These notes were taken by Dawn Hemminger and do not completely or  accurately convey exactly what was discussed during the walking audit along 14th Ave NW on November 30, 2011. These are Dawn’s impressions that the EBCA would like to capture for future reference. Official notes from Fehr & Peers should be following shortly.

See blog post for a summary of the event. The following are some specific topics that were discussed:

• Parking – If the right of way merges into 2 lanes side-by-side between NW 60th and 61st with the space used for the median moved to the east side for use in the Park, then what would happen to parking spaces? Is there sufficient side street parking potential? What type of on-street parking is most efficient for this section (angled or parallel)? Parking studies are definitely planned for this project.
• Trees – Go big if we can, but we first need to determine what we want to achieve in this corridor so that we can thoughtfully select trees and landscaping.
• Intersection treatments – The intersection at NW 60th feels to be the heart of the park (right in the middle of it). This is also a busy corridor for cross traffic between 8th and 15th. Note that NW 62nd may get a light at 15th one day as a push to connect East Ballard with Ballard Corners Park at 17th and 62nd. This is something to take into consideration as well. Since 14th is a collector arterial, there is concern that many considered intersection treatments, like an elevated crosswalk, different street material or piazza-style crossing (diagonal pedestrian crossing) may not be allowed. It sounds like SDOT may be amenable to these types of treatment for this situation. To slow down vehicle speed on NW 60th, there were discussions about potentially closing off NW 60th on the east side of 14th at the intersection.
• Bike traffic – 14th is on the city’s bicycle master plan for designated bike lanes in each direction. Could we have a dedicated lane on the east side going up hill and a sharrow on the west side going down hill? Today, the gravel from the medians, poor road conditions, and dangerous intersections are an impediment to recreational and commuter bicyclists.
• Existing planters – We would like to incorporate the existing planters that are in the median into the park design. Another possible alternative could be to move the planters to the medians south of Market to get neighbors in that area interested in caring for the street and to start work on extending the park boulevard further south.