Seattle Children's Livable Streets

 

Livable Streets Initiative – Where we’ve been and where we’re going

Neighbors, employees and patient families can look forward to the streets around Seattle Children’s becoming easier and more comfortable to travel. After gathering and evaluating information for more than a year, we completed the final report for our Livable Streets Initiative. It paves the way for building five projects this year – including a new traffic signal at 40th Ave. NE and Sand Point Way NE and a bidirectional cycle-track with separate paths for bikes and pedestrians along our frontage with Sand Point Way NE.

Seattle Children’s and the city of Seattle will collaborate later this spring to conduct outreach to residents and businesses in the surrounding community about the proposed improvements.

The projects address the themes that emerged as we met with the community: improve access to the Burke-Gilman Trail, develop safer crossings at major arterials, and create streets where traffic moves at slower speeds and pedestrians and bicyclists are better protected.

“We’re excited to see our collaboration with the community and the city of Seattle enter this new phase and look forward to the great improvements that are on the way,” says Paulo Nunes-Ueno, who leads transportation planning at Children’s. “These projects will make the neighborhood more walkable and bikable, but also healthier because they’ll help people stay active and reduce pollution by providing an alternative to driving.”

Besides the new traffic signal at 40th Ave. NE and Sand Point Way NE, proposed Livable Streets projects include:

• 39th Ave. NE: neighborhood greenway – a quiet street with improvements for pedestrian and bike safety

• NE 50th Street and 40th Ave. NE: curb extensions to reduce crossing distances and connecting to a new sidewalk on NE 50th Street

• NE 45th Street between 40th Ave NE and 47th Ave NE: curb extensions to reduce crossing distances

• NE 70th Street and Sand Point Way NE: new sidewalk apron

We have committed to spend nearly $4 million on neighborhood transportation improvements as part of our 20-year master plan and to spend an additional sum to support the 40th Ave. NE and Sand Point Way NE project. Sand Point Way NE is a barrier between the east and west halves of the neighborhood with Children’s on one side and the Burke-Gilman Trail on the other.

Highlights of New Traffic Signal

The traffic signal and redesigned intersection at 40th Ave. NE will make it safer to cross the four lanes of traffic at this busy spot. The new intersection features many elements that maximize safety and improve operations, including video detection to allow more time for slower pedestrians to clear the intersection or to shorten pedestrian signal time if pedestrians and cyclists clear the intersection quickly, allowing traffic to move quicker. Planning for the trail connection will begin soon. “The whole thing is going to be a night-and-day improvement,” Nunes-Ueno says.

 

Children’s has committed to spend nearly $4 million on transportation improvements in NE Seattle as part of our Major Institution Master Plan. We need you to help envision potential projects including:

  • Bike and Pedestrian improvements, like better access to the Burke Gilman Trail and other ways to improve local streets so people of all ages and ability feel safe biking and walking
  • Intelligent Transportation Systems that use technology to give drivers more information
  • Corridor improvements that increase safety for all users

Livable Streets Initiative Final Report.

Livable Streets Initiative – Where we’ve been and where we’re going

Seattle Children’s kicked off the Livable Streets Initiative in 2010 with the goal of working with our community to develop a package of projects to improve mobility, safety, and livability in NE Seattle through improvements to the walking and bicycling environment. Through the course of this project, three central themes emerged: 1) creating Neighborhood Green Streets to connect the Burke-Gilman Trail, local parks, schools, and existing bike/pedestrian facilities 2) improving access to and from the Burke-Gilman Trail, and 3) developing safe crossings of major arterial streets. These themes were selected to support neighborhood goals as well as the hospital’s mission. Projects like these play a part in improving kids’ (and everyone else’s) health by improving the quality of the air and providing a safer, more inviting place to be out, about, and active in our neighborhoods.

The first step down the trail was to come up with a big list of possible projects that will carry out the three themes. We gathered project ideas from existing plans (e.g. bike/ped master plans, neighborhood street fund applications), and collaborated with the Seattle Department of Transportation. We hosted a well-attended Livable Streets Workshop at the University of Washington. At this workshop we invited participants to draw their thoughts on a giant map, design ideal streets and intersections, and peruse booths set up by our partner organizations. All told, we collected over 100 individual project ideas through these sources, as well as hundreds of great comments, opinions, and suggestions.

While it would be wonderful if we could do all of the projects in the big list and more, we had to prioritize and choose a subset of the excellent project ideas to move forward with in this first phase. Children’s transportation staff, with the help of a consultant team and Seattle Department of Transportation staff, scored the projects in relation to the three themes, how they related to the transportation patterns near the hospital, and the level of community support for each.

