SNOHOMISH — A pedestrian awareness campaign for drivers to be more careful is being prepared for early next year by the city’s volunteer Public Safety Board.
To some, safer streets for pedestrians is overdue.
For Snohomish to bill itself a ‘walkable’ city, it’s “laughable,” former City Councilwoman Donna Ray said at last week’s board meeting.
Ray now walks in town frequently, crossing eight intersections along her typical route, but has had to use dark, lightless crosswalks on her path and encountered irritated drivers “challenging” her because being in the crosswalk is delaying their travel.
Pedestrian safety complaints from others have been brought up infrequently to the City Council as well.
The city has safety measures coming.
Over the next two years, five intersections will be getting high-visibility flashing beacons that alert drivers a pedestrian is using the crosswalk. A beacon like this is already on Avenue D near Snohomish High.
The city won a state grant last year toward adding one of these beacons at 13th Street and Park Avenue.
The beacon at 13th and Park “is under design and anticipated to be constructed in 2025,” city spokeswoman Shari Ireton said.
In November, the city won another grant to add flashing beacons at four other intersections: Second Street and Avenue C, Fourth and Avenue D, Pine Avenue and 6th Street, and Avenue A where it meets the Interurban Trail. These four will likely be coming in 2025 and 2026, Ireton said.
Also at these intersections, where it can, the city will add bulb-outs that widen the curb to increase pedestrian visibility.
The grant money is from the state Transportation Improvement Board (TIB).
This year, Snohomish also sought, but didn’t win, a TIB grant to install a flashing crosswalk beacon on Maple Avenue at Ford Avenue to help connect the Interurban Trail to the Centennial Trail.
Crosswalk campaign
The Public Safety Board plans to conduct a crosswalk emphasis campaign in early February. The board is still formulating ideas on how it will shape up.
The campaign’s focus intersections might be Maple and Pine avenues, Sixth and Avenue D near Snohomish High, Fourth and Avenue D, 22nd Street and Park Avenue, Pine Avenue between 10th and 13th streets and the area near Emerson Elementary.
Ray said where Maple intersects Pine, which also has the Centennial Trail crossing, is particularly thorny for crossers. The four-way intersection is slanted, which creates a lengthier crossing distance.
Dr. Ival Salyer called on the board to also consider the obstructed corner where Terrace Avenue meets 16th Street and Holly Vista Drive. He reported dangerous encounters there as a driver due to walkers in the road. There’s no sidewalk there.
Rules of the road
Ray offered the solution Snohomish should make it a universal rule of no right turns on a red light to avoid near-misses. Second Street at Lincoln Avenue on the side where the Centennial Trail crosses is one of the few with that rule.
Pedestrians have the right of way at intersections according to Washington state law, and cars must stop when the pedestrian is in the vehicle’s half of the crosswalk.
Board member Bill Webster said the city could do a “pedestrian ‘dos and don’ts’ ” course together with the campaign.
Snohomish’s Public Safety Board encourages anyone who’s had a pedestrian safety situation to text the city with a report by cell phone. Snohomish’s TextMyGov number is 360-282-0094.
The city board meets on the second Tuesday of every month at 5 p.m. in the Snohomish Carnegie Building.
Tougher penalties coming
Revised state laws starting Jan. 1 will carry larger penalties on car drivers deemed to be driving negligently who mortally injure or substantially harm a wide range of road users, from pedestrians to motorcyclists to horse riders. Penalties if convicted of the gross misdemeanor of a death are up to 364 days in jail, as well as a fine of between $1,000 to $5,000, as well as the suspension of driving privileges for 90 days. Penalties if convicted for substantially injuring someone are the same, but can be switched out for options such as 100 hours of community service or petitioning to take traffic school.
The state Legislature approved these strengthened penalties in 2023.
Separately, a proposal to legalize jaywalking across any road signed at under 35 miles an hour faltered in the Legislature last year.
