With the voter-approved Walkways & Waterways projects finishing up this year, I’m sure you’ve noticed some new traffic safety features on 68^th Avenue and Juanita Drive, such as curb extensions at intersections, narrow lane widths, and special medians at bus stops. These new features are part of an intentional effort to slow down cars, get drivers to pay attention, increase safety and comfort for walkers and cyclists, and advance the City Council’s Target Zero goal of zero bicycle or pedestrian fatalities by 2025.

The tragic deaths of Caleb Shoop and Sarah Paulson back in 2014 are still painfully fresh in my, the City Council’s, and hopefully the community’s mind. Caleb and Sarah were young Inglemoor High graduates who died within a week of each other by being struck by cars in marked crosswalks. We are not letting the separation of time fade our memories, and we continue to be aggressive in making walking and biking both safer and more comfortable in Kenmore.

Studies have conclusively shown that the most effective way to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety is to significantly reduce vehicle speeds. When collisions occur, a cyclist’s or pedestrian’s survivability goes exponentially up as vehicle speeds go down. When vehicle speeds are slower drivers have more time to react and avoid a crash, and when crashes do occur at lower speeds they are much less severe, and much less likely to result in fatal injury. Also, the slower the speeds of vehicles, the more comfortable people feel walking and biking.

What I’m about to say may be hard to accept: There is a tradeoff between pedestrian/cyclist comfort and motorist comfort. The more uncomfortable drivers feel (in other words, the more safety features that are in the street to make drivers slow down, pay attention, and focus), the more comfortable pedestrians and cyclists feel. Think about how comfortable you may feel driving on a wide open highway with free flowing traffic and few intersections and driveways—you’re free to drive fast and even have a conversation with your passenger or think about what you’re having for dinner that night. Would someone walking or biking feel comfortable along the side of that road? Probably not. So, there’s the tradeoff.

On the other hand, when there’s complexity in the road, especially in a downtown or neighborhood in the thick of human habitat, we want all of you drivers to feel a little uncomfortable, slow down, and pay attention. I’m talking about what psychologist Daniel Kahneman describes as System 1 thinking verses System 2 thinking (Thinking, Fast and Slow, 2013. Also see Confessions of a Recovering Engineer by Charles L. Marohn, 2021, page 54).

System 1 is more automatic thinking and allows us to put routine activities on a sort of autopilot. Routine driving on a wide open road is an example of where our brains may use System 1—we don’t have to consciously think about every aspect of driving which allows us to think about other things such as the song on the radio.

But as soon as you come to a busy intersection or turn into a driveway with lots of people and activity, your brain switches to System 2, which takes your brain out of autopilot and requires you to focus your undivided attention on what’s in front of you. As you turn into that driveway, you are suddenly not able to continue your conversation with your passenger or think about the song on the radio—you are now in System 2.

When you are driving in Kenmore, we want you to be in System 2 thinking all of the time. When we are in the thick of human habitat (which is pretty much all of Kenmore), we need drivers to slow down and be in System 2.

The way to get drivers to be in System 2 thinking is to make them uncomfortable. How do we make drivers uncomfortable in a safe way? We introduce features such as narrow lane widths and curb extensions. These features create just enough driver discomfort to cause them to be in System 2. When drivers are in System 2, they are much more reactive and they drive slower. And that saves lives. And it makes people walking and biking feel more comfortable.

A few days ago I drove through the narrow channel created by the new center median and bus median on Juanita Drive for the first time, and it made me smile.  Why? Because it made me uncomfortable as a driver, which caused me to pay attention and slow down, which is exactly what that channel is designed to do.

(Note that the subgrade at the location is currently an inch or two below the base of the curb. When the final layer of asphalt is installed, there will be more room to navigate. From curb to curb, the channel width at that location is 10.5 feet wide, which is the width needed for larger vehicles such as fire trucks and metro buses.)

This particular location on Juanita Drive is a good example of what we are trying to accomplish.  It’s a place of increased complexity—you have a bus stop, crosswalk, and an intersection. Where there’s complexity involving humans with soft, fragile tissue who are not surrounded by 5,000 pounds of steel armor, we need to get cars to slow way down and get drivers to pay attention.  

I believe we’re in an uncomfortable transition period in Kenmore where we’re becoming more urban with more and more people walking and rolling. Some of us are not happy about this transition—we want to continue to drive uninterrupted, take corners at off-ramp speeds, and bristle and rage over 20 second delays. But more than ever, our streets, especially where there’s complexity and human habitat, must be built to human scale, not to highway scale.

In the recent State of the City presentation, I said that we need to be pioneers and start embracing some radical concepts:

• Cars don’t have to dominate the public space
• People can walk to places by choice
• People and quality of place can be prioritized over thru put of automobiles
• It’s OK for cars to go slow when they’re in the thick of human habitat, especially in our downtown core and in and around our local neighborhoods

We see a future in Kenmore where these concepts are no longer radical—a place where we feel free and comfortable to get out of our cars and use healthier, less polluting, and more equitable modes of getting around.  I haven’t gone into the other benefits of walking and biking safely and comfortably, such as reductions in carbon emissions and racial and social justice. These are right up there in importance as well.

We really appreciate everyone’s patience as we have endured the long construction periods on 68^th Avenue and Juanita Drive. It’s been a grind, but it will be worth it—especially when the final asphalt layers are in and all of the lanes and crosswalks are painted and marked. I live in the south end of Kenmore and have endured the construction as well. But I keep reminding myself of what it will look and feel like—including all the safety, health, beautification, environmental, and social equity benefits.

In the meantime, we’d love to hear from you. If you have ideas or questions, you can contact us at  constructionprojects@kenmorewa.gov

Rob Karlinsey
Kenmore City Manager