There was a tragic accident in Kenmore this week. I heard on the news that fault has not yet been determined. I presume that committees of experts will determine fault in due time. I doubt the analysis will go much like this:

This conditions leading to this accident were engineered by committees of experts. The intersection at 73^rd and Bothell Way has one of those 12 seconds green / 3 minutes red lights that make perfect sense  in a spreadsheet called “hourly vehicle capacity”.  In the real world, these things lead to a lot of dangerous driving behavior.

Sadly, I suspect that this light isn’t very good from a capacity perspective since 10 of the 12 seconds is used getting the flow started. Perhaps the spreadsheet needed an “average speed during green” row, which would have said ½ mph.

I moved into the into the slightly sleepy, friendly, open and natural neighborhood of Kenmore 12 years ago. Immediately after the move, I read that Kenmore had been designated as “high growth”, or some such thing, by a committee of experts. Frankly, I don’t know what the “Growth Management Act” is. I presume it is the result of committees of experts who make trade offs for the common good.

I do know that over the last 12 years, the air quality has become poorer and most of the trees have become apartments. The roads have not changed in the sense of being improved. They are perpetually being dug  up.

The accident involved a fatal mix of heavy construction equipment, very dense traffic, one or more bad drivers, pedestrians and a  short light. Exactly the situation created committees of experts.

A few years ago, when the number of light changes I had to wait through, and the number of cars turning illegally on red grew from 1 to 4, I presumed that the Kenmore Police, who have an office within eyesight of the intersection, would  grow tired of waiting, and then influence the appropriate committees of experts to get it resolved.

They take a shortcut through the Park and Ride so as to avoid the intersection entirely.

The common good works in mysterious ways.

Mike.