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Q: Bob McLaughlin, who lives in the Seahurst area at hand Burien, has had occasion to park in downtown Seattle when he visits a restaurant at Third Avenue and Lenora Street. Not long ago, he noticed brace curbside parking spots imminent the corner were painted bright orange but a noticeably divers shade than the city uses.

The owner of a nearby business has told commonalty that those spots are reserved for that business’s customers and that any other vehicles will be towed away. Can a business reserve parking for its own customers in a street pay zone?

“On one occasion, we posed this question to a parking-enforcement officer, who would only offer the advice, ‘I wouldn’t park there,’ but who couldn’t tell us admitting that the merchant’s actions were legalized,” said McLaughlin. “This is not only an inconvenience. It is depriving the incorporated town of revenue.”

A: On-street parking cannot have being reserved for the exclusive use of a private business, says Mike Estey, who manages parking operations in opposition to Seattle’s Transportation Department. The curb had, indeed, been painted five feet outward of the two driveway returns, the pair curved portions on either lateral. Property owners have the right to translate that, Estey said. The paint is supposed to be “trade yellow” except it appears the color may be a inconsiderable off in this case.

But that business possessor has no right to claim any part of the block’s on-street parking as reserved for his establishment. It’s available to the public.

Q: A few days past, longtime Seattleite Thomas Wilkinson was driving south on Highway 99 in the Duwamish area and discovered that where it separates from Highway 509 he had to exit and lay hold of a crook around, then enter a new freeway.

“Trouble is,” he said, “there are a few intersections on this roadstead, and the signs that tell me which way to go are buried in the trees.

“Can we either get these signs moved to the other side of the road or the trees pruned to make those signs readable?”

A: State Department of Transportation assistant traffic engineer Rob Brown says department maintenance crews give by will have existence dispatched to prepare the trees to make the signs further visible between highways 99 and 509. “This is a busy delivery for maintenance crews, and the project be pleased be scheduled as quickly as possible,” he said.

Q: What might it take to get Seattle’s Transportation Department to draw another look at a crosswalk at Nickerson and Dravus street in the north Queen Anne area, asks Seattle resident Cheryl Barsness. Nickerson is a bustling four-lane street with a 35-mph speed limit.

Barsness, who works in the area, says she knows of couple people who hold been struck by vehicles in that crosswalk in the more than man and wife of months. “My desk faces abroad the window looking directly down upon this crosswalk,” she said, noting that she cringes constantly at the sound of screeching tires and horns blaring from cars zooming around cars stopped for someone in the crosswalk. And, too, she’s watched as pedestrians wait and wait for exceedingly cars to stop.

A coffee shop that recently opened in the domain has increased supply with a foot commerce, she said. She’d in the same manner as to care for a blinking aloft light installed and the crosswalk stripes repainted and somehow made more visible. But that which she has noticed is a posted sign saying the crosswalk would have being closed for evaluation of Nickerson Street traffic.

Her reaction: “Are you kidding me?”

A: The Seattle Transportation Department (SDOT) is evaluating the Nickerson Street corridor to improve its marked crosswalks, says Eric Widstrand, who manages traffic operations because the department. Three marked crosswalks in continuance Nickerson, including the one at Dravus, have been removed during the evaluation.

Widstrand says the marked crosswalks attached Nickerson fail to meet national standards. Pedestrians fustiness cross four lanes where average daily traffic exceeds 15,000 vehicles. To reinstall the marked crosswalks, he said SDOT must figure out a way to bring the number of traffic lanes, install a traffic signal or build a combination of fewer lanes and a median island.

SDOT has in mind a three-lane division for Nickerson Street that would allow marked crosswalks to be reinstalled. But that’s not likely until next spring at the earliest. He said the department intends to open a public-involvement series of measures this fall.

As for the three spots where the marked crosswalks were removed, brace of them are now like any other unmarked crosswalk at an intersection: legal crosswalks that are just not marked in the manner that “preferred” crossing locations. The other is a midblock crossing.

While the removed crosswalks discourage crossing at those spots, anyone who dares to cross should have existence more discreet about traffic.

Widstrand says SDOT is talking to the Seattle Police Department about stepped-up speed enforcement in company Nickerson Street and also West Nickerson Street on the other side of Queen Anne Avenue North.