Deirdre wrote to tell us about huge traffic backups along N. 80th Street heading east towards Aurora Avenue.
About two months ago the City of Seattle installed left-hand turn arrows where 80th Street intersects with Aurora Avenue. Many of you have probably noticed the activation of the new light has greatly compounded the traffic problem on 80th street going eastbound toward the lake. Its not uncommon for the light to back traffic up all the way past Linden to Fremont Avenue while people sitting at the light lay on their horns and scream expletives out their car windows. It’s really terrible for those of us in the vicinity.
The city has explained to me that they can only allow 80th Street to interrupt the flow of traffic on Aurora for a limited amount of time for each light cycle. This means that the turn arrow is taking up a significant portion of the time while no one is trying to even turn left. This would improve if they change it to a flashing yellow left turn arrow with a solid green light for eastbound except for during peak morning travel hours.
Please help out the families on 80th street and the surrounding side streets by asking the City to change the timing of the light at 80th and Aurora. You can voice concerns here: http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/citizen_response.htm or contact the City’s Signal Timing Engineer directly: (206) 386-4579 or by email at enrique.garcia@seattle.gov.
11 responses so far ↓
1 MikePhoto // May 19, 2010 at 4:40 pm
During the morning commute, I’ve seen the traffic backed up almost all the way to Dayton, one block east of Greenwood. A 3+ block backup east of Aurora is not unusual to see, since they started the green arrows for the turn lanes.
If you file a complaint, it might help to mention that a lot of cars are now filtering away from the arterial to residential streets to avoid this mess, and there has been an increased incidence of people driving down the wrong side of the street (in the oncoming lane) to try to get to the turn lane.
2 80th Street Dweller // May 19, 2010 at 6:09 pm
We live on 80th street and since we bike and ride the bus to our jobs, we actually don’t mind the traffic—at least it slows people down so that they are not zooming by at 40mph.
3 Brownie // May 19, 2010 at 6:09 pm
Living on 80th it is the logical choice for me to travel east (or west). The addition of the left turn light on Aurora may be impacting the flow of traffic but only to a certain degree. I have started opting to travel on 85th knowing the times of the day when 80th has been backed up; what an incredible improvement to my travel time.
Maybe the city should consider fixing the pothole condition of 85th between 15th and Greenwood as this is a prime reason to avoid 85th. (Bus turnouts would be nice addition but virtually impossible.)
4 christy // May 19, 2010 at 6:55 pm
Before there was an arrow I thought it was a very unsafe left turn. When facing east at that intersection, it was very hard to see oncoming (westbound) traffic when you were waiting to turn north onto Aurora. And it seems like cars were quite backed up on 80th before the arrow anyway.
5 tw78 // May 19, 2010 at 7:13 pm
I travel past this intersection every day on my way to work - the back up is insane and I have seen many people swerving around people waiting to go straight so they can get in the turn lane. Wish they had just left it alone. Thanks for the link.
6 Rob Fellows // May 19, 2010 at 7:50 pm
This was a problem even before the new left-turn signal phases were added. A few years ago the city decided to make a huge effort to improve Aurora travel times, at the cost of east-west mobility particularly at 80th, 85th and 105th.
I can sort of understand that decision for commute periods. What I don’t understand is why Aurora needs this sort of massive priority over east-west streets during off-peak times and on weekends. I am regularly astonished to have to wait through 3-4 signal cycles to get across Aurora at any of these crossings on a Sunday morning (for example), especially seeing no traffic on Aurora during much of it’s green signal phase. At 80th, the situation is more frustrating because of poor coordination with the light at Linden, and now Fremont. As to the left turn phase, it wasn’t good to put in a turn pocket before when only one car could get through each cycle - but now the turns have priority. Why? There should be a compromise with a much shorter protected turn phase.
I can see making some priority to Aurora for commuting, but it seems to me the priority should be to local traffic at all other times. I have to assume that SDOT is only paying attention to the rush hour, and simply isn’t aware how bad they’ve made things the rest of the time.
7 gw // May 20, 2010 at 7:08 am
I have definitely noticed that the back up is worse since adding the turn signal. In the afternoon (around 3) I have seen, on several occasions, the back up past dayton and approaching the greenwood. I can’t even imagine what it will be like as the summer approaches and more people are headed towards the lake!
8 Kate Martin // May 20, 2010 at 7:13 am
I’m happy the left turn signal is there. I think the turning pocket could use space for a few more cars (ditto 80th at Greenwood). Traditionally (and anachronistically perhaps), these streets are like long on-ramps to I-5 when it comes to how SDOT treats them. There is little concern for being able to get around the neighborhood in all directions. To get the circulation in the neighborhood to function, we need ways to go north-south as well. Originally, they were going to limit left turns and add a lane of through eastbound traffic to increase “level of service” right there in the school zone at Bagley. Thankfully, they came to their senses. I also appreciate how the signal allows people to make sane left turns instead of darting out after or before the light changes with no consideration of folks in the crosswalk including families walking to school there.
9 Jose // May 20, 2010 at 7:43 am
This is typical of your government at work. There seems to be no ability to look at the big picture. Fix one problem, create another.
10 Jennifer // May 20, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Going East there are other less congested ways to get to Greenlake..I can think of at least 4 off of the top of my head..I avoided that intersection even before the addition of a left turn signal.
11 Heather // May 20, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Another reason for backups during the morning and mid-afternoon is the crossing guard and 20mph school zone at Daniel Bagley Elementary. If people would simply choose another east/west route around 9am and 3:30pm the backups would be less significant. We are a family with a Bagley student who crosses Aurora at 80th daily on foot. The crosswalk at 80th and Aurora does feel safer now for pedestrians with the left turn signal installed. Anyone who is complaining about negotiating that intersection in a car should definitely try walking that area of Aurora. It can be terrifying with people in cars trying to beat the light to turn left onto Aurora from either direction. Imagine trying to get across the crosswalk on Aurora with a young child and a stroller. Cars often honk at pedestrians who have the right of way to get out of the way.
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