Description

I’m writing regarding a dangerous situation occurring at a pedestrian crosswalk on Park Blvd and Kingsley Way. This is a safety issue that presents an imminent danger to pedestrians. Briefly, the crosswalk at Park and Kingsley is not well marked for drivers to see it. I’ve seen numerous close calls with drivers not stopping and almost hitting pedestrians at this particular crosswalk; my friend's wife and two children were very nearly hit by a car at this crosswalk this past weekend. Cars approach from the east (heading west to the 580 on ramp) at a high rate of speed - compounding the problem is that cars will often change lanes when cars in one lane have stopped, and the lane-weaving cars don’t necessarily know that the stopped cars have stopped for a crosswalk.

I hope the city can at the very least improve the visibility of this crosswalk. For comparison, the crosswalks just a block east at Park Blvd and Park Blvd Way are marked with large bright yellow signs and painted on the street. So there is a discrepancy which could be confusing to drivers.

Many young children cross Park Blvd at this Kingsley crosswalk as there is a preschool and daycare a block away and the Edna Brewer Middle School a block away. In addition, there is a synagogue (Beth Jacob Congregation) on this block and many families walk to synagogue with young children and pushing strollers and often use they use this crosswalk at Kingsley. The families with strollers are particularly vulnerable to cars running the crosswalk as these pedestrians move more slowly than others and can’t get out of the way quickly.