Peace Sign Is A Local Kirkland Tradition

Hey Johnston: Watershed Park in the southern part of Kirkland is a big park with nice walking trails. At the back of the park is a big hole, like a fishbowl that is empty. I walked by it and saw what looked like a giant peace symbol. What is it?

Answer: No, your eyes aren't fooling you. It's a giant peace symbol.

Kirkland didn't authorize this giant peace symbol. It's something done by Kirkland residents, maybe peace-loving hippies from the 1960s.

Mark Johnston, who runs the city's park maintenance division, said locals have been scraping the peace symbol in the moss at the bottom of an old concrete water reservoir for at least the past 20 years.

Each city needs to have traditions, and this happens to be one of Kirkland's.

Hey Johnston: I live in east Redmond, where my property is next to a public road. The speed limit on this "country looking" road is 25 mph, but cars whiz by the walking people, dogs and kids on bikes at speeds of 40 to 50 mph, despite the speed-limit signs and home-painted pleas to slow down. How feasible is it, assuming that my neighbors agree, to get a traffic bump put in? If possible, how do I get this going?

Answer: The first thing you want to do is call Dave Paul of King County traffic department at 206-296-6596. This is the guy to talk with about getting speed bumps, but he said it is a long process, and the county usually doesn't like to put in speed bumps.

The problem with speed bumps is that while the people who request them like them, other folks aren't too happy about them.

Not only do they rattle the brains of regular drivers as they drive over them, but fire-department vehicles and Medic One vans have to slow down to get over them. How would you like to be speeding to a hospital with a broken back and hit one of the bumps at full speed? Ouch!

Instead of speed bumps, the county will try other ways to control traffic in your neighborhood. First, King County police officers will monitor traffic and give out some speeding tickets (won't this make you popular with your neighbors?), and they will put out a giant radar readout board that tells people how fast they are going.

You will also get leaflets to hand out. If all that fails, you might get a speed bump. We wouldn't hold our breath, however.

Hey Johnston: What's the schedule for opening the Lakemont Boulevard extension to Interstate 90? Will there be stop signs, traffic lights or a traffic circle at the Lakemont-Southeast Newport Way intersection?

Answer: This project will be completed next spring, but it won't have a traffic circle, also known as a roundabout. King County traffic engineers are still seeing how the traffic roundabout at West Lake Sammamish Parkway Southeast and Interstate 90 is working.

A roundabout forces traffic to slow down and stay in certain lanes as it goes around the intersection. The one near Issaquah is the only one operating in the state.

How to Just Ask Johnston: This column appears Mondays and Wednesdays in the Eastside edition. Leave your questions on Steve Johnston's voice mail at 206-464-8475. Or write: Just Ask Johnston, c/o The Seattle Times, 10777 Main St., Suite 100, Bellevue, WA 98004. The e-mail address is east@seatimes.com