Tricky Queen Anne intersection and "Safeway Shuffle"
The signal for westbound motorists on Roy, which is one-way, directs traffic turning left to Lower Queen Anne, or turning right up Queen Anne Hill, or through to continue onto West Roy or West Queen Anne Drive Way.
The intersection is confusing and often congested. It doesn't help that Queen Anne Avenue is one way south of Roy Street but north of Roy, it's two way.
Two west-facing green arrows on that intersection signal allow right turns.
Cars take free left turns from Roy onto Queen Anne Avenue when the light is red — even though traffic is headed down the hill in their direction. Motorists not only will take free lefts from Roy's far-left lane, but also from the center lane. And motorists in Roy's far-right lane often take free right turns up the hill.
Is it illegal to take a free left from the far-left lane? What about free lefts or free rights from the middle lane?
A: Motorists headed west on Roy may turn left on a red light at Queen Anne Avenue North after stopping and checking for oncoming traffic, says Brian Kemper, acting director of traffic management for the Seattle Department of Transportation. That's considered a left turn from a one-way street to another one-way street.
From Roy Street's center lane, drivers are allowed to turn either left or right on a red light. But in both free turns drivers must first stop to allow approaching vehicles to pass through the intersection, and must also yield to pedestrians in crosswalks.
A free right turn up the counterbalance from Roy's far-right lane is also OK.
Drivers in either of the curb lanes on Roy Street are required to make their turn "as close as practicable to the left-hand or right-hand curb," Kemper said.
Motorists in Roy Street's center lane must turn into the second southbound or second northbound lanes, depending on the direction of their turn.
Of course, motorists continuing through the light must wait for it to turn green.
Q: Tom Rodda, who recently moved to the Maple Leaf neighborhood in northeast Seattle, says the area lacks a convenient freeway exit. If he takes the Lake City exit from northbound Interstate 5 to get home, he can either attempt to turn left onto 15th Avenue Northeast against frequently heavy traffic or stay on Lake City Way Northeast and end up in Lake City — not Maple Leaf. He can't turn north onto Roosevelt Way Northeast because it is one-way southbound at that point.
He's discovered another option, one his family and friends call "the Safeway Shuffle" — take a quick turn right at the end of the offramp, loop around the Safeway store onto Northeast 75th Street and then head north on Roosevelt, which has two-way traffic north of 75th.
Rodda wants to know why Roosevelt can't become two-way one block further south, where it meets the offramp. That, he said, would enable "Maple Leafers" to take a left onto Roosevelt from the Lake City exit, thus avoiding the Safeway Shuffle.
A: The problem with extending two-way traffic on Roosevelt another block south would be that Lake City Way merges with that section of Roosevelt, said Kemper, of the Seattle Department of Transportation.
"Converting Roosevelt Way Northeast into a two-way street would require the introduction of additional traffic control [a signal] at the intersection to allow northbound Roosevelt Way Northeast traffic to safely cross the southbound Lake City Way Northeast traffic, and vice versa."
A new signal there would be the third signal in a confined area, Kemper said, and that could result in undesirable signal operation.
Bumper update
Galer Street overpass revisited: Who said nobody would use the new $2.5 million pedestrian overpass over Aurora Avenue North that links the east slope of Queen Anne Hill with the Lake Union community?
Prodded by public curiosity, state Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald directed his staffers to take a head count on the bridge, which opened last month.
A department spokeswoman said that count was taken Wednesday between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. In all, 123 people used the overpass — 38 of them between 5 and 7 p.m. Most users told the counters they were headed to businesses along Lake Union.
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