By LEAH WEATHERSBY

Greenwood pedestrians woke up on Monday, April 8 to a surprise from the City's Transportation Department.

The previous day, with no prior notice to the community, City crews removed the heavily-used crosswalk at N. 85th Street and Palatine Avenue N.

For years, the crosswalk had served as the pedestrian link between parking on the north side of N. 85th and businesses on the south side of the busy arterial.

Despite the disappearance of the crosswalk, business owners whose stores overlook the intersection say that customers are still crossing at that corner.

While it may not be as safe, crossing at N. 85th and Palatine is still legal, as it is in any location where a sidewalk meets an intersection.

Marty Paulson, director of the Kumon Math & Reading Center at 129 N. 85th St., said that of the many families that patronize her business, few are willing to walk the extra two blocks - one block up to the nearest crosswalk and another down the other side of the street.

"People aren't changing their behavior," Paulson said. "It was very dangerous - now I believe it's more dangerous."

Gary Masters, owner of Greenwood Optical (133 N. 85th), agrees. "Almost everyone coming in has been outraged like we are. They're wondering what these guys were thinking," he said, referring to Seattle Transportation's decision to remove the crosswalk.

Peter Lagerwey, pedestrian and bicycle project coordinator for Seattle Transportation, provides the answer. He said the crosswalk had the highest pedestrian-car accident rate in the city - 10 accidents in the last eight years.

While many pedestrians assume that the presence of a crosswalk makes them safer, Lagerwey said its often a misperception, especially on four-lane roads like N. 85th Street where traffic moves at a high rate of speed. Often, he said, drivers don't see pedestrians coming from the other side of the street.

"People tend to get hit in the fourth lane," Lagerwey said. He added that Seattle

Transportation considered a number of ways to make the crosswalk safer, but decided in the end that the usual methods such as adding a traffic signal or reducing lanes would have caused major traffic backups.

Masters said the absence of the crosswalk has impacted his business, but he's more concerned about local senior citizens who may find it difficult to walk the extra distance to cross the street.

Several Greenwood merchants, including Masters, have been circulating a petition to restore the crosswalk, which Masters said already has over 500 signatures. He added that the crosswalk should be restored with a traffic signal, which he doesn't think will drastically impact the flow of traffic.

"We are concerned about the visibility of businesses," said Gerry Willhelm, director of Seattle Transportation's traffic management section. "But our primary concern was when we realized we could not find a way to make that intersection safer. We don't want elderly people or children believing that because there are markings out there it's safe."

Some Greenwood residents and merchants are also wondering why they weren't given prior notice of Seattle Transportation's plans to remove the crosswalk.

Lagerwey said the lack of communication was an anomaly, partly caused by the fact that Seattle Transportation doesn't remove many crosswalks and so doesn't have a public notification process in place.

"In retrospect, we would have notified folks," Lagerwey said.

"We didn't want to drag it out," said Willhelm. "We really thought it was a matter of time before someone else got hit."

Willhelm said Seattle Transportation plans to come back to the community with more data to explain "why a signal won't work there." He adds that slow traffic increases drivers' frustration levels, which could prompt more people to break traffic laws or use residential streets, making the neighborhood less safe. Willhelm, who is set to retire from Seattle Transportation in June, said that he remembers when the crosswalk first went in about 15 years ago - he said he wasn't convinced that it was safe back then.

For more information, call Peter Lagerwey of Seattle Transportation at 684-5108.