, speed bumps and even (budget permitting) tree-filled medians on 19th.
It’s not hard to imagine 19th Street as a boulevard filled with frequent crosswalks and automobiles travelling at reasonable speeds.
Fresh paint and concrete may save lives.
Richard Porter
Everett
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