Pedestrian Safety Implications on the Lack of Sidewalks Along Aurora Ave N in Seattle, Washington

Abstract

The urban pedestrian experience is heavily based on how people feel, especially whenwalking along a busy street. The lack of sidewalks in north Seattle along Aurora Ave North has been a hot topic the city has been trying to solve for a while now. According to the Seattle Times, “Aurora Avenue North has consistently been one of Seattle’s most dangerous roads for drivers and pedestrians.” (Baruchman 2021, n.p.) Research observations examined how the lack of sidewalks creates safety hazards for pedestrians and how that can influence poor decision-making by pedestrians. The research questions are what the safety implications pedestrians face are when there are no sidewalks along Aurora Ave North, and how does that determine where pedestrians will choose to walk. This research looked at the literature on what other cities have done to help solve the issue of no sidewalks in growing cities and what policies in Seattle at the time of construction led to development taking place but did not require sidewalks. Site observations were conducted in two different approaches, the first one being a walkthrough of observing site conditions and scoring each site using Gehl’s Twelve Quality Criteria. The criteria provide observers with a method to examine public spaces using three different categories--protection, comfort, and enjoyment--to give scores based on conditions that influence the pedestrian experience. Each of the three categories has subcategories that influence the overall score and based on the average of each a score was given from one (low) to three (high). Observations were done in four locations, 115th, 130th, 145th, and 155th all locations along Aurora Ave, with one location being a transitional zone between Seattle and the city of Shoreline, Washington. Scores were divided into two different observations for the same site. One of the locations was based entirely in Shoreline as a case study with a full network of sidewalks and other available pedestrian infrastructure. The second method of observation was done by observing the behavior of pedestrians when they came across areas of Aurora Ave that did not have sidewalks. All sites in the Seattle locations lacked sidewalks and pedestrians are faced with high levels of safety hazards. Overall research showed that Aurora Ave is a high-risk location for all types of pedestrians and improvements need to be made.With sidewalks costing an average of $400,000 per city block (SDOT), constructing new sidewalks will continue to be a challenge and should be a high priority for the city of Seattle to start improving its pedestrian infrastructure around the Aurora corridor in north Seattle. Recommendations are provided for improvements in street designs, including adding sidewalks on both sides of Aurora Ave and bike lanes to encourage safer cycling behaviors. Adding dedicated bus lanes and street trees would help create a more pedestrian-friendly environment.