Comments on: Admiral Way makeover plans draw (expected) criticisms from drivers, some concerns from bikers

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 18:32:11 +0000

Sounds like a great idea. I have long thought that traffic should be shifted west on Admiral to create more room on the uphill side of the street. There is unsigned parking on the west side of the road (its a very wide 16′ lane). The diagram of the existing road is wrong because it leaves out the left 5′ of the roadway. Merging downhill traffic into one lane should not be a problem since the majority of traffic is heading towards the west seattle bridge and people usually cut over at the last minute.

By: WS bike commuter

WS bike commuter — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:28:36 +0000

A little PS – I rode home via Admiral yesterday during the evening rush to see how it went, and my wife passed me on HER way home right about at the narrow curve by the viewpoint. She was not happy, she said, at seeing me out in traffic. Neither was the guy who drove dangerously close and gestured to indicate that I should be riding closer to the shoulder.
Next time I’ll switch to the sidewalk when I get near the viewpoint. There’s the places you can possibly ride, and the places you can safely ride.

By: WS bike commuter

WS bike commuter — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 23:43:31 +0000

I don’t ride home up Admiral as much as I used to because I got tired of putting my soft, small body in the way of heedless speeders.

My sense is that SDOT’s intent is to slow people along the long, wide straightaway (where they currently see bikers in advance, at least, and often switch to the left lane), so that they don’t hit that narrow curve at the top of the hill going 35+, which is where my presence in “their” lane most takes them by surprise.

By: JAT

JAT — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:17:54 +0000

My concern is not with the turn off into the popular look-out so much as cyclists are being dumped into a shared (and much too narrow) lane at the top of the hill, on a curve with traffic that (currently) regularly speed 7 to 10 mph over the 30 mph limit. there was a fatal SUV crash there earlier this year, and the brick planters on the parking/planting strip a block further up the hill are routinely smashed to smithereens because motorists can’t control their vehicles on this section of roadway.

Looking at SDOT’s plan illustrates a common shortcoming: the problem areas (top of the hill and bottom of the hill fall exactly outside the boundary of the area they’re trying to fix.