Someone should take a look at what has happened on 15th between Dravus and downtown. It now takes 45-50 minutes to make that drive in the morning – used to take 10-15. It is completely out of control.

I don’t know what you’re talking about Jamie. Riding the bus or biking down 15th takes me half the time it used to. It’s great!

Maybe try comparing it to a street with more similar traffic volume & patterns – like Stone Way. Here are some results from that project from 07-08: volume decreased by 6%, people speeding at 10mph or more dropped by 75%, pedestrian collisions are down 80%, and bike traffic increased 35%. Sounds like the right steps we should be taking.

I assume you’re not calling me a liar, but perhaps you are. Would love to ride my bike or take the bus. Alas, that is not an option – as I have to take an infant to day care (my wife and I both work). I don’t have any scientific data, other than my own experience driving this stretch every morning M-F between roughtly 7:45 – 9. It is awful – bumper to bumper, cruise ship traffic, poorly timed stoplights. A disaster and wait until all that vacant new residential in Ballard fills up.

I hear you Jamie, and I believe Jimbo doesn’t, because he/she is being selfish.

The facts are that 15th, Elliott and Nickerson are very much different corridors than Stoneway, so the comparison in moot.

The problems with 15th & Elliott are the BAT lanes took out 33% of usable lanes during peak transit. I’ll remind you that the “Nickerson diet” plans to remove 50% of usable lanes.

Going out on a limb here, but I’ll bet Jimbo doesn’t work in the private sector, and it might serve people well to consider the opportunity cost of the “producers” stuck in traffic, especially when the curb lane is usually wide open …

If you take the bus, it’s much faster, but if you drive, it’s ridiculous! I drove this morning and it was bumper to bumper all the way. When I ride the bus, I look at all the traffic and am so thankful I’m on the bus. Once a week I have to drive down Nickerson and the amount of traffic is unreal. I can’t even imagine what it would be like with only one lane, especially when the bridge goes up.

Actually, I think Jamie was being sarcastic, not calling you a liar.

As for the Nickerson Diet, it will reduce the number of lanes, not the volume the street can handle. Currently that stretch has more capacity than it needs and as a result, cars speed (85th percentile of drivers go 44 in a 30 zone). Yes, you will have to slow down but as this is a mixed area with businesses, residences a school and more, and not a highway, you should slow down.
And when it comes to travel times, slowing down shouldn’t make a difference. Instead of speeding to the light at Dexter/Westlake, you’ll get there a bit more slowly, but more safely, and wait less once you’re there.

I fail to see how this will be bad for anyone. In fact, it will increase safety for ALL users, especially pedestrians but also bike riders and drivers, not impede freight traffic (despite the lies being spewed by some… not thinking of you Jamie), and will likely help the small businesses on this stretch of road as it did over on Stone Way. I can cite many examples of people (both in cars and not) who used to avoid businesses on Stone before it’s road diet and now patronize them.

So it takes thousands of drivers twice as long to travel the Elliott corridor, but hundreds (maybe) of bicyclists take half the time . . . . what great trade-off!

North of the ship canal, Stone Way is just one of numerous north-south arterials. (It’s a secondary route at best, 99 is just a few blocks west.) South of the ship canal, Nickerson is one of few east-west arterials (gotta go all the way down to Mercer or Denny.) There is no valid comparison between the two.

The “Nickerson diet” will reduce lane capacity by 50% . . . look what a 33% reduction did to the Elliott commute (doubled the travel time of thousands of cars.)

I don’t know why people feel such a deep sense of entitlement around this issue? It isn’t anybody’s god-given right to drive at 45 miles per hour on a street with a posted limit of 30 mph, especially through a school zone.

When Stone Way was put on a diet, speeding dropped substantially, and as a result collisions both between two automobiles and also between one auto and a pedestrian, have dropped. While some parts of Nickerson have less pedestrian usage than some parts of Stone Way, the problem with scofflaws speeding on our city’s surface streets is directly comparable.

No disagreement from me on the issue of abiding by speed limits. If only speed limits were relevant for me – instead I sit, not moving at all. The goal, I would think, is finding a way to effectively and efficiently move people and goods in a way that responsibly balances environmental and other legitimate concerns (like pedestrian and bicyclist safety) with the other realities of managing a major city. I can’t speak to Nickerson, but with respect to 15th, I feel that effort (however well-intentioned it may have been) has failed.

I am sorry Whirled Peas, but I have to respond to your comment. You honestly believe that the people who drive on 15th are the only “producers” who use the street? I suggest you check out the results of this year’s Group Health Bike to Work Challenge. The teams consisted of employees from Boeing, Getty Images, Children’s Hospital, REI, Nordstroms, several law firms, Virginia Mason, just to name a few. Total commute miles ridden in the month of May by these “producers” in the “private sector”: over one million.

15th/Elliot this morning (Friday, 7:30am) was a real mess… much more than usual. It was gridlock from North of Dravus all the way down to Denny. Aside from the lost time, it can’t have been good from a fuel/environment perspective, either.

I want to think that it was due to a mis-behaving light at 4th & Elliot: it appeared to be ‘green’ for the 15th ave traffic for only ~20-30 seconds at a time.

you’d think ‘community’ councils would be more interested in a liveable community, people feeling safe enough to walk along the streets to patronize businesses, etc.

Gotta love the sneering attitudes from the bikers. That’ll change lots of hearts and minds.

I could get behind the Nickerson “diet” if I saw credible, compelling traffic models before-and-after showing rush hour capacity is not, in fact, appreciably reduced. Many days the eastbound backups extend to the 7-11 just east of SPU. The plan probably needs to maintain 2 eastbound lanes from SPU east.

From SPU west to 15th, however, the lanes are so narrow, especially on that curve at the top of the hill, that people usually avoid driving 2 abreast anyway. Seems like a diet could work there as long as you flared the westbound to 2 lanes well before the Ballard Bridge/15th interchange. That’s also the most dangerous current stretch for bikers – and yes I do bike, but often need to drive (little kids/daycare/etc), I just don’t like snotty entitled riders sneering at others on message boards.

Sneering attitudes?
You mean comments like “if gulf coast oil spills don’t change your hearts and minds you may have neither” count as sneering? Good thing no one wrote that.
What if the “diet” benefited others, even if you don’t think it benefits you? Would you be for it then? Or is that question too sneery?

15th is a done deal. let the bikers continue to use it and have a good commute. nickerson is not a done deal, so how about letting me use it as a driver, as is – so i too can have an easy commute. fair?

The Nickerson road diet is not being done to create bike lanes, it is being done to slow down traffic. That there will now be space for designated bike lanes is just a fortuitous by-product of the road diet. Speeding drivers brought this on themselves.

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