At last night's council meeting, the Council and Mayor gave "the green light" to road safety improvements on 166th Ave adjacent Redmond Junior High. The present 4 lanes will be re-channeled to 3 lanes, wider sidewalks, with bike lanes.
The Mayor is working with LWSD authorities to reconfigure the RJH parking lots to improve circulation. Construction is not not planned for completion until the first quarter of 2009. This is right during the school year. The delay is attributed to ordering light poles for 104 & 166 intersection. The rechannelization will probably be done first to convenience students, parents, and vehicular traffic.
Council felt confident in approving construction owing to the positive survey results at the last RJH public informational meeting. "100 citizens showed up" and 74 completed surveys. With the exception of one* survey question participants were positive about the improvements. *41% of those surveyed felt it would be more difficult to merge onto 166th Ave. The survey found most wanted rechannelization extended to NE 100th Street.
The Mayor is working with LWSD authorities to reconfigure the RJH parking lots to improve circulation. Construction is not not planned for completion until the first quarter of 2009. This is right during the school year. The delay is attributed to ordering light poles for 104 & 166 intersection. The rechannelization will probably be done first to convenience students, parents, and vehicular traffic.
Council felt confident in approving construction owing to the positive survey results at the last RJH public informational meeting. "100 citizens showed up" and 74 completed surveys. With the exception of one* survey question participants were positive about the improvements. *41% of those surveyed felt it would be more difficult to merge onto 166th Ave. The survey found most wanted rechannelization extended to NE 100th Street.
The February 7 Community Meeting SURVEY RESULTS on 166th improvments are listed here. If you were unable to attend the meeting how would you respond to this survey? Interestingly, 20 of 74 surveys were mailed in after the meeting. Can we assume the surveys were completed soley by community meeting residents?
Several councilmembers and the Mayor appear to prefer to rechannel 166th all the way down the hill to 85th, but they want to wait until the residents become comfortable with the RJH road safety improvments first. Councilman Pat Vache stated Redmond already has several 4:3 conversions showing rechannelization works and has safety benefits.
Some concerns about the rechannelization of 166th Ave. were voiced by a few citizens after the public meeting: 1) fencing is too close to 166th and impedes line-of-site. 2) during the AM commute cars may back up to NE 100th St. and make it impossible to turn left. Also, some drivers actually get out of their car now on 100th St. to punch the crosswalk light button. Will a timed light be programed at 100th?
Several councilmembers and the Mayor appear to prefer to rechannel 166th all the way down the hill to 85th, but they want to wait until the residents become comfortable with the RJH road safety improvments first. Councilman Pat Vache stated Redmond already has several 4:3 conversions showing rechannelization works and has safety benefits.
Some concerns about the rechannelization of 166th Ave. were voiced by a few citizens after the public meeting: 1) fencing is too close to 166th and impedes line-of-site. 2) during the AM commute cars may back up to NE 100th St. and make it impossible to turn left. Also, some drivers actually get out of their car now on 100th St. to punch the crosswalk light button. Will a timed light be programed at 100th?
The city council members once again have their head up there you know what!
ReplyDeleteIf they do this project of the 4:3 lanes ONLY in front of the school they will in fact be creating a two lane drag strip up the hill to the merge point, as one drive will race the other drive up the hill just to get the merge point one car ahead of the other.
The real problem with 166 is safety, so they say… well then maybe we need more police up on the hill hading out a few more tickets and not put the burden on the public to control the speeds of the roads by changing roads to the 4:3 system.
Below are two quotes for the SURVEY, I share the same thoughts.
ReplyDelete“You are not fooling anyone who lives on Education Hill. We are a neighborhood and don’t want “our corridor” to get the onslaught of additional speeding regional traffic these changes will bring. The only people who like the signals on 166 are the people who wanted a short cut to the freeway and you have traded our safety for their convenience. The extra police patrols have never materialized and after speaking with the officer and the meeting it was clear they have other priorities.”
“My husband who bicycles nearly everyday into downtown along your “new” 085 conversion says it is now more dangerous for bikes. You have cars on both sides of you and no “out” if someone makes a mistake. Also, the bike lanes are already fading, and during the fall the leaves and debris couldn’t be cleared because of parked cars. Also, there is no enforcement of cars parked protruding into the bike lanes, beyond the time limits and in the areas marked no parking. Also, without left turn signals you often have to wait 2 or more sequences to get through an intersection. During rush hour the traffic is now backed up from 166 to 154 solid. It now takes twice as long to get through this corridor than before the change and we have had to alter the way we travel home – going a longer distance in order to avoid the traffic jam you have created. Nice try – you blew it!”
Hey bloggers, has anyone seen any designs for the reconfiguration of 166th Ave NE? Do you think the city would allow parking along the roadway? The city does allow parking along 85th Street, down by the City Hall, library, Wells Fargo bank, etc. IMHO the parking along 85th Street is unnecessary and detracts from the visual appeal of the new configuration. The City Hall, King County Library, and Wells Fargo bank have large parking lots, why must the City promote street parking?
ReplyDeleteIf the new design for 166th Ave NE has street parking, this new configuration will be visually worse than the current 4-lane configuration.
People are complaining now about the impaired visibility from side streets, such as, 100th Street (where the crosswalk is in place for the Junior High kids). It is difficult to pull out of 100th STreet and merge onto 166th Ave NE. If there are parked cars on 166th Ave NE, and bike lanes, then it sounds like a bad design to me.
Good point! About the parking on 85th. The fact is that most of the cars parked along 85th right now are because the park n' ride project going on and we have no place to park.
ReplyDeleteAs for the 166th, I did not see any planes for parking and let’s hope they don't......