The Seattle Department of Transportation wants to make Seattle a more walkable city, so they’re asking locals to help draft walking directions and information in various neighborhoods. SDOT says it’s part of a year-long project to encourage Seattleites and visitors to walk more, and further.
The department hopes to find 8 to 10 people to join in one of two different discussions about wayfinding in Seattle. The two-hour discussions will be held Oct. 10 at the Central Library (1000 4th Ave), either in the afternoon from 2 to 4pm, or in the evening from 5:30 to 7:30pm.
Those interested in volunteering for the focus group should email wayfinding@seattle.gov by September 27, and indicate availability to participate in the afternoon or evening session. “To help us gather a representative sample of community members, please tell us something about yourself, including the neighborhood in which you live or work and the reasons why you walk,” SDOT says.
All participants who attend will also get a $60 gift card to Safeway.
Photo from SDOT’s Seattle Pedestrian Advisory Board site
![](https://www.myballard.com/wp-content/uploads/2024-My-Ballard-Tile-Ad-Troop-100.png")
Good grief. We need a government program to tell us how to walk around town now? The directionally challenged can’t use Google Maps? And they tell us they need the Head Tax and more levies for this kind of nonsense?
How about being able to walk around Downtown, Crapitol Hill, Pio Sq, Ballard etc without being confronted, or even assaulted by screaming junkies? To add a another level of irony, they’re holding a meeting about this as the Central Library, which is a tax funded refuge for all the dirtbags in the area.
It’s like the people here have never been to cities where this insanity ISN’T CONSIDERED NORMAL AND PREVENTED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT.
What a frightened old fool you are.
I fully support this so we can all take our dogs out to crap more easily!
Beyond stupid as usual. I have manged to walk all over Seattle for 60 years with no google map or help from the city. Are these newbies just idiots?
Yes. Or the nanny state thinks they are.
You’re the same guy who thinks it’s the government’s job to force property owners to extend the lease of a coffee shop, because it’s a shop you happen to like. “Nanny state” is your term for when the government exercises power in ways that you personally don’t care for. But if it’s a thing you like then whatever, sure.
You’re free to be that fickle but don’t expect to be taken seriously.
Was almost nailed twice yesterday by bicyclists hurtling down the sidewalk. It would be a start to get them off the sidewalk. I tell them to get off – they are vehicles after all.
Second thing – how about getting these bike breakdown tent campers off the sidewalks. In fact, I was almost nailed by guys riding bikes along the sidewalk on their way to the bike theft campers. It is the same guys all the time. I’ve got pictures. I don’t think the cops care about these guys so I think we should make it respectfully clear that we do not welcome them camping on our sidewalks. I tell them to move on.
Those “bicyclists” are junkie thieves. Don’t conflate them with sane working people who cycle to work. Thanks. Those bikes were likely stolen or donated to them by idiot liberals.
I am against anyone (no matter how upstanding) riding on the sidewalk. It’s against the law and it is dangerous.
You should educate yourself on the laws before you post ignorance:
https://www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/programs/bike-program/rules-of-the-road
Section 11.44.120 RIDING ON A SIDEWALK OR PUBLIC PATH.
Every person operating a bicycle upon any sidewalk or public path shall operate the same in a careful and prudent manner and a rate of speed no greater than is reasonable and proper under the conditions existing at the point of operation, taking into account the amount and character of pedestrian traffic, grade and width of sidewalk or public path, and condition of surface, and shall obey all traffic control devices. Every person operating a bicycle upon a sidewalk or public path shall yield the right-of-way to any pedestrian thereon, and shall give an audible signal before overtaking and passing any pedestrian.
Excellent! Then this is the first law that needs to be changed to make Seattle more walkable. Thanks for your clarification – it is good to have a concrete goal to lobby for.
How many years have you been yelling at cyclists on the sidewalk? Incorrectly telling them they weren’t supposed to be there? How much anger have you expended, aimed at the wrong target?
Considering how much coverage all Seattle media give to cycling and traffic issues, whatever media you consume have really failed you if they have let you believe cyclists were not allowed on sidewalks. Was it KIRO? MyNorthwest? Whoever it is, they have left you misinformed and you should be angry at them for it. They had ONE job!
