Signals of Change

Big changes are underway here on this Island: in the Central Business District. The signals are going in on SE 27^th Street, on either side of .

I, for one, think it’s brilliant, and high time.

I’d hazard a guess, however, that the new stop lights, like most changes on Mercer Island, are likely controversial, in the same anti-development vein as the anti-apartment building ethos. For a city that only has a handful of stop lights — most at freeway on-ramps —dropping two more into town center will certainly be a big change. Maybe people fear that the sleepy, small-town quality that Islanders treasure is slowly but surely eroding. And they might have a valid point.

The problem is: people — and the cars that come with them — are probably here for good. As someone who lives right around the corner from the imminent lights, I travel through these two problematic intersections several times a day. It’s irritating whether on foot or by car. When driving, the problem seems to be that we had to know for the DMV test a hundred years ago. (If I’m not mistaken, the driver on the right goes first.) So assuming drivers actually do stop at the , (which is not a sure thing) everyone sits there in a state of anxious confusion, either no one going or everyone trying to cross at the same time.

And tempers seem to flare almost instantly. The other day I saw one driver pause to wave another driver ahead. The car behind the courteous driver was immediately ticked, and hit his horn. I couldn’t believe the look of irritation on his face when the delay truly could not have been more than 3 or 4 seconds. 

But for people on foot, these intersections are somewhat treacherous. In general, the drivers are already so annoyed by the confusion that they generally don’t feel like waiting for a pedestrian to cross in front of them. So they just drive ahead. One 5^th grader who walks by himself to the bus each morning told me the other day that he’d waited on the corner for five minutes before anyone paused to let him cross. Okay, it was probably only two minutes, but clearly we need those neon orange flags over here something awful.

Even when you do muster up the courage to step out into the crosswalk, a car will certainly zip by either right in front of you, or right behind you. It’s a little unsettling. Not to mention illegal. According to Washington state law, drivers can’t cross through a crosswalk when a pedestrian is within one lane’s-width of the car. Just yesterday, a car barely slowed at the stop before plowing through while I was in the crosswalk, despite the fact that there was a police car right behind her. The fact that she was pulled over a few feet later was a small – but sweet -- victory.

(Amusingly, one of the construction workers on the project told me: “Condo people are so happy about the stoplights.” I didn’t know we were “a people,” like, say, Bosnian Serbs. But I guess she’s right about the general sentiments of downtown residents.)

I’m hopeful that the traffic signals will make this little moment of suburban navigation easier for Condo People and Non-Condo People alike. Sure, you might have to wait a half a minute for the light to change, but at least it’ll be clear to all whose turn it is to go. 

No DMV refresher course required.