Don’t tell Donald Trump but the latest safety improvement for walkers, joggers, bikers, scooter riders, and drivers at one of Capitol Hill’s busiest crossings is being paid for with federal cash.
The new pedestrian island at 10th and Pike is part of 80 planned safety upgrades across Seattle under the Safe Streets for All program. The island helps protect people using the crosswalk at the busy intersection in the heart of the Pike/Pine nightlife district.
CHS reported here as Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), then-Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, touted the $25.6 million grant to Seattle under the program to help local governments carry out “Vision Zero” upgrades. By the way, to give you a little idea of how times have quickly changed, that committee is chaired by Ted Cruz these days.
Seattle, of course, is also spending plenty of its own cash on its streets and sidewalks. Voters passed a $1.55 billion transportation levy in 2024. Some $16 million in safety spending will include “HIGH-COLLISION SAFETY PROJECTS” at Broadway and Pike, Broadway and Union, and Harvard and Pike among dozens of other locations across the city, according to the levy spending plan. Officials say they will also start planning a new “12th Ave S Safety Corridor” and work will begin on “Safe Routes to School Program” improvements at 13th Ave and E Yesler Way for Bailey Gatzert Elementary and along 10th Ave E for the Bertschi School.
This summer, the new island at 10th and Pike is joined by a few other projects powered by Safe Streets for All funding this summer around the Hill. CHS reported in July on construction notices going up announcing work to finally install safe crossing markings at Harvard and E Olive Way, the dangerous intersection where a rogue “Capitol Hill Department of Transportation” installed a guerilla crosswalk that was quickly removed by the city in 2022.
Meanwhile, other nearby “near-term” Safe Streets for All projects include pedestrian ramps and flashing lights at the Harvard and Seneca crosswalk, and pedestrian walk signal upgrades and ramps at Broadway and Jefferson.
Upcoming projects will include pedestrian ramps at Belmont and Pike, pedestrian walk signal upgrades at Pike and Convention Pl, and pedestrian walk signal upgrades and ramps at Boren Ave and Pike, Boren and Seneca, Broadway and Cherry, 18th and Union, and 14th and Cherry.
Federal funding will also be put to use for a set of pedestrian walk signal upgrades and ramps along E Yesler Way in the Central District.
The small upgrades are part of a recent flurry of activity around Seattle streets making small but significant changes to slow down traffic and reduce the number of deadly collisions including the addition of several intersections of 4-way stops up and down Pike/Pine — including 10th and Pike.
Meanwhile, there are other street markings around 10th and Pike the current regime in Washington D.C. have their eyes on. The administration’s SAFE ROADS initiative is being positioned as an effort to standardize roadway surfaces and remove “distractions” but the target seems pretty clear. Cities — like Boynton Beach, Florida — are covering up rainbow crosswalks following the order.
Inspired by the 2015 installation of the Pride rainbows around Pike/Pine, Community Crosswalks can now be found across the city including the “Poem Dazzle” crossings on Melrose. You’ll still find rainbow crossings next to the new pedestrian island at 10th and Pike.
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