Cyclists do have to yield to pedestrians. If you have to dodge them, they’re in the wrong. If you’re slow, they have to wait. And they have to enter crosswalks slowly enough that drivers have time to see them, and stop for them, because they have the same rights in crosswalks as pedestrians. They don’t have to dismount, though.
You should up your meds.
I’ve had to run to the aid of peds hit by bikes enough to say that in your perfect “Cyclists do have to yield to pedestrians” world – accidents happen. To the extent that the laws require some re-thinking. Is re-thinking laws such an anathema to you?
“Is re-thinking laws such an anathema to you?” Anathema? No. Where did I say any such thing? Where?
You’re imagining things. Where did I say anything except stating the facts about what the law is? I never expressed support or opposition to anything, other than my opposition to media that gush on year after year about bikes and yet their audience is still ignorant of the basic facts.
If anybody needs to come down from their cloud and face reality, it’s you for thinking that adding more laws is going to help. If it’s already illegal to fail to yield to pedestrians, not to mention illegal to actually hit and injure them, and we can’t enforce that, what good do you think it would do to add extra laws on top of that, also making it illegal to ride in the sidewalk?
The good news is, we don’t need to hang around Olympia begging the legislature to change the law. We can protect pedestrians right now, today, by enforcing the existing laws. That’s a far easier task, and enforcement would be necessary anyway, assuming you ever could change the state law.
I in no way mean to say cyclists don’t deserve the stink eye, just in principle. Riding on a bike, just as driving a car, kind of turns you into a self-important jerk, and both drivers and cyclists deserve the stink eye, from each other, and from everyone else. Everyone should bike and drive in the most apologetic manner they can, if not for their own behavior, then for the selfishness of their fellow cyclists/drivers.
Certain modes of transportation make people start to puff up and think they’re more important than they are. As soon as you forget that, you start to become part of the problem.
Oh Lord, elenchos, nobody cares about your nonsense
Glad to hear it! So from now on you can totally ignore me. Bye!
“…by enforcing the existing laws.”
You mean like camping, open drug use, thefts, open drug dealing, littering, illegal parking, home breakins, and assaults?
Oh wait, that’s different.
But those things have all been decriminalized now! Those are now not illegal substances, they’re ‘participation trophies’ for trying (yet failing) at life.
Some of us are lucid enough to remember a little thing called the War on Drugs. Maybe you’ve heard of it? It was a massive failure, a waste of billions of dollars, ruining millions of lives. They had “Just say no” and D.A.R.E., which *increased* drug abuse. Oops. If only they’d done a little research.
Repeating those failed tactics would be irresponsible to the point of malice. I can tell malice is your main motive but some of us still give a damn.
Unlike the failed drug war, there is evidence that enforcement can yield good results when it comes to basic traffic rules.
There’s no ideology behind any of this except learning from our mistakes and not repeating failed policies.
Okay, well, I’m sure it’s as big a priority for cyclists as red light stoppage is for drivers or “no dogs” signs are for pet moms.
It’s actually not against the law and often the street is more dangerous. I’ll take your stink eye over a sideswipe any day.
Get all those damn wheel operated contraptions off the friggin side walk and the sleazy people that are passed out at the bus stop on market by that cigarette and cheap beer store or just fire bomb that store along with St. Luke’s feed program
Looks like you need another tax increase, Bigot!
MyBallard really ought to delete comments like this.
Meanwhile, Greenwood still is without sidewalks.
If it were up to me, Greenwood would get their sidewalks well before magnolia got any!
Let’s pull up some of them north of 85th street and move them south.
Pretty much anywhere there’s public property there’s a homeless person nearby
Seattle needs to adjust the traffic lights at numerous busy intersections so that the pedestrians have green light to walk for 15 seconds or so before the light turns green for vehicles so that vehicles can turn right or left without have to wait for pedestrians to get out of sidewalk as it would allow traffic to flow better. And pedestrians, when crossing street please take off the headphones, pocket your phone, and pay attention as many drivers are just as distracted as you. It only takes one failure of road test to prove fatal.