SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. – People living in one South Hill neighborhood are expressing their safety concerns regarding the crosswalk at the intersection of 57th Avenue and Crestline.
Here is the map showing the intersection in question. Several families in the area say it is a very busy intersection that is unsafe for kids to walk to school.
That’s why last school year Spokane Public Schools (SPS) requested a pedestrian-activated flashing beacon at that intersection from the county, and why the county then requested a grant from the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to fund the project.
The county says they are expecting a response to that grant by the end of November 2024, and if it is approved, they will likely start work next year.
But, in the meantime school started back up this week for SPS and some parents are still avoiding the intersection. Nonstop Local spoke with one Peperzak parent who says having a crossing guard with a vest and a sign walking the intersection is a good thing, but it is not a solution.
Courtney Schwind (Peperzak parent) says she does not feel it is safe.
“I don’t know who would choose to take this route with how bad it is,” said Schwind. “Maybe they don’t know it’s that bad…”
Schwind credits the drivers for the danger. She’s lived in the area for several years and she says it’s a combination of distracted driving and people speeding, along with heavy influxes of traffic that makes this intersection unsafe.
Nonstop Local also spoke with a crossing guard who expressed concerns about the intersection.
Kristi Zentz works the 57th / crestline intersection for large parts of the school year. She says she sees drivers all the time who go way too fast through the intersection, many distracted, and just last year she almost got hit by one of them.
“I had one car whizz right through the intersection,” said Zentz. “I wasn’t close to her which was good and there were no kids but that’s a problem…”
Zentz said the driver was so distracted that she never looked up to know that she had almost hit somebody.
Zentz said she and parents want to see a roundabout added to the intersection. She says a pedestrian-activated crossing light would be good, but distracted drivers still would not see it, whereas a roundabout would make them slow down.
Schwind says she would be all for a roundabout if people knew how to use them.
As for SPS, they added bus routes for families ¼ of a mile closer to schools this year than last, going from a 1.5-mile radius away to just 1.25 miles away now. They are hoping that the funding gets approved for these new crosswalk lights.
