Hot on the heels of last December’s debate about putting Fauntleroy Way SW on a “road diet”—basically, reducing the number of lanes from four to three to accommodate bike lanes and make the street safer for cy clists and pedestrians—the Seattle Department of Transportation has Nickerson Avenue NW in its sights. Tomorrow night, SDOT will hold an open house to tell residents about the proposal, which would add a turn lane in the center of Nickerson, add a bike lane in one direction and a sharrow in the other, and reduce travel lanes for cars to two. The open house is from 5p.m. to 7 p.m. at Seattle Pacific University, 509 West Bertona St., Room 150, Demaray Hall.

15 replies on “Get Your Pitchforks—It’s Another Road Diet!”

  1. Just the other day, I was noticing how many people ride their bike to work, especially in the winter… at least six!

    “tyranny of the few”

  2. i thought Nickerson was the proposed connection from Ballard and Interbay to the deep bore viaduct-replacement tunnel?

  3. It’s about time… Seattle has some of the narrowest sidewalks of anywhere. In much of the city sidewalks don’t even exist. It is time for the single person cars to share the right-of-way with other modes. There is only so much room between the buildings to move around in and most of it is purely for cars to drive or park. Let’s make some nice space for people to move around in without their metal boxes.

  4. What a joke. How about instead you bike riders get licenses and tabs for your bicycles, and we use that revenue for building you your own private lane of travel.

    Once you gather enough money that is…

  5. Actually, Nickerson is kind of freakishly unsafe to walk or bike on.

    Lots of parking lots that come up hills into traffic where drivers can’t see approaching pedestrians or cyclists.

  6. This is more about the pedestrian problems than bicycling. I’m not even sure it makes that much sense for bicycling.

    The deal is that SDOT decided that 4 lane roads are dangerous and that crosswalks on 4 lane roads are unsafe, so they removed the crosswalks.

    Nickerson cuts between SPU and lots of college students need to cross Nickerson every day, but there aren’t even crosswalks now for something like a 1 mile section.

    If they do a road diet, they can add pedestrian center refuge islands and crosswalks back again and make it safer so the car drivers don’t kill more pedestrians here. That is the driving issue behind this change.

    It is all about the pedestrians. The bike lanes are just a side effect.

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