The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is moving forward with a proposal to implement a "road diet" on West Nickerson Street.
According to a letter sent to the city, the neighborhood community councils of Magnolia and Queen Anne, as well as the North Seattle Industrial Association are opposing the diet, "Any proposal that reduces the carrying capacity of Nickerson is unacceptable."
This road diet would cover the stretch of Nickerson between Warren Avenue North and 13th Avenue West. It includes the reduction of four lanes to two, the addition of a middle left-turn lane, a bike lane on the westbound side of the street and bike sharrows (bicycle symbols reminding drivers that they share the road with cyclists) on the eastbound side of the street. SDOT will also add marked crosswalks at 12th Avenue West and Dravus Street.
Nickerson averages 19,300 vehicle trips per day, according to an SDOT report in March 2009 on the Nickerson re-channelization.
"SDOT expects that the roadway will continue to carry the same vehicle capacity but at lower speeds than currently observed. This will result in a safer Nickerson for all users," said Richard Sheridan, communications manager for SDOT.
Because of the construction projects proposed for West Mercer Street, the demolition of the Alaskan Way viaduct and construction of its tunnel replacement, neighbors in both Queen Anne and Magnolia are concerned with the anticipated detours and travel restrictions that could make for a traffic nightmare.
The Nickerson project "will make it extremely difficult for the north and west neighborhoods to get around," said Ellen Monrad, chair of the Queen Anne Community Council.
To determine the feasibility of 19,300 cars per day in two lanes, SDOT looked at several studies, such as "The Conversion of Four-Lane Undivided Urban Roadways to Three-Lane Facilities" by Thomas M. Welch, a transportation engineer with the Iowa Department of Transportation.
"As shown in this study and others," Sheridan said, "the volume of traffic on Nickerson can be handled by a three-lane street segment."
Sheridan held strong to the reasoning for the project: safety for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. He cited 162 collisions on Nickerson between Jan. 1, 2005, and April 6, 2010. Six of those involved pedestrians.
Under Mayor Nickels' administration, the city was waiting until the other construction projects in the Queen Anne and Magnolia corridors were completed before it addressed any work on Nickerson.
But now, to the dismay of Diana Dearmin, president of the Magnolia Community Club, it is back.
"We share the concerns that the city has for pedestrian safety, and we appreciate those concerns, but a balance of the interests of those that travel through that corridor is important," Dearmin said.
The effect on the businesses along the street also raised concerns. Monrad said these businesses depend on people coming from other neighborhoods to patronize them. "To make getting here more difficult will be damaging to those businesses," she said.
In its research on the proposal for Nickerson, SDOT listened to different opinions on the issue and found many in favor of the changes, Sheridan said.
In all the road diet examples that the city has given, there is a road that runs parallel to the road travelers are 'dieting' from, so that road is used to re-direct freight and other traffic, but that isn't the case with Nickerson, insisted Dearmin.
"The city's whole approach has been very optimistic ... this optimism is unwarranted based off of past construction projects," said Kirk Robbins, chair of social issues for the Queen Anne Community Council.
Sheridan countered, "A re-channelization is largely done via re-striping. If the road doesn't function effectively, we can always return it to its original configuration."[[In-content Ad]]
