Back in December, we were excited to spot three shiny new crosswalks near 38th Ave NE & NE 85th Street. But earlier this week, two of the three crosswalks disappeared.
The intersection of 38th Ave NE & NE 85th Street in December 2016.
Neighbors report that a crew from the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) scraped two crosswalks off of NE 85th Street on Monday, May 15. A couple of folks have asked the WCC why they would do that, and we took that question to SDOT on Tuesday.
The intersection of 38th Ave NE & NE 85th Street in May 2017.
A customer service representative at SDOT told us that they reevaluated the location, and decided that two crosswalks sufficed. But they were unable to tell us why only one crosswalk remains at the intersection.
Mysterious indeed.
UPDATE: On Wednesday, May 17, SDOT sent us the following Twitter reply about the crosswalks: “We worked with community/neighbors request for reducing signing/paint. Determined one crosswalk provided safety+wayfinding goals.”
Wonder what it costs to erase a crosswalk?
I’m guessing it costs as much to destruct it as to construct it maybe even involve more time.
“We worked with community/neighbors request for reducing signing/paint.” Why would anyone want to remove a crosswalk?
It looks like there is no sidewalk on one side of the crosswalk. They probably removed the stripes because that would be cheaper than building a new sidewalk with an ADA curb ramp, and no one wants to be accused of building “Stripes to Nowhere”.