Neighbors raise safety concerns after seeing increase in 228th Street traffic through MLT

Annemarie Klinke stands along the south side of 226th Place Southwest, which turns into 228th Street Southwest as it winds up the hill toward 66th Avenue West in Mountlake Terrace. (Photos by Teresa Wippel)

Mountlake Terrace residents living in the neighborhood along 228th Street Southwest/226th Place Southwest say they are tired of the increasing traffic volumes, speeding vehicles and noise along their street, and they are asking the city for relief.

Annemarie Klinke, who has lived in the neighborhood for 50 years, presented the neighbors’ concerns to the Mountlake Terrace City Council during a recent meeting, reading a letter that was signed by 18 residents.

The several-block stretch of roadway, which has a 14 percent grade and a sharp s-curve at the top, is used as an alternative route — instead of continuing up Lakeview Drive — for drivers seeking a connection from 228th Street Southwest in Edmonds to Mountlake Terrace. Neighbors say that they have seen traffic volumes along the street increase since the City of Edmonds completed its 228th Street Street corridor improvements, which included building a missing link of roadway connecting Mountlake Terrace to Edmonds across Highway 99.

Drivers looking for an alternate route between Edmonds and Mountlake Terrace will use 73rd Place Southwest to access 226th Place Southwest/228th Street Southwest.

As a result of the project, “the City of Edmonds has channeled more traffic through this residential neighborhood,” the letter said.

The result is an increasing number of speeding cars with drivers who impatiently tailgate, making it difficult for residents to enter or exit their driveways, Klinke said in an April 10 interview along the roadway.

Few drivers obey the posted 25 mph speed limit and there were three vehicle crashes on the roadway between 68th and 70th Avenues West in a six-month period in 2016, she added.

Klinke said the traffic starts to increase around 5 a.m. each weekday as commuters begin heading to I-5 or the nearby Mountlake Terrace Transit Center. There is also more noise from passing vehicles, which could be minimized if the roadway could be resurfaced, she added.

“In the summertime, if you stand outside, you can barely have a conversation,” she said.

Safety is a growing concern, as there is no pedestrian crossing near the school bus pick-up/drop-off spot for school children at 226th Place Southwest and 70th Avenue West. The one crosswalk that does exist, used frequently by bicyclists and walkers on the Interurban Trail crossing, should have a flashing light to alert vehicle traffic, she said.

Klinke also suggested that the city could install speed humps along the roadway to slow traffic down.

Klinke said that neighbors have complained individually before, but did not hear back from the city, so decided to band together with the jointly-signed letter, which she read to the council April 3.

Mountlake Terrace City Manager Scott Hugill said Tuesday morning that the city is working to address the neighbors’ concerns. The first step — done Friday, April 7 — was to install strips on the roadway to count traffic and measure the speeds, he said.

“Once we have traffic count and speed data, we will take a look at additional steps,” Hugill said. In addition, Mountlake Terrace police have been patrolling the neighborhood in response to neighbors’ complaints about speeding, he said.

As for installing speed humps, Hugill said that cities don’t usually use those for arterials, instead saving them for lower-speed roadways. There are two other drawbacks as well, he said: Drivers tend to accelerate between the humps to make up for the perceived loss of time from slowing down, and there is an increase in noise from braking and accelerating through them.

— By Teresa Wippel

  1. I’m very sympathetic and hope some constructive steps can be taken. Sadly, Olympic View Drive is much the same: greatly increased traffic and more an more speeding; it can be very dangerous to come out of your driveway – with all the curves and hidden driveways, it’s an accident waiting to happen.

  2. Couldn’t agree with you more about Olympic View Drive. We’ve been driving it for years as an alternative route to school. We obey the 25 mph speed limit, maybe occasionally going 27 or 28 mph, don’t tailgate and are respectful to the people who live on that road. While it’s 25 mph it’s a steady 25 and much easier to get to school that way. Over theast couple years the traffic on that road has really increased but not in a good way, people speeding at high rates of speed we see 45-50 quite a bit on that twisty turny road, very aggressive tailgating and road rage if you dare go the speed limit. It’s scary. All the 25 mph signage on the road and​the side of the road as well as the strips they put in to apparently slow you down don’t work at all. And while I’ve seen officers a few times at the Southwest county Park using radar even when people are well above the speed limit never seen anyone actually pulled over. Waiting for a serious accident with the speeders passing on blind corners. If you don’t want to go the posted speed limit because it’s too slow on 228th or Olympic View Drive find a road that has a speed limit that suits you there are plenty

  3. I have lived on the corner of 228th and 90th for the past 6 years and with new generation of children in our area, it has now become a major concern with the speed of vehicles along 228th… the hills along 228th pose problems for the children being dropped off by the school busses and with the speed of the vehicles the kids are nearly hit by these speeding cars. This road is used for short cuts from the daily ferry traffic, and now short cuts through MLT due to the newly completed extension across Hwy99… I understand the budget situation that most areas are facing, but when I keep hearing how our taxes are going towards road improvement and repairs makes me think who is running the planning and commissioning of these roads in our regions.

  4. The traffic issue into Mountlake Terrace from 228th will certainly worsen as folks take that route to get to the new light rail station. Although I’m not a fan of traffic cameras generally, this may be an instance when they might be considered. It will likely be much the same set of drivers taking that route to get to the transit station. If they start receiving tickets for exceeding the posted limit, it would seem the presence of cameras would prove an effective deterrent.

  5. I live in brier. My house is next to 228th. It’s a non stop barrage of traffic. It’s getting to be too much. Starts at 5am and continues all day. My wife said it wasn’t always like this. But whatever your experiencing its much worse over here.

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