Six projects rose to the top after this evaluation, including the development of a new Neighborhood Green Street, accessible ramps, sidewalks, crosswalks and curb bulbs in several locations, and a pedestrian crossing signal. A new signalized intersection at the corner of 40th Ave NE and Sand Point Way is also being designed to improve safety, access to the hospital, and provide a new place for bicycles and pedestrians to cross Sand Point Way. See here for a list of the specific projects that have been selected for further review.

Livable Streets Initiative Final Report

We are proud to share with you the Livable Streets Initiative Final Report. The report proposes projects that will accompany Seattle Children’s Major Institution Master Plan and will improve transportation in NE Seattle over the next 20 years. Hundreds of community residents and over a dozen community organizations and advocacy groups have come together over the last year to develop the Seattle Children’s Livable Streets Initiative with the goal of making our streets more livable.

In 2010, Seattle Children’s and our co-sponsors held a variety of events to gather input and ideas that now make up the concepts and projects in the Livable Streets Initiative Final Report. These events included a walking audit of the pedestrian environment in the neighborhoods surrounding the hospital led by Feet First, a local advocacy organization promoting walkable communities; a survey of cyclists by the Cascade Bicycle Club, a 13,000-member local organization promoting bicycle activities, advocacy, and education; and a large public event at Gould Hall in the University of Washington campus, where hundreds of participants shared their ideas and inspirations for how to make streets safer, more friendly and more efficient. In addition, community members made comments on an interactive web-map and submitted suggestions via email. The Final Report includes an appendix with each comment received through the events and the online resources.

Next Steps

The Final Report contains a ranking of each of the project ideas suggested by the public process, and where available, estimated costs. Now the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) will conduct an evaluation of the top projects to determine more precise project costs and construction schedules. Once that is completed, SDOT, with the input of Children’s and the community, will establish which projects to move forward with in this first phase. We look forward to your continuing support to help make these projects a reality.

To see the complete Livable Streets Report click here

There is still time to give comments!

We appreciate all the comments that we’ve heard so far, and we hope the feedback continues via our Seattle Children’s Livable Streets Google map or by emailing us at LivableStreets@seattlechildrens.org

Videos!

We thought you might also appreciate links to the videos that we showed at the workshop. Many of these come from Streetfilms.org, a fantastic resource for ideas and success stories:

As always, keep in touch with us on Facebook and thank you for your support! We can’t do this without you.

Thank you to Livable Streets Workshop Participants, Co-sponsors and Partners:

We truly appreciate your support through this process and at the workshops. We received hundreds of comments, gave away dozens of helmets and provided countless Skillz and Thrillz to little ones on trikes, bikes and scooters. Your continued support is crucial in now making sure that these projects get done. Our timeline is to design and construct projects in 2012. Please stay tuned for messages from us regarding next steps.

Participants from the City of Seattle included Seattle City Council members Mike O’Brien and Richard Conlin, Bill LaBorde (legislative aide for Tom Rasmussen), and staff from SDOT. Following the workshop, councilmember Richard Conlin joined more than a dozen bike riders to tour sites where we think there are opportunities to make improvements. We thank the council members and SDOT staff for their continued support.

Community Groups Sponsor Livable Streets Workshop

Many of our Livable Streets partners and sponsors were at the workshops to provide information about the amazing services they provide.

Bicycle Alliance of Washington, Cascade Bicycle Club, Feet First, Hawthorne Hills Community Council, Laurelhurst Elementary School, Laurelhurst Community Club, Public Health Seattle & King County, Seattle Community Council Federation, Seattle Department of Transportation, Sierra Club – Cascade Chapter, Streets for All Seattle, Transportation Choices Coalition, Transportation Northwest, Undriving.org, View Ridge Community Council… and  more to come!

“Pedal with Decision Makers” Bike Ride

Bicycle Alliance of Washington will lead a short ride around NE Seattle neighborhoods immediately following the .streetfilms.org/physically-separated-bike-lanes/”>Physically Separated Bike Lanes

As always, keep in touch with us on Facebook and thank you for your support! We can’t do this without you.

Community Groups Sponsor Livable Streets Workshop

Many of our Livable Streets partners and sponsors will be at the workshop so you can learn more about the amazing services they provide.

Bicycle Alliance of Washington, Cascade Bicycle Club, Feet First, Hawthorne Hills Community Council, Laurelhurst Elementary School, Laurelhurst Community Club, Public Health Seattle & King County, Seattle Community Council Federation, Seattle Department of Transportation, Sierra Club – Cascade Chapter, Streets for All Seattle, Transportation Choices Coalition, Transportation Northwest, Undriving.org, View Ridge Community Council… and  more to come!