Objective Labor Day Study of Bicycle and Auto Traffic on Yesler

Following on the heels of yesterday's post, where my investigation of Mayor Nickels "Bicycle Master Plan" uncovered that it is relying on bicycle advocacy groups to collect data on bike usage in the city of Seattle, I decided to conduct a little informal poll of my own on bike traffic.

At first, I was planning on simply counting the number of bicycles that passed in a 10-minute period. Then, after approximately 45 seconds of sample data, I witnessed such brazen displays of lawlessness that I decided to expand the parameters of my study.

Data to be collected:
1. How many bicyclists came to the intersection?
2. How many bicyclists made a valid and legal stop at the stop sign?
3. How many cars came to the intersection?
4. How many cars made a valid and legal stop at the stop sign?

I very quickly had to amend the data collected as it became clear that not a single car or cyclist was going to actually come to a full and complete stop before the stop sign. Without further ado, here is the outcome of the study:

The location: A four-way stop on Yesler.
Time: 2:43 - 2:50 PM, Labor Day, September 3rd

Number of cars passed: 15
Number of cars that made a full & complete stop: 1
Number of cars that sort of stopped legally: 8
Number of cars that blew the stop sign: 6

Number of cyclists passed: 4
Number of cyclists that made a full & complete stop: 1
Number of cyclists that sort of stopped legally: 2
Number of cyclists that blew the stop sign: 1
Number of mind-blowing spandex outfits w/ matching helmet: Sadly, just 1

This data was fairly shocking to me, especially the number of cars that made no attempt whatsoever to slowdown except for whatever deceleration was required to stop the tires from skidding prior to making a right turn.

Mind you... this intersection is directly in front of an elementary school -- and a bus stop -- and is on a hill.

If I was a police officer looking to make quota on traffic violations -- based on my small sample size of data -- this intersection is the motherlode.

My next action is to contact the local police precinct to ask them to crackdown on cars that don't stop... I'm not exactly a McGruff the Crime Dog sort of person... but this was over the top. I'm also going to consider collecting more data on a weekday morning before going to work to catch up on a more typical day.

To be continued...