Do you want safe streets in Pinehurst? It is time for us to take action.
The new Hazel Wolf K-8 school, located at NE 117th and Pinehurst Way NE, is scheduled to open this September. Students, faculty members and parents will be walking to the school. Others will be arriving by bus. Or by car.
This makes the adjacent streets, such as NE 117th St, NE 115th and 12th Ave NE, the prime candidate for safety improvements.
The school is building nice sidewalks around its property. On the other hand, Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is getting delayed on the construction of an additional sidewalk that will connect the school to the Pinehurst Playground, about four blocks away. NE 115th and 117th Streets have no sidewalks or curbs.
We are hoping that our new group, Pinehurst Pedestrian Safety, will be able to help make our neighbourhood safer.
The group’s primary goal is to work with the City of Seattle and SDOT to improve the safety of the streets adjacent to the Hazel Wolf school. We are setting up a Google group to facilitate discussions among members. We also plan to mention the group in the upcoming Pinehurst Community Council meeting on June 21.
If you are interested in the details, please leave comments, or better yet, come chat with us at the meeting!
[EDIT: Adding a link to the email list / group. We’ll also do a new post to make sure everybody sees it. https://groups.google.com/d/forum/pinehurstpedsafety]
I’m interested in keeping posted on updates. I have very limited time to help participate, but can play it by ear! 🙂 Is there a possibility that neighbors can build their own sidewalks at their own expense?
The money for the sidewalk along 12th has already been earmarked, it sounds like there are delays further up the pipeline causing this project to be delayed. At least I hope that’s what it is. Several blocks in the ‘hood have been sidewalked at owners’ expense, I believe, but I don’t have any details about how that happens.
Thank you for this post. Our streets really need significant safety improvement. If we speak as a group with sustained effort, we will have a good chance at getting sidewalks and other safety infrastructure.
Daigoro,
Id be interested in attending a meeting and participating in this. I already gave SDOT improvement suggestion about lack of sidewalks feeding the 115th st intersection during the presentation on traffic calming for pinehurst way, as did several other folks. I wonder if there is a city program (bridging the gap type funding?) that could be applied for. Thinking more out loud… often those programs desire matching funds from the community…
thanks for taking this on!
Where and what time is the june 21st pinehurst community council meeting?
Matt
Nevermind, found it:
“Everyone is invited to the meeting on Tuesday, June 21 from 7:00 – 8:30 pm at Pinehurst Playfield Shelter House. Come meet your neighbours!
Tuesday, June 21
7:00pm – 8:30pm
Pinehurst Playfield: 12029 14th Ave NE
Now that another young girl (this time 8 years old) has been hit by a car at the intersection of 5th Avenue NE and NE 115th Street, perhaps the city could be motivated to make that crossing safer. Their actions pursuant to a young girl being hit and killed at that intersection (painting a crosswalk onto the street) were obviously ineffective.
[…] We’re looking to create a group to help organize around these improvements. There’s more details in Dai’s earlier post. […]