Where The Sidewalk Ends

After about a year of studies, the city is beginning, if slowly, to increase pedestrian safety standards in construction areas. The city council’s transportation committee heard a plan from two Seattle Department of Transportation representatives this morning that would require construction crews to provide pedestrian walkways past most construction sites (instead of making people cross the street or take their chances walking in vehicle lanes).

City Council Member Nick Licata requested the studies last year, and transportation officials traveled to Washington, D.C. to look at how that city keeps streets pedestrian thoroughfares open.

In Seattle, certain streets, such as 5th Avenue downtown and other high-pedestrian arterials, would be designated as a “pedestrian priority,” on which sidewalks could only be closed if there is no other practical alternative. The specifics would vary by type of construction, but in nearly all cases developers would have to create a path, on the same side of the street, for pedestrians.

Also among the department’s recommendations:

– Non-priority sidewalks (Columbia and Cherry Streets downtown were SDOT’s examples) could still be closed, but developers would have financial incentives to keep them accessible. “Mobility credits” would allow developers to pay lower sidewalk rental fees if they keep a path open. This would have to be approved by the city council.

– If a sidewalk does have to be closed, signs must announce the closure ahead of time, the duration of the closure, and directions on how to navigate around it (similar to temporary “no parking” signs that notify that parking spaces will be blocked during construction).

– Require ADA compliance for pedestrian reroutes. For example, a covered walkway would need an entrance detectable by someone carrying a walking stick.

– Uniformed police officers would be required whenever a closed sidewalk could expect high pedestrian traffic.

These appear to be sensible alternatives to closing heavily traveled sidewalks with little or no notice, but Transportation Committee Chair and mayoral candidate Jan Drago worried it could raise costs for developers. SDOT spokesman Brian DePlace said that in a worst-case scenario (which he didn’t specify at the hearing), pedestrian improvements could add $1 million to the cost of a project.

“When you talk about adding a million dollars to a project, that’s the difference between whether a project goes forward or not,” she said.

Under current rules, shutting down sidewalks for construction is allowed—as long as a sign is posted, somewhere, informing pedestrians. In practice, these signs are often afterthoughts, and may or may not be visible from the end of the block (if at all). This results, as numerous slides at the hearing showed, hundreds of pedestrians taking their chances in heavy downtown traffic.

SDOT will take comment through Sept. 15. By Sept. 30, the department plans to adopt a rule implementing most of these changes, and draft legislation authorizing the mobility credit plan, which the city council must approve.