This is the first of a multi-part series where we look at some of the problems with the famed Missing Link. When the Burke Gilman Trail reaches Ballard, for a 1.5 mile stretch it disappears and dumps cyclists on the road. That would be okay because bicycles are legal vehicles and have a right to take the full lane of the road.
The problem is that we have a built environment with railroad tracks, and a mixture of modern commercial spaces with sidewalks and historic industrial spaces without sidewalks. It is an area in transition and until the transition is complete, it is more dangerous than it needs to be. The railroad tracks here are part of the Ballard shortline which has a maintenance shed about one block to the west of this intersection.
1. In a typical bicycle safety education course, we tell cyclists to avoid the sidewalk and ride in the same direction as traffic on the street. As the Burke Gilman Trail comes up alongside Fred Meyer here, it is both on the wrong side of the road for westbound cyclists and it is combined with a sidewalk.
2. When on the road, a stop sign is always on the right of the driver. On the trail here, the stop sign is on the left. What are the laws regarding stop signs on sidewalks?
3. For motorists, it looks like a 4-way stop and the sign just says “all way stop” not “5-way stop”, but cyclists are a 5th point in this intersection.
4. The trail dead ends and there isn’t a sidewalk on the other side so we see pedestrians walking in the middle of the travel lane, against traffic.
5. The railroad tracks make it unsafe for cyclists to stay all the way the right, and SDOT has improved things by adding appropriate sharrows and lane markings, but cars still occasionally drive over the tracks and pass cyclists on the right.
6. Back to those bicycle safety education classes, an alternative way to cross an intersection that we teach is a “pedestrian” box turn, where the cyclist becomes a pedestrian and crosses the crosswalk, turns and crosses it again. That technique doesn’t work here either because of the tracks. (see the Orange route below)
7. Well, maybe we could just be vehicular cyclists? Once again, the tracks get in the way. (see the Yellow route below) Lateral cracks, especially rail tracks with the deep grooves, catch narrow bicycle tires and quickly throw the cyclist to the ground as they struggle against the groove to steer and balance. It is possible to do this as a vehicular cyclist, it just requires more caution and bicycle handing abilities.
Okay, so, how does one cross this intersection?
Currently, cooperation is needed. Drivers need to notice the cyclist and recognize the intersection as a 5-way stop, yielding to the cyclist in turn. Most of the time, this works.
Unfortunately what occasionally happens is that drivers don’t yield to cyclists and cyclists take matters into their own hands and charge into the intersection, sometimes trying to time their crossing on the rear bumper of a car that is just starting to cross. When this dangerous technique is combined with a driver who forgets to use a turn signal, crashes happen.
Most of the north-south traffic at this intersection is to and from Fred Meyer. The east-west traffic is much lighter than the north-south traffic, some is industrial, some is commuter, some is to and from Fred Meyer.
If the trail were to be completed between 11th and Shilshole according to the city plans, it would add four new driveway and road intersection conflict points. It would also turn the intersection interaction into a crosswalk type interaction and it would avoid all of the conflicts from motor vehicles overtaking cyclists and all of the railroad track conflicts as seen in the illustration in the bottom right hand corner of this SDOT board:
http://www.seattle.gov/Transportation/docs/BGT_Board3_2008-10-15_11×17.pdf
More information from SDOT can be found at:
http://www.seattle.gov/Transportation/missinglink.htm
If you have any better ideas, SDOT has plans to do more work on this intersection in the next year. Comment here and we will talk to SDOT, or politely send them to SDOT yourself. For our next segment, lawsuits might be preventing the city from improving the situation much.
Tags: Burke-Gilman Trail, Hazards, missing link
[...] In Part 1 of our look at the Missing Link of the Burke Gilman Trail, we focused on the intersection at 11th Ave NW. [...]