We all know that the seven-way intersection at the northeast gateway to Queen Anne is a manic bumper-car zone, but there's another locus of jeopardy just a couple of hundred feet away that, despite boasting a mere three-way intersection, is arguably more perilous.
I'm talking about the junction you come to when you turn off northbound Aurora Avenue just short of the Aurora Bridge; or take the hairpin turn up toward Aurora from Dexter Avenue North; or drive under Aurora from the aforementioned seven-way intersection with the intention of either turning left to get down to Dexter, or right to go get onto Aurora.
Technically, the streets involved are very stunted sections of Halladay and Sixth Avenue North.
Here's the problem. Traffic coming from two directions encounters a stop sign. Traffic coming from the third direction - from Aurora - does not. But drivers coming up from Dexter or swinging up Sixth below Canlis often forget, or don't know, that the approach from Aurora has no stop sign. And they tend to assume, in an unholy blend of hubris and Pacific Northwest politeness, that everybody is going to take turns yielding the right of way.
This is a problem for both lanes of traffic coming up from Dexter. Whether intending to turn right and pass under the bridge, or to veer left and continue up toward Aurora, many drivers think that it's fine to just pull out after having honored the stop sign. They got there first, and the vehicle they may or may not notice coming downhill from Aurora should brake for a stop any second now. Except that it won't.
As for traffic from the under-bridge route, Sixth North, the majority of drivers are interested in getting onto Aurora, so even if they proceed, they're not going to pull out in front of vehicles that have just come off Aurora. But if they want to turn left to head down toward Dexter, they could find themselves in a world of hurt.
There must be accident statistics for this intersection. Only the neces-sarily low speeds at which people are moving spare them from something worse than slammed brakes, blaring horns and blowing tops.
Still, it's a bad scene. I witnessed two close ones last week, and they were only the latest of many over my four years of Queen Anne residency.
What to do? A stop sign for traffic that just turned off Aurora would put us all on equal stop-and-go footing, as far as that goes. But during rush hour, such a stop sign could swiftly result in a line that stretched back up into the active right lane of Highway 99. Bad idea.
At the very least, traffic from aurora does not stop signs could be added to the stop signs that already exist. And perhaps a new sign for traffic leaving Aurora: say, oncoming motorists may be idiots.
Municipal authorities, get on it. Please.
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