Seattle not a jaywalkable city
Crosscut this morning has a piece arguing with the idea of “walkability” in Seattle. Brookings recently published a survey of the country’s most walkable cities, placing Seattle at 6th, more on the strength of our neighborhoods than our downtown core. (And certainly not on the strength of our rail system. Useless streetcar, I am looking at you.) The survey was for the largest 30 metropolitan areas [Brookings].
The main quibbles in the crosscut article are the fact that construction often steals sidewalks, and that no one in Seattle jaywalks, no matter what time of day or night.
I’m usually a pedestrian. I don’t own a car, and I commute to and from work on foot. I came here from the very bottom of the list, the Tampa - St. Petersburg - Clearwater area in Florida. And at the bottom of the list is where it belongs, too–while some parts of Tampa and St. Pete are a bit walkable, large sections of them and most of Clearwater are without sidewalks or dense urban developments, and what sidewalks there are are frequently accidentally overrun by old people in large cars who have forgotten to stop. You’d be crazy to try and walk down there, if walking were even really an option. But being a walker in Seattle is frequently difficult, and often for those two reasons.
“What would a really pedestrian-friendly Seattle look like?” asks Chasan. “For one thing, no developer could block pedestrian passage with a building project. A pedestrian would not come to a crosswalk and find the sidewalk on the other side gone. Any construction project that did block a sidewalk would have to provide a pedestrian passage beside it, and automotive traffic would just have to get by with fewer lanes. Yes, yes, that might snarl traffic. But you can’t have it both ways: A pedestrian-friendly city - or a bicycle-friendly city - must on occasion treat drivers like it now treats walkers and cyclists [Crosscut].” There are a few developments downtown that have done this, but it’s true that most of them don’t, not downtown or anywhere else. One has been screwing with my commute for months, taking up a block’s worth of sidewalk every day but only occasionally borrowing part of a lane of road.
But Chasan’s big complaint is that no matter how empty the street is, people in Seattle will wait for the crosswalk to flash, and the police actually give out jaywalking tickets. “Finally, a pedestrian-friendly city would be full of jaywalkers. Yes, jaywalkers. I believe in jaywalking. Getting around town on your own two feet isn’t practical if you have to stop at every red light. You can do it, but you can’t do it very fast.”
I’ve only ever been hit by a car while walking once, in an intersection when it was my turn to go, at Eastlake and Lynn. A lady wanted to turn right, and turn she did, without looking, straight into my left side. Fortunately, she wasn’t going very fast, and everything was fine, but a lot of people in Seattle get hit in crosswalks when the walk light is lit, and the aftermath is a lot worse. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure very few people get hit jaywalking across a deserted 3rd Avenue at 3 am, and I have definitely seen people waiting for the light then.
The thing that Chasan misses, probably because he apparently rides a bike, is that for a city to be walkable it also needs more bike lanes. If there’s a place for bicycles to ride without worrying so much about being run over by cars, then there will be safer sidewalks for pedestrians to walk without worrying about being run over by bikes, because they are just as frequently unconcerned with pedestrians as cars are by them.
Seattle is definitely a more walkable town than a lot on the list, although it is not more walkable than New York and Chicago, Brookings, no matter how nicely you can stroll along the Kirkland waterfront. But it’s also a lot more dangerous to be a pedestrian than it ought to be.
Chasan’s suggestions are solid but people definitely jaywalk here.
I walk to and from work nearly everyday, and yes jaywalk whenever safe. But so do loads of other people; sometimes only once they feel they have permission because someone else (me) is doing it. I do pass those who always wait, no matter how clear the streets are.
I agree with Chasan about needing to take some measures to ensure that there are safe paths to take and maybe some public awareness campaign thingy here in Seattle to notify people of the existing pedestrian laws. Though I wonder are people unaware when a pedestrian has the right of way, or do they simply not care?
P.S. Sorry you got hit by a car; I’m glad you were okay.
Yeah, lots of people will jaywalk if they see someone else doing it. I am usually one of those people. Cars are scary.
Chasan’s argument is interesting. I never would have thought that a pedestrian-friendly city would actually require jaywalking but I can’t find a good reason to disagree with him.
I don’t find Seattle a very walkable city. There are too many hills for it to be walkable. When was the last time you walked from Queen Anne to Capitol Hill? Ever?
The ability of construction projects to block off a sidewalk downtown isn’t why Seattle isn’t a walkable city, but it’s a symptom. In a truly walkable city, people, you know, WALK. It’s a force of nature - you do a construction zone w/o a sidewalk extension and you find yourself watching as hundreds of people block traffic to walk around the construction. Now THAT is a walkable city.
In the end, the problem is the hills are too steep, the city isn’t very dense and there are too many bridges - only 1 of these problems is controllable by humans, so other than relocating Seattle, it’s a geographic problem.
Alright, Ryan-In-Seattle, I’ll change my name so it doesn’t look like one of us is schizophrenic.
Why would you walk from Queen Anne to Capitol Hill when you could take the #8? Isn’t part of the point of a bus system to get from walkable neighborhood to walkable neighborhood?
I’ve certainly walked from Downtown/Belltown/Pioneer Square to Capitol Hill frequently enough, and I know people who commute up the Denny Regrade on foot daily who seem to do just fine. And I walk from Eastlake up to Capitol Hill a few times a week, which either involves a couple of very steep hills or all of those stairs. (I take the hills–harded to fall down.) Sure, sometimes the hills are a bummer, especially in heels, but I don’t think they make the city that much less walkable. Plus, they’re good for you.
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Even though walking from Queen Anne to Capitol Hill isn’t the real mark of walkability (I think, number of “walkable units” which the rest of us call neighborhoods is what they’re really looking at), I’ve made that hike more than a few times when the 8 is running late and I don’t feel like paying for a cab or waiting.
And unless the weather is ridiculous, I almost never have a problem with C.H. to Belltown/Downtown/Pioneer Square either.
I hate how the city allows condo developers to close sidewalks, forcing pedestrians to wait at four crosswalks to traverse one city block. Take the one near 4th and Stewart–the adjacent traffic lane is almost always empty, so why not just close the lane? (Many pedestrians happily ignore that sidewalk closure sign anyway.)
Do the police really bother ticketing jaywalkers in this city? When I was in pre-school, they taught me to look both ways before crossing the street, and I’ve always found that to be sufficient.