Forest Street Crossing

RantWoman is trying. RantWoman really is trying. RantWoman is trying to give someone the benefit of the doubt about pedestrian pathways to and from the Mount Baker Station . RantWoman MAY be able to suppress comments such as "really bad batch of some street drug" or "mass alien abduction of all awareness of pedestrian issues." RantWoman may someday be able to go online somewhere and put in an order for a Mary Poppins umbrella, but RantWoman has no idea when to expect that.

Perhaps RantWoman should simply write what she has observed. (RantWoman apologizes if distant readers are bored by the detail and recommends Google maps for scenery options for entertainment value.)

RantWoman lives northeast of this station. There is another whole basket of gripes southbound but that deserves its own post. School will start soon and RantWoman expects some of those rants will get crash-tested as the school year gears up.

--RantWoman has been walking between the Mount Baker Station and her abode fairly frequently of late. RantWoman actually thinks hav ing longer walks between her public transit and her home could be good for her. It could either allow her to pretend to maintain her girlish figure a little better or at least allow her more ways to rationalize occasional consumption of real french fries with the skin on from Dick's Drive in Unfortunately, it could also fill RantWoman with that pioneering spirit and adrenalin rush of people who do not otherwise have enough adventure in their lives.

--RantWoman has the choice of two routes going south and basically one and a half going north. RantWoman can either go down the side of Martin Luther King that has sidewalk or do a route south on 25th Avenue South and then Rainier.

Southbound during the day, the walk along the W side of MLK is lovely. It's well-separated from traffic. The sidewalk is in decent shape. There are trees and shrubbery. There are three well-controlled intersections to deal with, no extra mangy driveways, well until RantWoman gets to the Forest St. Bus facility, about which more in a moment.

Northbound, RantWoman would never do this routing at night because there is literally nowhere with people present except the ones whizzing by in cars or lurking in the bushes. Southbound in daylight, RantWoman prefers this routing to routings from the other side of her building. Both 25th Ave. S and Rainier have a lot of driveways with big trucks, SUV's full of fast-food consumers, and heaven knows what all crossing the sidewalks at all angles. The ONLY plus of this routing is that the grade works better for people in wheelchairs.

Crossing Rainier at Bayview suits RantWoman better than at McClellan, possibly just because there are fewer directions cars come steadily from and also because there is no gnarly left-turn cycle, fewer people who want to floorboard their right turns after infinitesimally short stops, and not even as many buses who pull into the crosswalks. There are a lot of driveways this direction but fewer tree roots playing havoc with the sidewalk. This route is basically tolerable until one crosses McClellan but more on that in a moment.

--Item: The new Forest St. bus facility is open. That is, the orange barriers are gone and the traffic light across Rainier is working though there are no buses through there yet. RantWoman uses the word "facility" with extreme caution. It's basically a parking lot with a couple narrow, sidewalk-sized bus islands with iron rails on one side in the middle of the parking lot. There are driveways on both the Rainier and MLK sides of the place and as you can tell from RantWoman's comments above, this sort of arrangement excites RantWoman so very much! There are no bus shelters, no trash cans, no awnings, no trees, no shrubbery, NOTHING to remove the location from RantWoman's "Avoid like the Plague" list. RantWoman is especially peeved about this because this "facility" is supposed to replace a wonderful expansive, comfortable bus stop well separated from traffic on the N side of Rainier and McClellan. This "facility" is also supposed to be a key node in transfers between bus routes and Light Rail and is the terminus of several soon-to-be revised routes. When RantWoman is at her most low-key, she recommends just booking public meetings about the place as standup comedy; that would make more sense than trying to pretend the place is anything more serious than a project that suddenly ran out of oomph at a really key juncture.

--Next consider Forest St. itself and the Forest St crossing at Rainier. RantWoman had gotten spoiled by the row of orange traffic barriers across Forest St. along Rainier. For a time when RantWoman got off the train, she could simply walk under the tracks, cross Forest St, and spend a few more seconds in relative quiet before venturing into the land of tire stores, lawn mower rental options, and the world's trashiest extra narrow bus stop alongside the din of a busy street. (RantWoman is all for tire repair and lawn mower rental; she is NOT for traffic problems.) This week RantWoman noticed that the traffic barriers are gone and the traffic signal is working so one can cross Rainier at Forest St. RantWoman imagines this is supposed to be good news. RantWoman notes that Forest St. is by far not the only problem.

--Item: The other day RantWoman, Thwack and Travelling Buddy who probably really does need some flags for her wheelchair were busy going south between McClellan on our way to a Light Rail expedition. There was a bus pulling away from the bus stop and RantWoman thinks some car trying to turn left off Rainier into one of the driveways. RantWoman has a sense of being very lucky the car driver saw her party. RantWoman is still not charmed and is filing the experience in her shockingly large basket of gripes and grumbles about the Mount Baker Station especially since she sees no way anything about the Forest St. Bus facility is going to help.

--As if the situation on dry sunny days were not bad enough, RantWoman notes all the signs of shifting seasons, receding daylight and impending onset of the season of slop and muck. In RantWoman's ever febrile fantasy life, she would so like to be able to walk out the north end of the light rail station, to go straight toward the stores instead of some impossible zigzag route, and to trundle along sheltered by the buildings and skip all the opportunities to walk along Rainier getting splashed with traffic slop and flashed with car headlights. But perhaps for now RantWoman will simply stop and go play in the sunshine before it runs out for the year.