Al Brand left Park Shore andheaded for the bank on New Year's Eve. He was in the crosswalk when suddenly a car struck him, injuring him seriously. He was taken to Harborview Medical Center, and three days later, he died.
I've seen many near-misses in Madison Park, but this was the first time a friend of mine had been hit.
It was a call to action, not only for me but for the many people who had been fortunate to know him or were used to seeing him walking about during the years he lived here.
His death jogged us right out of our complacent vision of Madison Park as a little village that didn't have to worry about such modern nonsense as increased population, speeding cars, cell phones and the numerous distractions that a driver encounters today.
But what to do about it?
Meeting with the city
We arranged with City Councilmember Richard Conlin, chair of the council's transportation committee, to meet with Madison Park residents at the bathhouse one evening. He was extremely gracious and attempted to answer our questions and suggest possible solutions.
But he explained that the council does not tell the transportation department how, when and where the transportation department copes with the many problems facing various neighborhoods in the city.
However, either the transportation department or the police department heeded Councilmember Conlin's request to help us come up with ideas for easing our traffic problem. A few days after our meeting, a radar camera appeared along Madison Street to make drivers aware of their speed as they came down the hill past the 25-mile speed limit sign at 39th Avenue and approached McGilvra Boulevard.
Since then I've also seen a motorcycle officer sitting in wait at East Galer and police cars cruising around. The mere sight of them slows drivers down as if by magic.
However, the minute the police car vanishes, the gas pedals hit the floor, and the race is on.
That long downhill from around 33rd Avenue to McGilvra is too tempting. It almost demands that one speed up.
Solutions to speeding?We don't want traffic signals in Madison Park - at least all the people I've talked to seem to pale at the very mention.
But perhaps we could live with a boulevard stop at McGilvra or, better yet, at Washington Mutual, where there already is a flashing light, or at 41st Avenue to slow cars down as they approach the neighborhood where the most pedestrian traffic is.
But it isn't Madison Street alone that has become a speedway. In spite of the traffic circles - which seem to have done little except train people to go around a circle at full speed - drivers find residential streets a good way to reach Madison as quickly as possible.
This concerns me because bikes and balls with children attached are apt to appear unexpectedly from behind a car parked at the curb.
I sound like a curmudgeon - and I probably am a curmudgeon - but my curmudgeon-ness is based on fear - fear that one of these days we will find a child or a friend or a handicapped person lying in the street. The driver who hit the child or my friend or the handicapped person will be faced with a scene that will haunt him all his life.
A boulevard stop or two is a small price to pay to avoid such a tragedy
Call to action
I suggest that each of us contact the transportation department. Request that we have boulevard stops to slow down the traffic coming into Madison Park, or propose another solution if you know of something that might work better.
The more people the transportation department hears from, the more likely we are to get some action.
And a thank you to the police department, for its increased presence might not be a bad idea.
Let's make Madison Park a safe, as well as a pleasant, place to be - whether we travel by car or by foot.
Madison Park's Roberta Cole can be reached via e-mail at mptimes@nwlink. com.[[In-content Ad]]
