الوصف
Dear Mayor Moran,
I was reading the most recent City of Sammamish newsletter and appreciated your willingness to receive comments and suggestions from the residents of this beautiful city.
My neighbors and I live across the street from the Sammamish Landing Park on East Lake Sammamish Parkway Northeast. I was delighted that the crosswalk was installed not too long ago, but still find myself very afraid to make my way down to it from my driveway due to the lack of shoulder/sidewalk, and disregard of drivers. This was made even more apparent to me last month when I started walking my newborn twins alongside the road in their stroller to get to the crosswalk. It is absolutely frightening to think that one distracted driver could hit my 7 week old babies and I at any moment with not even a curb to protect us.
I am not one to write to you without a solution! In downtown Bellevue I have seen many places that have two crosswalks approximately 50-100 feet apart that activate at the same time (108th Ave NE at the Bellevue Transit Center). I wanted to ask if it was possible to add an additional crosswalk at the entrance to our neighborhood, or otherwise add a sidewalk from our neighborhood to the crosswalk already installed. I understand either of these options would be costly, but with safety being my number one priority, here are what I hope to be my compelling reasons why:
1) A pedestrian has already died just fifty feet from my home at the 4600 block of East Lake Sammamish Parkway NE. There is a post with a cross and flowers remembering them out on the road.
2) Of the 6 homes on my street, all but one have children. In total we have 12 children and 12 adults, plus 6 dogs that often make use of the park almost daily and have to walk alongside the busy street with a minimal shoulder to access the crosswalk every time.
3) With the increase in use of the Sammamish Landing Park over the past few years, this would improve safety for all pedestrians, cyclists and motorists alike by bringing more awareness to the fact that there is a reduction in speed from 35 to 30 as you approach the park.
I have included a rough drawing to depict what I am suggesting in case I have not described it well.
I have one other request. Would it be at all possible to request that the Parks Department install a swing set at the park? If it is something the budget cannot accommodate, I would be more than happy to spearhead a fundraising effort. I would suggest a large swing facing the lake with two adult and two toddler swings. I've attached a picture for your convenience and a link to one on Wayfair.com.
Thank you for all that you do and for taking the time to consider my requests.
Specifically, for the roadway, suggestion 1 is to build a sidewalk, curb or boardwalk from the neighborhood to the crosswalk, and suggestion 2 is to build a second crosswalk that activates simultaneously with the one already installed.
سئل أيضا...
A. Unknown
A. Sammamish Landing Park Crosswalk on East Lake Sammamish Parkway NE.
11 تعليقs
City of Sammamish (تم التحقق رسميا)
Lead Traffic Signal Technician (تم التحقق رسميا)
Maia (مستخدم مسجل)
Maia (مستخدم مسجل)
Would still like to see a crosswalk installed at our neighborhood driveway or at minimum a raised sidewalk to the crosswalk. As our children approach toddler years this street crossing will become increasingly hazardous. Is one death of a car hitting a pedestrian at this location not enough to stimulate change and improvements?
Respectfully,
Maia Brown
Associate Traffic Engineer - GT (تم التحقق رسميا)
تم إقراره Associate Traffic Engineer - GT (تم التحقق رسميا)
Thanks for reporting your request and for making the City of Sammamish a better place! We very much apologize for the delayed response, as the city has been short-staffed.
Thank you for the detailed description of safety concerns at this pedestrian crossing at Sammamish Landing Park. City staff will be out to review this location in the next few weeks to assess the current safety situation at this crossing. We will be sharing our findings and any possible mitigation solutions after that.
Associate Traffic Engineer - GT (تم التحقق رسميا)
Maia (مستخدم مسجل)
Your attention to our concern is very appreciated. Thank you. At present our best option is just ask cars to stop so we can cross to avoid walking alongside the road. Hopefully you are able to find a safer solution.
Respectfully,
Your Sammamish Resident
مغلق Associate Traffic Engineer - GT (تم التحقق رسميا)
Thank you again for your request and we apologize for the delay in response as the city has had staffing shortages. We have looked into this crossing at Sammamish Landing Park again and believe it already has adequate safety measures implemented, including properly designed RFB flashers, a pedestrian refuge area, and large advance warning signs for drivers approaching from both directions.
We understand concerns for safety and there will always be drivers who are distracted or ignore signs no matter how clear or well-placed they are. Unfortunately we cannot account for driver behavior so a high level of caution should still be used by pedestrians when they use the crossing lights at this crosswalk.
We also understand your concern of lack of sidewalk going to the crossing. As you've probably seen there are no sidewalks anywhere on E. Lake Sammamish Parkway, except briefly appearing near the Inglewood intersection, as the city has not pursued this in the past. However we will be monitoring this need and look to add sidewalk projects to the city's 5-year list of capital improvement projects when the time comes.
We will continue to monitor safety at pedestrian crossings in the city and look to improve wherever possible.
Your request to the City of Sammamish has been closed at this time. Please let us know if you have any questions by commenting on the request. Thank you!
Maia (مستخدم مسجل)
Thank you for the update. I agree that the illuminated sidewalk is safe, and I appreciate that there are no sidewalks along most of E Lake Sammamish Pkwy, but just because that’s how it is, doesn’t mean that’s how it should be. For one thing, there is much more traffic than even five years ago and two, most people don’t obey the 30 mph speed limit.
I invite you to come walk along the shoulder with me during heavy traffic the 500 feet to the crosswalk while pushing my 14 month old twins in a stroller and holding the dog on a leash and see if you feel good about your decision. Especially because of the added divider in the middle of the road, cars are constantly driving over the solid white line into the shoulder. It would just take one of those many vehicles looking down or checking out the lake view for my family and I to be struck and killed. If I were exaggerating there wouldn’t be an “in memory of…” sign directly outside my house on E Lake Samm from a life already lost and the fire department wouldn’t be responding to countless car-versus-pedestrian accidents at our location.
Respectfully, Maia Brown
Associate Traffic Engineer - GT (تم التحقق رسميا)
Thank you for your comment, we're very aware of the growth of Sammamish traffic in the last few years and it's a trend that won't slow down any time soon. Again, sidewalks and other safety measures on E. Lake Sammamish Parkway are projects we will certainly look into in the future as that corridor continues to see growth in pedestrians and bicyclists. Please feel free to email me at gtang@sammamish.us if you have more questions or comments.
Thank you