Celebration seeks to keep people safe around Light Rail
By MONA LEE and ERIK HANSEN
The first chance ever for the public to board and explore a Link Light Rail train will be Othello Station on Sept. 27, 11 a.m-4 p.m. That's when there will be a car-free day, called Safety Street Fair, on Martin Luther King Jr. Way South between South Othello and South Willow Streets.
A large stage featuring local performers will be situated at the Myrtle and MLK intersection. Attendees will be able to peruse the public art and architecture of the station and cross the street to King Plaza, whose array of multicultural businesses promises to create the atmosphere of an Asian market. Tents will be configured around the area so light rail safety educators, community groups, and businesses can display their marketing materials.
"This will be an opportunity to bring the whole community together in a way that is fun and will build a long term safety dialogue before the train starts running," said Dave Essig of the Rainier Valley Community Development Fund, which is helping to get local businesses involved in the event.
Discussion of dangers
Potential hazards of light rail have come up repeatedly in recent Rainier Valley community group discussions.
"A dangerous future awaits pedestrians, motorists, and cyclists," said South End businessman Ray Akers, who claimed to be an early supporter of light rail.
Having always insisted on the need for an elevated and/or tunnel alignment, Akers blames the danger on "poor design." He compares the MLK light rail line to the Blue Line in Los Angeles and cites data attributing 87 deaths and 792 accidents to the Blue Line.
"Our alignment is even tighter and narrower than the one in LA," Akers said.
He believes the tracks will appear as a safety island to pedestrians and tempt people to dart across the street. Akers says that Sound Transit's Link Light Rail will, like the LA train, "Travel through a high population area that leads to more pedestrian and vehicular traffic around the tracks, diverse and varied socio-economic community that create literacy and language challenges to public information campaigns, [and] driver frustration due to slow traffic speeds."
Keith Hall of Sound Transit's community outreach team said the MLK Safety Street Fair is part of a large, multi-faceted safety education program. He agrees that safety education is crucial because, ultimately, people are responsible for their own behavior. However, he does not think there is any valid comparison between the LA Blue Line and Sound Transit's Link Light Rail alignment along Martin Luther King Jr. Way South.
In fact, Hall believes Martin Luther King Jr. Way South will be a safer street because of the changes Sound Transit has made. In the past he noted that most accidents on MLK were related to left turn lanes, which now have been eliminated. Hall also noted there are traffic signals. He added that the route is straight and the trains will travel at 35 miles per hour, granting conductors high visibility and time to stop.
Hall said accidents on the LA Blue Line have mostly occurred in an area where trains travel at 50 miles per hour. There are no cars on that stretch of the Blue Line, said Hall, who added that it was once a freight line where people were in the habit of darting across the tracks and around safety gates.
Hall believes vehicles traveling on either side of the tracks on Martin Luther King Jr. Way South will help deter pedestrians from trying to cross. He also believes that the frequency of the trains - moving through the area every six minutes - will serve as an additional barrier to hopping the tracks. With the trains coming so often, said Hall, pedestrians will get the picture that it is unsafe to try and cross.
To help monitor the situation, there will be cameras on the trains, and police will monitor the tracks and issue tickets. Akers, however, insisted that it is natural for people to want to cross midway between the street's traffic signals, which are significantly far apart.
"I don't know how you can educate against human nature," Akers said.
Some community members have asked why the at-grade alignment was designed without barriers along the tracks to deter pedestrians and vehicles from trying to cross. Hall said the main reason was that vocal opponents to light rail had complained that barriers would visually mar and divide the community. The tracks and stations have therefore been designed as a visual community enhancer free of barriers and with attractive streetscapes, trees and public art, Hall noted. In any case, Hall believes the other safety features will compensate for the lack of barriers.
To the contrary, Akers maintains that he has seen Sound Transit's insurance agreement, which he says describes ugly concrete barriers topped with chain link fencing that will be added if the accident rate is high.
Sound Transit spokesman Bruce Gray refutes this claim stating that Sound Transit's primary liability insurance carrier in the Valley, American International Specialty Lines, has "no such thing."
"What [Akers] is claiming could have been in the thousands of pages of public comments we recorded in those volumes," Gray said. "So, maybe someone submitted a comment saying we would have to do that, but it's safe to say that has never been part of Sound Transit's plan."
Educating the masses
As for the upcoming safety fair, Gray notes that it is part of a lengthy outreach effort to inform the community of the benefits and dangers of the trains. Gray added that Sound Transit mailed out a pamphlet in early August entitled "Driving Safe around Light Rail" to all registered drivers in the Valley and the surrounding areas, which came to just over 64,000 people.
"This isn't a one shot deal when were talking about safety in the Valley," Gray said. "This is just one part of it. We'll be inundating in the Valley [with train safety information]."
Enter Carol Doering, the Link Light Rail community outreach specialist assigned the task of educating the public about the dangers. She said Sound Transit's education plan will have several phases, the first of which began last spring when her staff handed out brochures and safety materials to over 12,000 students in the Highline, Renton, and Seattle school districts. They also began visiting PTA's, parents clubs, and other community groups.
During the summer, the Link Light Rail community outreach team set up booths and information tables at numerous community fairs. At these events, safety educators encouraged dialogue and questions-and-answer sessions to get people involved. In forthcoming phases Doering said color activity books will be handed out to school children. She also noted that in high school media classes Sound Transit will work with students to create their own light rail safety videos.
During the fair, the train's safety features will be highlighted, noted Gray.
At the MLK Street Fair, Doering said each participant will be given a passport book to visit several safety tents where they will receive a stamp and be awarded prizes at the end for their participation.
Doering noted that the official Sound Transit Link Light Rail safety message is intentionally short and simple so that everyone will listen and/or read to it to the end, making it more likely for people to remember it. Printed on card stock with attractive graphics, it reads: "The trains are fast and can't stop quickly; never try to outrun a train; trains are quiet - you may not hear them. Always look both ways; tracks are for trains; never walk or play around trains or tracks; trains can't swerve to get out of your way; and obey all signals and cross only at crosswalks.
The Street Fair will be a good place for South End residents to come, get their questions answered, meet their neighbors, and have a good time, said Doering.
Sound Transit's MLK Safety Street Fair will take place on Saturday, Sept. 27 from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Way S. and S. Othello St. Revenue for Sound Transit's Link Light Rail begins July 3, 2009.
Mona Lee and Erik Hansen may be reached via editor@sdistrictjournal.com or by calling 461-1311.
