It is a great idea to redesign Leary Way NW and NW Market Street so they are safer for everyone while also connecting the Burke-Gilman Trail through Ballard, but SDOT’s current design needs significant work in order to achieve those goals.

SDOT has not released any new details about Councilmember Dan Strauss’ Market/Leary plan since we last reported on it, but they now have a simple online form for collecting public feedback. So go fill it out!

Question 1 regarding the Market Street segment is the most important. SDOT’s most recent 30% design includes several significant “mixing zones” where the trail and the sidewalk would merge together. SDOT’s own design guidelines for intersections say, “A mixing zone is not appropriate for two-way protected bike lanes.” The current design would create situations where people trying to bike in both directions along the route would mix with shoppers, people heading to the bus, people waiting for the walk signal to cross the street, and anyone else hanging out this this busy business district. This would be frustrating for people on bikes and it would be uncomfortable for people on the sidewalk. People should be able to hang out on the sidewalk without worrying about bikes coming through, and people biking should be able to rely on being able to travel along this route without needing to crawl through a crowd of people. It is in everybody’s best interest for walking and biking spaces to be separated in a busy business district, and the design team should be following best practices for two-way bike lanes through a business district. The Market segment also needs more traffic calming and safer crosswalks, goals that combine well with the goal of separating biking and walking spaces. SDOT’s Vision Zero research found that 80% of pedestrian deaths in Seattle occur on streets with multiple lanes in the same direction, so reducing the number of lanes on Market in this highly-walked business district is a worthy project entirely on its own merits while also creating the space needed to keep biking and walking separate.

If this project is designed well, the bike and scooter volumes could be very high, so it needs to be designed accordingly. Imagine a nice day with a constant stream of people biking and scootering out to Golden Gardens while another stream of people walk and bike through here to a bustling Sunday Farmer’s Market. That should be the design team’s use case.

Question 2 is about the Leary Way section, which is much closer to greatness than Market. Again, they should be designing it to two-way protected bike lane standards without mixing zones, but on Leary the space is already allocated for them to do so. This section needs tweaks, not a total redo. Be sure to voice enthusiastic support for the crosswalk and intersection improvements along this stretch, and request that every intersection leg have a crosswalk (Vernon is missing one crosswalk and NW Ione Pl does not have any marked crosswalks).

Question 3 is about the short section on 17th Ave NW to connect to the trail on Shilshole. Again, keep walking and biking spaces separate and designed to proper standards. The strange intersection of 17th and Leary is also missing some crosswalks seemingly in order to preserve a right turn slip lane. But I suspect the debate on this stretch will have more to do with the trees and parking. The current design would actually add parking while cutting down trees (though one of the three trees is angled over the sidewalk toward the buildings, so its days are likely numbered anyway). I personally think trees are more important than the car parking, but I suppose that’s more of a question for the local community to hash out.

Question 4 is an open-ended space for general feedback. My overarching thought is that the design team should not get hung up on whether they are designing a multi-use trail (AKA “shared-use path”) or a two-way protected bike lane. They should instead use the designs that are most appropriate for the context of a busy business district. If mixing zones are not acceptable for a two-way protected bike lane, they don’t suddenly become acceptable because you call it a shared-use path instead. Another general note is that while I am not against tearing down trees when the benefits are clearly worth it (creating a safe biking and walking route through Ballard is definitely worth it), the team should attempt to build around existing trees whenever possible even if that means utilizing more roadway space. You could also note here that you still support the city’s fully-designed trail on Shilshole that remains held up in endless court battles.

I look forward to enthusiastically supporting a high-quality Leary/Market design for connecting the Burke-Gilman Trail through Ballard.