Thank you to the community for joining Mayor Jenny Durkan to talk about safety measures you want to see on Rainier Avenue South.
Traffic engineers from the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) visited the Rainier Ave S and S Henderson St intersection last week and are already planning several near-term safety enhancements and evaluating a few others including:
- Re-painting and extending the marked crosswalks (COMPLETED)
- A painted curb bulb at the NW corner of the intersection (COMPLETED)
- Two new countdown pedestrian signals that will help people cross the intersection easier (COMPLETED)
- An automated school speed zone camera on Rainier Ave S; (CURRENTLY BEING EVALUATED)
- Signal changes including a leading pedestrian interval, which would give pedestrians a 3–7 second head start when entering an intersection. This could enhance the visibility of pedestrians in the intersection and reinforce their right-of-way over turning vehicles; (COMPLETED)
- Vehicle turn restrictions, including no right turn on red. (IN PROGRESS)
In addition to near-term safety enhancements, the Rainier Ave S Safety Corridor project will be making physical changes to the design and layout of Rainier Ave S between S Kenny St and S Henderson St to encourage people to drive the posted speed limit.
Safety goals for this project include:
- Reduce speeding;
- Limit the number of serious injuries or fatal collisions;
- Improve access to transit; and
- Improve bus speed and reliability
We are planning to start construction in 2019 and are currently seeking your feedback to determine how this will look in your community. A few planned changes along this corridor could include:
- Maintaining some on-street parking;
- Adding a center left-turn lane; and
- Converting a northbound traffic lane to a dedicated bus lane.
SDOT is also working with King County Metro to provide transit speed and reliability improvements along the Route 7, which includes additional pedestrian safety improvements to ensure people can safely access transit along the corridor.
Please email the Mayor at Jenny.Durkan@seattle.gov if you have more ideas about wha the City should do to make our children and families safer.