WSDOT ingenuity could solve bicylists’ complaints on 520 Bridge
Dec 18, 2018, 6:35 AM | Updated: 12:23 pm
(Photo: Matt Pittman, MyNorthwest)
(Photo: Matt Pittman, MyNorthwest)
It’s easy to criticize the Washington State Department of Transportation, considering the way traffic is around the region, but it rarely gets enough credit when it does things to address complaints.
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I reported earlier this year about how the state used feedback from bus riders to squeeze out a little more room on the 520 westbound exit to Montlake, which allows for a little more room for buses to maneuver through that Seattle intersection.
The state is back with another potential fix for people who use the new bike and pedestrian path across the 520 Bridge. The path opened a year ago this Thursday, and the 800-1,000 bike-riders that use the bridge every day immediately let the state know about their experiences.
“Many of the bikers are saying ‘hey we love the 14-foot-wide path, but you can probably do better when it comes to your expansion joint plates,'” WSDOT’s Steve Peer said.
Riders were reporting being bounced around when riding over the expansion joints.
“People thought it could be smoother,” Peer said.
The expansion joints and their covers were designed to handle bikes, wheelchairs and the special equipment used to fix the bridge. The smoothness of the ride wasn’t part of the discussion.
“The old plates were a half-inch tall, and the new plates are a quarter-inch tall,” Peer said.
A WSDOT engineer just came up with the fix by drawing it on a piece of paper because there aren’t a lot of a specs out there for expansion joints on floating bridges.
The state installed the prototype plate on one of the 27 expansion joints last week, and put a sign up asking for additional feedback.
So far, most bike riders seem to like it. If it stays that way, Peer says they’ll put them on all of the joints. He also said the state wants to be responsive to user complaints or feedback, and this is another example of them checking out the complaints and doing something about them.
Bike riders are asked to text 206-200-9484 with their feedback. Text “A” for a thumbs-up, and text “B” for a thumbs down.
