“Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons” pedestrian crossing system
A pedestrian crossing E Olive Way at Harvard Ave was injured and taken to the hospital after being hit by a driver Friday night.
The crossing is notoriously dangerous and the Seattle Department of Transportation has said it is planning a crosswalk and safety improvements at the intersection.
Friday, Seattle Police and Seattle Fire were called to the area just before 11:30 PM to reports that a pedestrian was down at the crossing.
Seattle Fire tells CHS the patient was reported as a 33-year-old man who was transported to the hospital in stable condition.
There were conflicting reports about whether the driver and the vehicle involved in the crash remained at the scene but police had a description and license plate number of the black Alfa Romeo seen striking the man.
The initial dispatch of Seattle Fire to the scene was briefly delayed when units were incorrectly sent to E Olive St and Harvard, not E Olive Way.
The challenging, un-marked crossing at E Olive Way at Harvard has been the location of a past unsanctioned attempt to install a guerilla crosswalk that was quickly removed by the city.
CHS reported here in April as SDOT said it was planning to use federal traffic safety funding to install a crosswalk and make safety improvements at the intersection.
That project’s “Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons” pedestrian crossing system and curb bulbs are being planned for construction before May 2025, according to SDOT.
Through August 2024
The latest Capitol Hill crash involving a driver and a pedestrian comes as Monday marks the start of the annual Week Without Driving and with Seattle set to vote on a $1.55 billion transportation levy this fall.
Among large American cities, Seattle is considered relatively safe for walkers with a pedestrian fatality rate around 2.54 deaths per 100,000 people. But walking deaths here remain well above the “Vision Zero” goal with totals stubbornly remaining around 16 to 20 deaths in recent years.
Keeping count is also a struggle. The city says it must cobble together reports from sources such including the Seattle Police Department, the Washington State Department of Transportation, and the King County Medical Examiner to keep track of pedestrian and traffic deaths here.
“This data comes to us over time, and it often takes several months for WSDOT to review and process collision reports,” a SDOT spokesperson said. The medical examiner also typically provides its records in only large batches and had not provided data for 2024 as of August.
Meanwhile, SDOT can’t do anything unilaterally about the delayed reports but is promising better public access to the data to track pedestrian and traffic safety incidents.
“To promote transparency in our Vision Zero progress, we will be building a data dashboard in 2024 that will serve as a tool to provide clear and accessible information about current crash trends and the actions we are taking to address these,” the spokesperson said. “This will still be based on the same data sources, but offer a more intuitive and user-friendly interface.”
The improved dashboard will hopefully be another small step to actually achieving Vision Zero goals in the city.
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For anyone having trouble placing it, this is just a block west of Broadway just after John turns into Olive, between the drive thru cleaners and the wash. I avoid crossing here if at all possible, cars going both ways seldom stop. There’s a signaled crosswalk at broadway of course, and a crossing island at boylston but even at that thing cars often just blow through.
Hope the guy recovers OK and the hit and run driver is caught and hammered. lotta cameras at broadway and john so hopefully that helps.
I does seem like there are some places there simply shouldn’t be a crosswalk, and this is one of them. You can’t expect there to never be a speeder, or a distracted person, and designing our crosswalks to be in reasonably safe places to begin with minimizes the risk of collision. But this is SDOT, an organization that believes Utopia will one day exist, and people will die in traffic accidents as a result. In the meantime, the incredulous will honk about it.
Wait, isn’t this where the ‘Illegal Crosswalk’ was until the city was like ‘nah, there’s a pro-cess to follow, like at least two dozen more need to be hit’
what makes you think painting white lines is going to do anything anyway… there already IS a crosswalk there… there’s a crosswalk at every intersection that doesn’t explicitly say ‘no crossing’ and it simply doesn’t matter because too many drivers are inattentive…
Marginal impacts add up.
So the city can’t take a hint of where issues are, and you’re basically a nihilist unless its one of your concerns?
Go take a nap in your coffin.
No… I just think that painting lines there will do nothing to stop motorists that already ignore crosswalks anyway…
If the city wants to do something about that intersection and its penchant for drivers injuring people in it, it needs a stop sign… no crosswalk, sanctioned or unsanctioned is going to solve the problem.
Oh… and I actually don’t think a stop sign will completely solve it… because I see tons of people simply blow those too.. cap it off with a bit of enforcement and then maybe things will start working better. Motorists will continue to be bullies as long as there’s no consequences..
SDOT is more like SDON’T. What a bunch of ineffective bums.
Can anyone explain why a program aimed at reducing pedestrian deaths from being hit by cars is called Vision Zero
“Vision Zero is a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all. First implemented in Sweden in the 1990s, Vision Zero has proved successful across Europe — and now it’s gaining momentum in major American cities.” https://visionzeronetwork.org/about/what-is-vision-zero/
The vision is zero deaths.
Isn’t this where they erased a guerilla crosswalk a few years ago?
Literally just had someone speed up to this intersection and into the crosswalk on Harvard looking to beat street traffic to the light and not paying any attention whatsoever to pedestrian traffic. This whole area area is a nightmare generally for pedestrians despite being an area that could so easily support it.
People wouldn’t be trying to beat traffic if SDOT hadn’t intentionally made it more difficult to get around while trying to frustrate people out of their cars. This is not the way, and it’s SDOT’s fault.
In addition to flashing beacons, the city should install speed bumps near this intersection.
Crazy that we don’t have a stop sign or light at that intersection. I guess SDOT thinks it’s more important for drivers to save a few seconds going to I-5 than it is to be able to walk safely in one of our most walkable neighborhoods. I hope the man hit recovers quickly.
It’s also crazy too considering that I recall there’s a cross walk on the opposite of Broadway on E John and 10th Ave E. Yet we can’t get a cross walk on Harvard and E Olive Way
Also there are signals for Harvard at Pike and Pine yet not Olive.
This proposal is VERY needed and I hope it can be completed asap!
Aos, it would help if there was better signage and enforcement for those heading north-south on Harvard at this intersection. It is “right turn only” for those motorists, but it is common for some to ignore this and attempt to continue on Harvard or make a left turn on to E Olive Way. This it very dangerous for themselves as well as for pedestrians crossing the intersection of other motorists on E Olive Way!