A trove of documents obtained from City of Seattle through public disclosure requests shows work is proceeding gradually but steadily inside the transportation department to take advantage of Washington State’s new Shared Streets Law. Pedestrianizing a number of streets could be around the corner.
Cities in Washington will have the legal authority to create shared streets, which feature much lower speed limits and put pedestrians first, under Senate Bill 5595. Governor Bob Ferguson signed the bill into law Saturday. It will go into effect on July 27.
Things don’t always work as planned. That certainly must be the feeling at the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) after the rollout of high-tech adaptive traffic signals along Mercer Street. Often called “the Mercer Mess,” Mercer Street is a major east-west route that bisects two dynamic downtown Seattle neighborhoods:
Carolyn Mawbey is irked. The feisty 68-year-old former New Yorker gets around Seattle’s Uptown neighborhood mostly on foot but when the transportation department flipped a switch this spring, her Earth-friendly commute got considerably rougher. “At first, I thought there was something wrong with me. I used to get across