EDMONDS – Rhonda Gendron says it’s not safe to use the Frances Anderson Center if you have to cross Main Street to do it.
That’s why she spent two-plus weeks gathering more than 250 signatures to influence the city of Edmonds to put a crosswalk toward the uphill end of the city parks-and-recreation headquarters.
“All the moms complain about it,” said Gendron, who takes her 5-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son to classes at the Anderson Center, and brings her 10-month old daughter along. “There’s no safe place to cross.”
A crosswalk is situated near the downhill end of the building, at the T-intersection of Seventh Avenue and Main Street, toward the library. “It’s not in a convenient location,” Gendron said, noting that the Main Street parking for the Anderson Center is located uphill from the main entrance. Also, “no one stops,” she said.
Gendron plans to take her petitions to the City Council meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25 at the city’s Public Safety Complex, 250 Fifth Ave. N. But she’s already got the city’s attention.
She’s been talking to city traffic engineer Darrell Smith, who in turn has talked to a couple of City Council members. Smith said he and city officials agree that pedestrian safety around the Anderson Center needs to be improved.
The city had already been considering improvements to Main and Dayton after last year’s debate about which way to route traffic when the Pine Street outlet to the ferry line is closed, Smith said. It’s not official yet, but the city is leaning toward adding a traffic circle at the intersection of Eighth Avenue and Dayton Street, on the other side of the Anderson Center; bulb-outs on Main and Dayton at the crosswalks at Sixth and Seventh avenues, and a bulb-out on Main at Eighth.
Another possibility is a stop sign on Main at Seventh, Eighth or both, Smith said.
Another crosswalk is not likely, he said. Statistics compiled by the city’s insurance carrier, the Association of Washington Cities, show that mid-block crosswalks can actually increase accidents by giving pedestrians a “false sense of security,” Smith said. Motorists are more likely to overlook mid-block crosswalks and speed through them, he said. Cities have been sued by pedestrians who have been hit by uninsured motorists in such crosswalks, hoping to tap the cities’ pockets, according to Smith.
Gendron doesn’t like the idea of bulb-outs. A crosswalk, she believes, “would be so much better a use of the money.”
Smith said he couldn’t compare the cost of crosswalks and bulb-outs, that it depends on the site. But bulb-outs, he said, “do a good job of constricting traffic and reduce the amount of roadway the pedestrian has to cross.” Their main disadvantage, he said, is that they require removal of parking stalls.
“Parking is at a premium there,” Smith said.
Arvilla Ohlde, the city’s parks director, confirmed Gendron’s contention that motorists tend to violate the 25-mph speed limit on Main Street.
“If you had to boil it down to the one big problem, it’s speed,” Ohlde said.
Smith said police have told him motorists do exceed the speed limit there but usually by 5 mph or so, not nearly as much as in other areas, and that accidents are rare.
The Seventh Avenue crosswalk is marked with signs and preceded by rumble strips, he noted. In-ground lights have not been installed because the crosswalk is on a plateau and these likely would not be seen by motorists traveling uphill, Smith said.
The Main Street intersections don’t meet the usual criteria for stop signs such as number of accidents, traffic volume or turning patterns, he said. But because of the proximity of the Anderson Center and library, he said a sign or signs merit consideration and a public hearing is a possibility.
Gendron’s petition – which she has been circulating at the Anderson Center and in stores – asks for the crosswalk at the point where the easterly wheelchair ramp meets the sidewalk, and that in-ground flashing lights be installed along the crosswalk.
“There hasn’t been anyone who really didn’t want to sign it,” she said.
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