Inside Seattle's pedestrian crime wave

Walk
Originally uploaded by poopoorama.

The pro bloggers at the Seattle PI (are they still in that old newspaper biz?) report this morning on various Sim City scenarios that emerge from the light rail construction effort and the closing of the underground bus tunnel. Among the revelations:

• To make room for the previously subterranean buses, 3rd Ave will be transit only between 6-9a and 3-7p
• 3rd and other key transit streets will extend parking restrictions an extra hour to 7p
• Parking has been removed from a few other stretches of downtown streets
• The official fun starts on Sept. 24 but many changes are already in place to help us 'practice'

But our favorite little tidbit is this meter maid's wet dream fantasy spun by Seattle DOT flack and parking police porn purveyor, Jon Layzer.

--snip--
For the week before the closure and the three weeks after, there will be nine additional traffic control officers patrolling downtown streets. For the next two years, that will drop to four added officers.

"More than ever, it's going to be important that when the lights start flashing red, people don't leave the curb," said Layzer. That's because if pedestrians continue crossing during the flashing "do not walk" phase, motorists will not be able to turn right, and that will hold up the buses behind them.
--un-snip--

Dude, we don't know where you come from but when the hand starts flashing it only means we don't actually start a cell phone conversation until we reach the other curb. He also fails to note our ability to stop multiple lanes of traffic with a simple, friendly wave and smile or, better yet, total and complete indifference to being struck by an automobile.

-- J

Tags: uptown, seattle, lightrail, pedestrian, crime, metermaid, wetdream