AAA has some good advice for winter drivers

Winter weather is here.

Fortunately for anyone feeling squirrelly about driving on snow and ice, the American Automobile Association of Washington offers an extensive rundown of checklists and advice.

“How to Go on Ice and Snow” may be downloaded free from the auto club’s Web site. It’s AAA’s most popular brochure, spokeswoman Jennifer Cook said.

The 11-page pamphlet provides information on many aspects of winter driving. These include how to prepare yourself and your vehicle for winter driving conditions; winter techniques for braking, following, steering, skidding and more; and what to include in a winter driving kit.

These and other traffic safety tips may be found at http://tinyurl.com/AAAtips.

Paul Harvin of Everett writes: When is the city of Lynnwood going to fix the road on 36th Avenue W. between 164th Street SW and Maple Road (179th Street SW)? It is the worst stretch of road in Snohomish County. Even with seat belts you are bouncing up and down or from side to side and sometimes both at the same time!

I brought this up once before and the response from the city of Lynnwood was they were planning to fix that stretch of road soon. That was 15 years ago.

Bill Franz, public works director for Lynnwood, responds: Snohomish County and the city of Lynnwood, which is acting as lead agency, are working on a project to reconstruct 36th Avenue W. from 148th Street SW in Snohomish County to Maple Road (179th Street SW). The project will add sidewalks, turn lanes at major intersections and storm-water controls to the street.

The city received a federal grant of $1.75 million this year to begin designing the project in 2010. About $10 million to $12 million for Lynnwood’s southern half of the project is still needed to get it through construction. The city is pursuing more state and federal grants and hopes to complete the project within three to five years.

Jeanne Clifton of Snohomish writes: The approach to Highway 9 at Bunk Foss Road is very congested. I have sat through this intersection for three sets of lights, which is very exasperating. Would it be possible for the left-hand lane to be made a single south turning lane onto Highway 9, the right-hand lane to go straight across to U.S. 2 and a third lane added for right turns onto Highway 9?

Mike Swires, state traffic engineer for the Snohomish area, responds: We know that drivers are experiencing congestion at this location and we have looked into possible solutions to improve traffic flow, including the one that Ms. Clifton suggests. Unfortunately, we do not have the funding to reconfigure the intersection of Highway 9 and Bunk Foss Road at this time. We can’t simply restripe the lanes on Bunk Foss Road because the existing right lane does not line up with the U.S. 2 onramp on the other side of Highway 9. To safely reconfigure the intersection, we would need to widen Bunk Foss Road and realign the existing lanes to provide through traffic with a safe route across Highway 9.

We have adjusted this signal and the adjacent signals to keep all directions of traffic moving as efficiently as possible. We will continue to monitor this location and make any other changes we can to improve traffic flow.

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