Tag Archives: Walkability

Ribbon Cutting for Pathway from 89th to 90th, Wednesday, June 18th

City Council-member Mike O’Brien will be on hand to cut the ribbon for the completion of the pedestrian pathway upgrade from 89th to 90th at 17th. This is an early bird event, meeting at 8 AM the pedestrian pathway.

Neighbors living in West Crown Hill put together a NPSF (Neighborhood Parks and Streets Fund) proposal a few years ago to upgrade the path, and remove the barriers to make it possible to pass a stroller through and connect to the Soundview Playfields and Whitman Middle School.

The project was completed a couple of years ago.

Efforts are underway to secure funding to complete a greenway on 17th from 58th to 90th. The greenway will use the pathway to the play fields and Whitman Middle School. Another NPSF proposal is presently under review for funding to put a pedestrian activated signal at 17th and 85th to allow safer crossings of 85th.

Grand Opening Ceremony for 8th and 100th Intersection, Tuesday, June 17th

We’ve all been driving, cycling, walking through the new vastly improved intersection of 8th Ave NW, NW 100th St, and NW 100th Place since August last year. Come celebrate with our 36th District State Legislator, Gael Tarleton:

  • Where:  8th and 100th
  • When: Tuesday, June 17th, 5-6 PM

A great chance to see some of your neighbors, say hi to Gael.

The intersection was revised to eliminate the free right swing for traffic northbound on 8th onto 100th Place. The Walkable Crown Hill effort identified this intersection as the number 2 priority for attention by the City.  The revision was dovetailed with King County Metro’s startup of the D-Line Rapid Ride service, which made 7th Ave NW one-way Northbound at Holman Rd, so the buses could use 100th Place and 3rd to turnaround back to Holman Rd. The intersection is  much safer now, that all northbound traffic on 8th must come to a full stop before proceeding.

Walk Score® Now Includes Transit Score

A couple of years ago, we wrote an article on Walk Score® from walkscore.com.  The Walk Score® for an address is a measure of the walkability for that address, in other words how easy it is to walk to most destinations such as grocery stores, libraries, bookstores, etc. Scores at the high end (90-100) indicate an environment where “Daily errands do not require a car.” Scores at the low end (0-24) mean “Almost all errands require a car.”

The programmers at Walk Score® have recently implemented a similar index:  Transit Score(tm) to indicate the transit friendliness of an address.

Try it yourself!
Go to WalkScore.com, enter your address, and see how you fare on these two measures of reduced automobile dependence.
walkscore
Scores for 9250 14th Ave NW (click for full size)

Continue reading Walk Score® Now Includes Transit Score

‘Hood Hunt Wrap-up

The first ‘hood hunt in Crown Hill was held Saturday, April 9th, 2011.  We had 39 folk assemble themselves into eleven ‘teams’ whose job was to visit 25 checkpoints in Crown Hill, and answer a ‘simple’ question about something at that checkpoint. Easy enough you say, but the maps did not have street names on them. Once each team dusted off their orienteering skills, they were then confronted with the formidable 5-1/2 mile route to visit each point and return within 75 minutes. Adding to the challenge were the grueling hills of Crown Hill which induced shortness of breath, and sore legs. Upon return, the scores were totaled for each team, and prizes awarded based on the number of correct answers and finishing order.

Try it yourself!
If you want to try your skills at the challenge, you can download the map and question sheet. It should be a pleasant hour plus spent walking around the neighborhood!
2ndplacehoodhunt
The Amort Family, second place winners of the 2011 'hood hunt

Prizes:

Continue reading ‘Hood Hunt Wrap-up

SDOT proposes changes to 7th Ave NW and NW 100th Street

Many of you have received a postcard in the mail announcing proposed changes to 7th Ave NW and NW 100th Street near the QFC Shopping Center. These changes are proposed to facilitate the new routing of the Rapid Ride Line “D” which we covered earlier.

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is proposing changes to 7th Avenue NW (between NW 100th Street and NW Holman Rd). The proposed changes include the following:

  • Convert 7th Ave NW to one-way northbound between NW 100th Street and NW Holman Road
  • Install curb, gutter and sidewalk on west side of 7th Avenue NW
  • Install curb, gutter and sidewalk on south side of NW 100th Street (between NW 100th Place and 7th Ave NW)
  • No parking on west side of 7th Avenue NW and south side of NW 100th Street

proposed

The proposed improvements are designed to support King County Metro’s Ballard RapidRide service which is scheduled to begin in fall 2012. Converting 7th Avenue NW to one-way will improve access to the RapidRide terminal.

Your comments on the proposed revisions would be appreciated.

Please contact Jonathan Dong with comments:
(206) 233-8564
jonathan.dong@seattle.gov