Safety First, No Link on Leary
In support of pedestrian & cyclist safety on Ballard’s Leary Avenue
We are a group of Ballard residents, neighbors, and business owners dedicated to promoting pedestrian and cyclist safety. We believe that the proposed Burke Gilman Trail Missing Link on Market Street and Leary Avenue is too dangerous.
We love the Burke Gilman Trail and want the Missing Link in Ballard to be completed on the City of Seattle’s preferred Shilshole Avenue route. This route has been blocked by a nearly 30-year legal battle with a few Shilshole Avenue businesses.
The City is now proposing to complete the Missing Link on Market Street and Leary Avenue. This is the wrong place for a multi-use trail. The Leary route is dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians, bad for the environment, and wrong for the neighborhood.
We ask the City of Seattle to immediately stop further planning and development of the Missing Link on Leary and explore other alternatives.
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SAFETY CONCERNS WITH THE MISSING LINK ON MARKET & LEARY
Routing Seattle's Burke-Gilman Trail’s Missing Link down Market Street and Leary Avenue poses serious safety issues that jeopardize pedestrians and cyclists.
Safety Concerns for Pedestrians
The proposed Missing Link on Market and Leary will force hundreds of pedestrians to navigate a busy bike lane where cyclists and scooters may travel at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour in both directions. This situation will create hazardous conditions as pedestrians, including those accessing their homes and businesses, will have to cross the bike lane frequently.
There is no divider between the Missing Link and the sidewalk. This makes the path more dangerous as pedestrians won’t know where to expect to meet bicyclists and scooters.
Pedestrians will have to cross the bike lanes at crosswalks and bus stops. Seattle’s own design standards discourage these “mixing zones” between bicycles and pedestrians, yet they’re on nearly every block of the new route.
Safety Concerns for the Disabled
The oversight of safety for vulnerable populations, particularly the nearly 200 elderly and disabled residents at Ballard Landmark Senior Living, is particularly alarming. Many of these residents rely on wheelchairs, walkers, or have visual impairments, making it extremely challenging for them to safely navigate the bike lane. Residents, visitors, and staff will face the daunting task of crossing the bike lane multiple times a day, risking dangerous encounters with bikes and scooters speeding up to 30 miles per hour in both directions. The potential for accidents is high, and the consequences could be severe.
Safety Concerns for Cyclists
Cyclists themselves will face significant hazards on Leary Avenue. They will have to navigate several busy intersections and over a dozen driveways and garage openings. The high volume of crossing traffic will force cyclists to constantly dodge turning cars to avoid collisions. This complex and congested environment is fraught with risks that could lead to serious accidents and lawsuits against the City.
On top of all of the other safety concerns, the City’s present design doesn’t even complete the Missing Link. It currently ends at 17th Avenue and Shilshole Avenue, a block west of the end of the Burke-Gilman Trail. Cyclists and other trail users would have to find their way across Shilshole on an uncontrolled crosswalk to reach the Burke-Gilman trail.
SDOT’s drawing below shows two crosswalks that pedestrians would use to cross the bike lane to the bus stop at Ballard Avenue and Market Street.
SDOT’s drawing below shows the new bike lane crossing a driveway to the pickup area in front of the Ballard Landmark. Bicyclists would cross the driveway twice, and cars will be able to pull into the bike lane if they’re stuck behind another car.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF THE MISSING LINK ON MARKET AND LEARY
The Missing Link on Leary raises significant environmental concerns that overshadow the proposed benefits of this route. Most important is the planned removal of 40 trees along Market and Leary to accommodate the new trail. Many of these trees are mature trees that provide shade for people and habitat for urban wildlife. Large urban trees play a crucial role in mitigating urban heat and improving air quality. While the trees would be replaced, SDOT only allows small trees to be planted in the very narrow planting strips.
The Missing Link on Leary is also wasteful of City resources. This section of Market Street and Leary Avenue is already being torn up for the Route 40 changes. All of that new pavement will need to be torn up again to put in the Missing Link. The route on Market and Leary also requires the City to bury power lines underground, which adds significantly to the expense and risk of cost overruns.
By contrast, the Missing Link on Shilshole Avenue route is an industrial area. It would require cutting a single tree and would not require tearing up any newly installed pavement. There are also no power lines in the way of the trail.
IMPACT ON BUSINESSES
The Missing Link on Market and Leary poses a serious threat to local businesses, disrupting both accessibility and operations. One of the primary concerns is the need for customers to cross a busy bike lane where cyclists and scooters will be traveling at high speeds. This is a significant safety hazard and will discourage customers from patronizing these businesses.
Businesses that rely on frequent deliveries will face particularly challenging circumstances. For example, Ballard Consignment, which handles large furniture items, will struggle with moving incoming and outgoing goods across the trail. The same issue applies to Carter Subaru, a high-traffic dealership where customers and delivery vehicles will need to cross the bike trail regularly. The parking on the east side will be eliminated, further limiting access for customers.
The Missing Link on Market and Leary would also significantly increase traffic by eliminating space for buses to pull out of the lanes of travel at stops. Market Street and Leary Avenue will be reduced to one lane in each direction, so buses will block the entire road in one direction. This will increase travel times, increase pollution and may increase emergency vehicle response times.
By contrast, the City of Seattle’s preferred route for the Missing Link on Shilshole Avenue will affect fewer businesses and will have less impact on traffic and parking. The businesses on Shilshole are primarily industrial businesses that do not depend on pedestrian access.
HISTORY OF THE MISSING LINK
Originally planned for Shilshole Avenue, the Missing Link was intended to offer a direct and safer connection for cyclists and pedestrians, seamlessly integrating into the city’s existing infrastructure. It would connect the end of the Burke-Gilman Trail in Ballard to the Ballard Locks and Golden Gardens Park. Shilshole Avenue’s location along the waterfront was determined to be the safest and most direct route for the trail. It was also the overwhelming favorite in public feedback to proposed designs.
For nearly 30 years, construction of the Missing Link on Shilshole has been stalled by legal battels between the City of Seattle and industrial businesses on or near Shilshole Avenue, led by Salmon Bay Sand & Gravel. The local businesses’ objections centered around impacts to their operations. Construction of the trail on Shilshole is presently stalled by two separate lawsuits, leading the City to consider the Market Street and Leary Avenue route as an alternative.
The Seattle Department of Transportation has released a 30% complete design for the Missing Link on Market and Leary, and is working to complete the design. Councilmember Dan Strauss pushed through funding for building the Missing Link on Market and Leary in the 2024 Transportation Levy.
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