The results of a recent crash at Melrose and Pike from @streetcrafting

(Image: Office of the Watefront)

The city’s Pike Pine Streetscape and Bicycle Improvements project is meant to boost bicycling and pedestrian activity and create connectivity between downtown and Capitol Hill as the routes along the arteries are transitioned to one-way traffic in a $17.45 million effort.

But the design compromises and half-baked safety measures around partially completed changes are making the area dangerous for walkers, bikers, and drivers alike, community groups say, and raising some core questions around how Seattle City Hall handles transition into daily use for its new major projects and how it treats pedestrians and bicyclists in that process.

“For the short term issues, an ongoing problem since construction began over a year ago has been the lack of intuitive, comfortable detours for people biking, especially people going east up the hill on Pike,” David Seater of Central Seattle Greenways tells CHS. “At the start of construction, SDOT was recommending that people detour all the way to Belltown to avoid a few blocks of construction along Pike.”

Central Seattle Greenways, a community group focused on improving city streets for all users, told CHS that city leaders have largely been dodging their requests to address safety concerns that are a result of ongoing construction at Pike and Pine streets from 2nd Ave to Bellevue Ave with a core of challenges around the transitions near Melrose.

One issue is leadership. While the Seattle Department of Transportation typically handles the city’s street projects, this overhaul falls mostly under the city’s Office of the Waterfront. Just getting answers on the project and measures being taken to address concerns required back and forth with the departments to sort out who was in charge of what.

City officials on the project tell CHS the temporary disruptions that those who regularly travel through these streets experience will lead to net benefits following the completion of the project.

“Throughout construction, we have been making ongoing efforts to make it clearer for people biking and driving how to navigate the changes with the current conditions on Pike and Pine streets,” a statement sent to CHS reads. “We understand people have been confused and are committed to working to address the situation.”

The officials said part of the “ongoing challenges” to safety around the project is “repeated theft and vandalism of temporary traffic control and wayfinding signs.”

“We will continue to replace and reset signs and communicate changes as needed until the permanent improvements are in place and functioning for their intended purpose,” a representative said.

Seater says worries go beyond short-term concerns over missing signage.

CHS reported here on the construction challenges for the area from the project underway between I-5 and Bellevue Ave wrapping up 18 months of scheduled work changing the streets to one-way vehicular traffic and installing new bike lane protections.

Those challenges have now transitioned into day to day use challenges as the new traffic flow has opened and bicyclists are funneled into the designs despite missing signs and construction equipment blocking lanes.

Riders and drivers are finding many of the new design elements and signage confusing. Some needed safety elements are not fully in place. But others might need to be addressed with advocates calling for changes to SDOT’s plans needed to make riding in the area safer.

The intersection of Melrose at Pike in front of the busy Starbucks Roastery is of special concern. The block of Pike from 8th Ave to 9th Ave, under the convention center, is another.

Pike was converted to a one-way eastbound path from Terry and Hubbell to Bellevue, while Pine was converted into a one-way westbound from Melrose to 8th Ave where people can turn left onto Pine to utilize the recently made downhill bike lanes.

“The new bike lane has been built in the west half of this block, but work on the east half was delayed due to coordination problems with WSDOT. The construction involves changes to the entrance/exit from the I-5 express lanes and a gate that needs to be moved,” Seater says.

Three weeks ago, Seater met on-site with staff from the Office of the Waterfront, which is overseeing this project in tandem with SDOT’s lead on construction. During this meeting, CSG was told the office hoped to gain approval for finishing some of the installations and changes and after approval, would finish the work on that block within six weeks, according to Seater.

“The problem is that in the interim, there was no signed detour for people biking on Pike, who would be trapped on the left side of the street without a protected lane, and with vehicle traffic on their right trying to turn left across them to enter the freeway. Staff told us that they’d put up a detour directing people on bikes onto the narrow sidewalk, but after two weeks, there was still no detour,” Seater said.

SDOT and the office said cyclists can travel eastbound on Pike between 1st Ave and Melrose Ave through the constructed, protected bike lane.

East of 9th up to Melrose and Bellevue also have a lack of signage. When construction in this area is completed, the protected bike lane on the north side of the street will be for people biking east up Pike, which differs from the past design when that lane was used by people biking west down Pike, Seater noted.

“… the biking crossing and bike box at Pike & Melrose continue to be abused. How do you plan to ensure this isn’t a regular problem?” — @streetcrafting

“The problem is that SDOT had put up no signage at Melrose to tell people biking west that they needed to take a new route (north on Melrose or Minor to Pine). As a result, there were people biking in both directions along those blocks of Pike in a land that is too narrow to do that safely,” Seater said. “Much like the situation at 8th, the detour signage that the Office of the Waterfront told us they would put up were not installed for two weeks until we wrote our letter.”

The design of Melrose and Pike is turning out to be a dangerous one: drivers block the crosswalk and bike lane, they turn the wrong way onto Pike, and ignore Do Not Enter signs. SDOT and the Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects said on May 17th, they painted the final directional markings at the intersection of Melrose Ave and Pike, within the bike lanes.

“These markings were the final step needed before creating the final operation transitioning westbound bike travel from Pike St to Pine St via northbound travel on Melrose Ave. We also placed a temporary barrier with temporary wayfinding to help people biking adapt to and navigate this area,” an announcement on the work read.

Up next, the temporary barriers will be replaced with a concrete island, which the office and department said would make it clearer to drivers that they can no longer travel northbound on Melrose and should not enter Melrose from Pine. SDOT believes the concrete island will create a permanent barrier and guide for cyclists traveling westbound, and will signal they should turn right to continue using the “bike facilities.”

But CSG isn’t convinced.

“We believe that a big part of the problem is that SDOT installed what’s called a “half signal” at this intersection, where there is a standard traffic signal for drivers along Pike, but only stop signs for drivers on Melrose/Minor,” Seater said. “This means that drivers turning onto or crossing Pike do not have a traffic signal to give them a dedicated time to cross, and with poor visibility down Pike. They will creep forward into the intersection, endangering people walking and biking and risking collisions with eastbound drivers.”

SDOT and the Office of the Waterfront & Civic Projects said traffic signals will be moved to the east side of the street to improve visibility and clarity for all in decisions reached after met with the representatives from Seattle Neighborhood Greenways last month.

The city says staff are planning to visit this intersection this week “to observe how the changes are working and determine if more adjustments are needed beyond what has already been planned.”

On social media, a user known as @streetcrafting dropped an image of a near collision on May 16, where a SUV rolled into a bike lane, almost taking out an electric scooter rider. Streetcrafting and other users continue to document their travel experiences and sightings on these streets online.

Seater said during the design phase of this construction project, CSG warned city staff that these dangers would occur, but the feedback was largely ignored.

“Those concerns are now becoming reality,” Seater said.

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