SDOT Survey
READ THIS BEFORE YOU FILL OUT THE LWB VISION SURVEY!
Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is currently promoting a survey that is open through the end of November 2022, called the Lake Washington Boulevard Visioning Process Survey. We highly encourage you to complete this survey, and be advised that there is some slippery language in this survey that might lead you to inadvertently choose options that could limit driver access to Lake Washington Boulevard and/or close the boulevard to cars for long periods of time.
1. On question 6 you will be offered this option: "Provide dedicated space along the boulevard to separate people driving and people that ride bikes".
We caution against selecting this option!
Here is Tammy Morales' vision of how this might be carried out, taken directly from a September 26, 2022 post on her official Councilmember Facebook page:
Look at the concrete barrier running down the middle of Lake Washington Boulevard, and how all vehicular traffic is forced into one narrow southbound lane - residents, visitors, emergency workers, sanitation workers, mail carriers, delivery drivers, contractors etc. One mail truck takes up just over half of the existing southbound lane. This is not a workable plan.
2. On questions 6, 7 and 8, you will be offered this option: "Increase the number of days, weeks, or seasons the road is temporarily closed to cars ..."
We caution against selecting this option!
Note the words " ... or seasons." Choosing this option would allow the City to close the whole of LWB both ways to people who drive from the beginning of spring ( ~ March 20) to the end of summer (~ September 20), or possibly even longer if the weather remains good after the end of September.
Positive responses.
We encourage you to use the free-form sections on the survey to speak out about how important being able to drive on LWB is to you. All of us have legitimate reasons that only allow us to enjoy our public lakeshore by car. The City needs to hear these stories.