North end back road gets too popular for locals
Sep 12, 2016, 5:39 PM | Updated: Sep 13, 2016, 8:46 am
Locust Way as it exists now. (Chris Sullivan, KIRO Radio)
(Chris Sullivan, KIRO Radio)
With the explosion of new traffic apps and social media to help you get around traffic problems, a lot of neighborhood streets are taking on a ton of extra traffic they were never designed to handle. Neighbors are complaining about speeds, safety, and other concerns.
Dennis Hill lives on one of those quiet streets, Locust Way, nestled between Brier and Bothell. A popular backstreet for locals, but not anymore.
“It’s always been kind of a sneaky way to get from Edmonds or Lynnwood over to Canyon Park or the Woodinville area,” Hills said. “But yeah, something’s happened, I believe, in addition to the growth.”
The speed limit is 35 miles an hour, and that even seems too high, considering all the driveways. Snohomish County says they haven’t seen a big increase in volume during their traffic counts, but Hill and his neighbor, Jim Deller, say it’s more than noticeable.
“I’ve been passed on this road, just making a simple right-hand turn,” Deller said. “I’ve been passed on the road up where the blind spot is. That’s how crazy people are driving.”
Speeds on this stretch have been clocked at over 70 miles an hour, but the sheriff’s office does little enforcement.
“Or just the land that time forgot,” Hills said. “Brier can’t come down here because they don’t own the road. Snohomish County — it’s a very little island. Bothell — it’s not their turf.”
The sheriff’s office doesn’t do a lot of enforcement because it’s at the extreme southeast corner of the unincorporated section of the county. Residents want, if the county has a responsibility, to add roads or make them safer when allowing so much development around them.
While the homes aren’t being built in Brier, they are being built in Bothell and Lynnwood and those residents are turning neighborhood streets into major commuting routes.
There has been a long-term plan on the board that might fix this situation. When new homes were added years ago, there was a plan to punch a nearby street through a greenbelt, making a good north-sound alternative to Locust Way.
“I’d love to see a finished, pushed 14th through to Locust Way,” Hill said. “I just think that would kind of have the load on this road and move half of it, at least, to every road that meets current standards.”
That road currently has a wide shoulder and a left turn lane in the middle and is better prepared to handle the traffic. The county says it has $800,000 put aside to design that thoroughfare, but it doesn’t have the money to construct it.
So Hill and Deller are going to have to deal with high speeds and heavy traffic for a while. Maybe they’ll get some enforcement in the meantime.
“The enforcement part of it — that would be great,” Deller said. “We think the county could make a lot of money every week.”
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