The stoplight at the intersection of 28th Ave NW and NW Market St is currently for pedestrians trying to cross Market Street. That is about to change. The Seattle Department of Transportation is currently upgrading this pedestrian signal to a full traffic signal.
“This location meets the criteria for a new traffic signal because of the high volume of traffic, collision history, the distance to the next signalized intersection as well as nearby bus stops,” SDOT states on their blog.
It will take a total of four weeks to complete this project and get the signal up and running. (Thanks everyone for your emails!)
New traffic signal coming to 28th & Market
![](https://www.myballard.com/wp-content/uploads/2024-My-Ballard-Tile-Ad-Troop-100.png")
How nice for those who visit lovely Lake Windermere.
Ahh… a close up, protected view of the Ballard swimming hole..
Nooooooo. I already hate that stupid stoplight :-
well, it's about time.
When I'm in my car, looking to make a left going eastbound on Market, I sometimes sit for several minutes.
I've even gotten out of my car and pressed the 'cross' button (repeatedly I might add as that makes it go faster:)
The existing stoplight is pretty responsive to pedestrians pushing the button. I use that crosswalk all the time.
Surprising that there's enough car traffic to warrant a full-fledged light, though. I'd guess it has more to do with number of accidents than with traffic volume.
I'm glad they're doing the east-west cross walks. If you get off the 44 there you kind of have to walk diagonally up 28th a ways because there's no sidewalk, no cross walk, and cars backing out of the parking lot think they have the right of way. If only they'd connect the sidewalk on the non-parking lot side of the road (aka Lake Windermere) , I'd really be happy.
This intersection does not need a full traffic signal. I have lived roughly one block away from here, for quite some time and never had to wait longer than 25 seconds. This is a situation where the city is spending time and energy to fix something that isn't broken. It is upsetting to see this happen. There are already too many lights in ballard and adding one more will just make slow down the flow of traffic while increasing congestion.
Agreed 100%.
Disagree, traffic should go slow….lots of pedestrians around and we should be encouraging more. Nice to see this come in. Now let's add more crosswalks and traffic lights all the way down Shilshoe to Leary in Fremont. Slow down cars!
Zipper, you are right, people should definitely go slowly on market in the business district/downtown area, but after 24th ave on Market when you are headed west, there are very few pedestrians around and people should not be slowed down anymore by these lights. After all, that is a main arterial for many people that live in Ballard. I would in fact make the argument that there should not be any light at the intersection of 28th and market. It is very unusual if a car has to wait to take that left onto market.
Plenty of walking through there – methinks this is more for the pedestrian traffic than the cars…
Ugh, I'm SO glad about this honestly. I drive that way every morning and always get stuck there.
Dang, I wish that light had been there when I lived around the corner. Can't tell you how many times I almost got squished just trying to get to the bus stop.
About time.
that is incorrect trafficmaster.
there are increasingly more and more pedestrians on Market west of 24th. All those townhomes…people walking to habitude, kiss cafe, locks, etc.
In the 10 years I've lived in this area, I've seen pedestrian/vehicular traffic increase tremendously.
“It is very unusual if a car has to wait to take that left onto market.”
that is just flat-out wrong. I wait here almost every day, and have almost been hit several times by zooming motorists and their arterial entitilements.
Now what we really need is some signals on Leary, as well as some reconfigured intersections. It can be quite scary crossing Leary when half the cars refuse to even slow down for pedestrians. I swear cars have sped up when I've been walking across the street at an intersection. And of course all the diagonal intersections are dangerous for both cars and pedestrians.
The existing walk signal lets you cross Market already. Are you talking about people coming down 28th and cruising through the stop sign? Or do those left-turners ignore people in the crosswalks?
Another example of Seattle trying to impede commuting traffic. The pedestrians that use that light walk up and hit the button button before looking to see if there is any traffic. Seeing no cars they walk across the street and on their way. Then the cars arrive just as the light changes to red. The cars sit there while no one crossed the road. Great! Now the light will change from green to red all on its own without anyone needing to press the button.
For those of you who keep trying to make the eastbound left turn onto Market and are frustrated by having to wait – did you ever consider changing your route to avoid it?
Amen to this. This is what frustrates me the most.
Utterly stupid. Once again, a solution to a traffic “problem” that doesn't exist at this intersection. Priority one should be addressing bike safety issues from the Locks to 24th before someone is killed. And I don't mean painting “sharrows” on the roadway.
This is about as moronic as allowing the liquor store to be sited at one of the most problematic traffic merges in Ballard, and not providing adequate directional information for ingress/egress from the lot.
Are the inmates running the asylum? Don't answer that.