Grassroots Pedestrian Group Shot Down By SDOT In Wallingford

On the sixth of October we were walking down 40th Ave N in Wallingford from the bus to our house. We remember the evening clearly because... Because the way our camera stores photographs on our laptop tells us that we took this picture on the 6th.

Those are crossing flags and they're at the intersection of 40th and Bagley, right by Irwins cafe. Great idea, we thought. A lot of people cross here --either getting off the bus or heading to the cafe-- and these assholes driving 40th do not stop. How smart of the city to put these flags up until they get a chance to hang a few flashing yellows or at least paint some damn stripes on the road. We found another set of buckets at 40th and 2nd, although we never found occasion to use the flags before they disappeared. On December 6th we took this picture:

Being of the curious persuasion we emailed crossingflags@gmail.com and found out that the flags were installed by a guerrilla pedestrian advocacy group in the first place, and then they were removed by the city. The city's full explanation is available on the Seattle Residents for Improved Pedestrian Safety site, but the shorter version of the Pedestrian Safety Engineer's response is this: People can carry crossing flags around with them, but SDOT isn't going to allow them to be placed next to the street because mumble mumble mumble. Furthermore, we're not going to place them ourselves because we can't be bothered to maintain them. Good luck with your crossing of death. And fuck you.

The flags have been removed from 40th at both Bagley and 2nd Ave, but we saw a third set over the weekend. To avoid the hasty deployment of a team of Pedestrian Safety Engineers by SDOT we're going to keep their location to ourselves.

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By Dan in News on December 12, 2006 10:07 AM

Comments [rss]

megan

Brian

As a parent with three kids walking to school every morning, I think the flags have made a big difference in drivers slowing down & stopping for pedestrians in the 20 mph School Zone. Before the flags, I could be half way through the painted cross-walk with my kids and drivers would still be whizzing past us. And for you Jack...Enjoy your years in prison for manslaughter...priceless!

Jack

Pedestrian diving in front of traffic waving arms as I drive down 40th = terrorist (1,000 points).

James F

If you're part of a grassroots pedestrian safety group, aren't you at risk for, you know, having your lunch money stolen or something?

Dan

Ok, david, ha ha, you're right. It's hilarious and weird when you're waiting to cross the street in Seattle and the one car in sight stops for you and makes you walk in front of him. However, on this street at rush hour you cannot get across without diving in front of traffic and waving your arms.

david

OMG! Seriously? Coming from the east coast, I already found Seattle to be way cautious of crossing pedestrians. But now I find out that guerrilla subversive in this city means pedestrian advocates acting like moms! When I heard about Kirkland having flags I chalked it up to Kirkland being a suburb of conservative yuppies being overly safe. But Seattle?

Dan

As I understand it, pedestrians have the right of way at intersections regardless of paint on the pavement or flags or lights or anything else. However, as much as I know that as a guy trying to cross 40th I also know the, uh, "tonnage rule" and I'm not going to step out in front of Jack while he's cruising at 40mph down the hill. Flags help with visibility and I guess they're kind of a reminder to drivers about who has the right of way.

drrew

What's the law for driving through an intersection that doesn't have any lines painted on the road?

Isn't getting this made an actual crosswalk the real solution? Is the city dragging it's feet onb that?

Jack

Pedestrian waving a flag at me as I drive down 40th = 200 points.

Dan

The way she phrases it makes it sound like they don't want us to get sued.

This policy also serves to protect citizens from unintended liability.

Blame the lawyers!

Scott Berkun

Kirkland has had flags at crosswalks for years - I think they replace them now and then as they're stolen. It's still pretty cheap all around.

As goofy an idea as it seems, it's cheaper than running lights across the ground, and more effective than blinking yellows since it's at street/eye level for drivers.

It also gives you a chance to practice the lost art of flag waving.

Arielle

They're actually at a lot of crosswalks in Wallingford...I see a few more every day. However, when a few disappeared a week or so ago, I saw a few laying in peoples' yards around the neighborhood, leading me to believe that the "removal" is (at least partially) simply some no good durned punk kids.

Seth

You can see the city's point--similar to the Port's point about the X-mas tree--they don't want to get sued if someone uses the flags but gets hit or something.

Blame the lawyers!