In the 80’s when I was in high school, people would commonly use Alaskan way to get home from sporting events or music show. This was before cruise ships and before the tourists found us, so the waterfront was typically deserted after 7pm or so. We used it as an arterial and drove pretty fast. At least that is my memory…. it was a long time ago. The congestion from the increased amount of people has slowed the traffic a bit over the years, but a lot of people still think of it as stroad that you can go 45 on when traffic is light. When the viaduct came down, it was again seen as a fast arterial for a lot of people.
I was at the Seattle Bike Advisory Board meeting near the end of 2019 when SDOT ( I think it was Sam Zimbabwe) announced that the new speed limit for Alaskan Way was going to be 20mph. Yes!!! A lot of people have been concerned about the width of the new road, the number of lanes, and feared that it was going to be an arterial instead of the waterfront park we had been hoping for. I still have those concerns, but 20mph made we feel a lot better about the cities intentions. Biking next to slow wide roads is going to be greatly preferred compared to biking on fast wide roads.
Unfortunately the speed limit change hasn’t happened yet and I am not sure why. The waterfront currently does not have a speed limit for cars. We haven’t had any speed limit signs in many years and I don’t really know what the speed limit is supposed to be. This is the only sign but it is Northbound and it is North of the cutoff for the new road up the hill.
So there is a ton of construction going on the few years and we are going to have at least a couple more years until the new waterfront bike lane is complete. It is crazy dangerous down there right now. The South end of the new Alaskan Way is open but then there is a big shift back to the old Alaskan.
The bike lanes are shifting all over the place and with construction going on, it is usually best to just take a lane. The problem with that is that I am slowing down cars that want to go 35 mph or faster. There are places to use sidewalks but they are inconsistent and you end up in construction areas or places filled with pedestrians.
So, if the city knew in 2019 that they were going to go to 20mph, why didn’t they put up any signs? It is really dangerous right now with all the construction and it is just going to get worse when the cruise ships come back last month. If bikes are sent to “take a lane”, it would be much safer if cars had to slow down. The construction folks would also probably like it to slow down. Why aren’t there any construction signs like that have on freeway construction sites like “My Dad works here, please slow down” or “traffic fines double in construction zones”? I know that signs don’t always work but it is really frustrating when I am on my bike and get tailgated by a car that doesn’t like me going 18mph. The idea of just not putting up any signs and hoping for the best… doesn’t seem to be working. Maybe this is also why our Vision Zero numbers are not going to zero. The city has to do the easy stuff and a good first step is just put up some signs. At the time to do it is now… during construction when it is at its most dangerous.