What We've Heard
- The street design is too automobile-centric
- A desire to reduce the number of travel lanes to make the street safer and more welcoming
- A need for more frequent and safer pedestrian crossings
- Well managed on-street parking is important.
- A strong desire by neighbors for safer, more welcoming street environment for them to visit.
Repaving is an opportunity to reprogram the roadway in support of many of these community-identified issues.
Traffic Analysis
AM Traffic Flows
Today, NE Broadway is only using 50-60% of the total automobile capacity during peak travel hours (morning rush hour), and is extremely overbuilt during all other times of day. This excess space dedicated to automobile movement translates to fast vehicle speeds, major difficulties safely crossing the street, and a lack of space for bike and pedestrian improvements.
In the busiest section of Broadway, at the busiest time of day, there is still enough capacity with two travel lanes.
We found that if we were to eliminate the additional west-bound travel lane that is introduced at NE 24th Ave, the street would largely function well today and in the future, resulting in minimal localized diversion and only a 16 second average delay while traveling down the corridor during the peak AM period. This would allow between 14ft - 18ft of roadway space to be reallocated along the corridor.
Today's Layout
Broadway today is 52’ to 56’ feet wide between curbs. It has three general purpose travel lanes, a narrow striped bike lane, and on-street parking on both sides of the street. Between 17th and 24th Ave, it is as wide as 82nd Avenue.
This type of street design translates to:
- Too much space and capacity for vehicles to speed through the corridor.
- A loud, unpleasant streetscape environment that doesn’t support sidewalk activity.
- A poor-quality and underutilized bike lane.
- Real difficulty for pedestrians to safely cross the street at unsignalized intersections.
- Too many and too severe traffic crashes.
Speeds and Signals
Vehicle speeds on NE Broadway are too fast. This is partly a function of the auto-mobile centric design the street has today, but also a function of outdated and uncoordinated traffic signals that allow drivers to speed without any impediments. By retiming the corridor for an operating speed more compatible with a commercial main street, we can make the street operate slower with a more steady progression.
Crossing Gaps
Pedestrians struggle to safely cross the street at the large gaps between signalized intersections. Additional pedestrian refuges and marked crosswalks will help improve pedestrian safety and make it easier for people walking to access business and destinations on either side of the main street. Specifically, we’re looking at creative strategies to add new crossings with median islands at the unsignalized intersections between NE 16th Ave and NE 24th Ave where crossing the street is exceptionally difficult.
Safety Summary
Between 2013 and 2023, there were a total of 251 crashes on NE Broadway with 70% of crashes happening between NE 7th Avenue and NE 16th Avenue and 30% between NE 16th Avenue and NE 24th Avenue. There were 27 crashes involving pedestrians, with seven (7) including wheelchairs, skateboards, scooters, and other multi-modal devices. All of the pedestrian crashes occurred at intersections with nearly half occurring at NE 14th Avenue, NE 15th Avenue, and NE 21st Avenue. 21 of the 27 pedestrians were in a marked crosswalk during the crash. There were eight (8) serious injury crashes including three (3) pedestrians, two (2) motorcycles, and three (3) vehicle crashes. There were zero (0) fatal deaths during this time period.
What we've heard so far:
- Vehicle speeds are too fast
- Safety concerns, especially for people walking and biking
- A need for more frequent and safer pedestrian crossings
Some Ideas We Are Exploring to Improve Safety:
Enhanced Pedestrian Crossings
Lower speed limits and adjusted signal timings
Improved Bike Lane Design