Community Post

New crosswalk on MLK gets a firm design & start date

The new crosswalk at MLK & Marion that we told you about last month will soon become a reality. Jim Curtin, community liaison in the city’s Department of Transportation, tells us that construction is scheduled to begin in early April.

The project was scaled back a bit from neighbor Anne Landfield’s original application, with elimination of the proposed curb bulbs that would have shortened the distance required to cross the street. The final design includes a painted crosswalk across the north edge of the intersection, with a concrete island in the median to give pedestrians a small shelter between the travel lanes. Signage will also be added around the new crossing.

The median island will be similar to the one added last year at MLK & Jefferson, which drew some cautionary comments from a neighbor at a community meeting last week. She pointed out that the island there has its waist-high orange sign knocked off several times per month by passing traffic. 

0 thoughts on “New crosswalk on MLK gets a firm design & start date

  1. Having been the one who designed it, it would have been nice for the city to incorporate design features other than the spartan one now proposed by the city.

  2. I agree, I think, with the caveat that I did not see the original design. It would not cost much for the city to install handsome stone bollards to protect pedestrians. Check out the bollards we provided to St James Cathedral.

    In many European cities (and progressive US cities like Portland) they use cobblestone rumble strips to slow traffic and warn pedestrians aurally. If you drive over them too fast they shake the car apart…at least it sounds like it…without the dangerous potential loss of control from a speed bump. Smooth strip at side or separate paths take care of bikers’ needs.

    Often the city leaves Ped Xing signs in locations that make no sense. We have one at 21st and Union that should be shifted to be visible instead of invisible.

  3. I have many photographic examples I can provide from my sustainability tours of Copenhagen Denmark and Malmo Sweden. Too bad I can not post them in this type of venue.

  4. Please understand that this project wasn’t dictated by the City (SDOT). They provided the funding estimate. The District Council elected to only fund the project as it’s currently described in the article, without the curb bulbs.

    We can argue (and I would) that the current process doesn’t put enough money on the table compared to need, but as much as I blame the City for plenty of things, this one isn’t that simple.

  5. yes, and we have rumble strips at plenty of other intersections in the CD, including 23rd/Jackson and 23rd/Union. I don’t believe they slow traffic all that much, frankly – lane/street widths and enforcement are both part of the whole package as well, and we are more lacking in the latter part than any of the other components. SPD needs to be hearing from citizens, via the EPCPC and other means, that traffic enforcement is a priority.

    As for 21st/Union – what would you do differently? SDOT is listening right now, but that intersection, specifically, isn’t on the neighborhood’s priority list. Is it the sign that’s the issue? Which direction?