SDOT Bridge Safety Analysis includes #FixGolfDrive

A few months ago SDOT released what they called the "Bridge Safety Analysis" which was a review of the safety on or near bridges in Seattle, one of the bridges selected for evaluation was the Jose Rizal Bridge and the intersections on each side of it. You can read the full document by clicking here; below I'm going to discuss just the suggested improvements to Golf Dr S & S Charles St.

The section discusses the crash data (my note: crash data is only collected when Seattle Police or Seattle Fire come, so it's likely missing many more minor incidents) as it opens and seems to have similar findings to what we had when first checking out this spot: people are getting hurt here.

Of note here it doesn't go into "car" crashes, but if you review it online you can see that there are quite a few of those as well and it really highlights that there are issues for everyone who traverses this area. In our talks with neighbors the safety around turning came up quite a bit and changes are going to be needed to improve those conditions.

After some more analysis-ing they reveal a new design for the intersection. The problem with this though ends up being that it's really not addressing quite a few of the issues.

They do add a few markers, some new signs, etc. but it's not a full redesign and does nothing to address the concerns around the slip lane or turning difficulties.

So what now?

The fact SDOT is looking at this intersection is a good thing, but, and it's a big but! We'll need to keep working to ensure that we're able to really get a good redesign done and address all the concerns people have put forward so far!