|
West Seattle Walking Trails is a network of existing streets, sidewalks and staircases which connect north to south and east to west, river to sound and park to business district on the West Seattle Peninsula.
The trails system includes over 45 miles of connections linking Alki Beach, Admiral, Alaska Junction, Fairmount, Genesee, Delridge, Pigeon Point, Youngstown, Riverview, Highland Park, Seaview, Morgan Junction, Arbor Heights, Fauntleroy, High Point, Westwood, Gatewood, and White Center communities. Parks and beaches are connected with streets offering stunning views of the region.
The map on the left shows the trails and is interactive, showing different views as you click on it. The documents below are the results of over two years of work by volunteers and professional organizations representing all the neighborhoods mentioned above and including many local conservation, historic, and nature organizations, and several city, county and national parks and environmental agencies.
The project has produced a baseline set of trails. The next steps include working on the design and approach to the wayfinding stations. About a dozen and a half wayfinding stations have been identified - most of them in the obvious places such as Alaska Junction, the Statue of Liberty at Alki Beach, the entrance to Lincoln Park, Westwood Town Center, and so on. Also necessary is the individual assessment of each of the trails with respect to accessibility and safety so the various trail segments can be graded. The trails also need to be measured and timed to give a good sense of how long a particular journey might take. Street sign notations of the trails need to be considered. With over 45 miles of proposed trails, there are a great number of street locations where trail signs will be needed. The location of all these signs needs to be determined.
This project has been proposed to the members of the Pedestrian Master Plan Advisory Group as a potential project for the entire city. The work remaining will take additional funds and a great number of volunteer hours.
The expectation is that this trails network will continue to evolve and that some needed or required improvements in the pedestrian access network here in West Seattle and throughout the city will be an additional result of this trails project.
History of Project
The contents of this site presently consist of supporting documents for a project variously known as "Dells and Ridges," "West Seattle Walking Trails," and "Cross-Peninsula Trails." The project has a long history and is an evolutionary derivative of the Longfellow Creek Legacy Trail project as well as many, many other historic, existing and proposed trails projects in West Seattle.
The project aims to use existing resources as recommended through a two-year long interactive community program to connect the various neighborhoods, businesses, natural assets and recreational facilities, educational and institutional facilities, and two shorelines of the West Seattle Peninsula with a network of pedestrian accessible routes. These routes exist today but the knowledge of these routes by the community is missing. Additional goals of this project are to define and create: A signage system; wayfinding stations strategically located throughout West Seattle; and, free and widely-distributed pocket maps. Many of the routes recommended need work for one or another reason, but the discrepancy for one group can often be a value for others.
Equilibrium and equity have been consistent and pervasive goals and the project conducted neighborhood surveys for over a year. West Seattle is preeminently suited to walking since its geography creates such a varied landscape and the area is about 12 miles square, considered close to an ideal "range" turf for humans. The peninsula offers varied views from the full length of the Olympics and substantial sections of the Cascades, from Mt. Baker both at high level and at sea level to Mt. Rainier, from lush creek valleys to verdant hillsides and sandy beaches, from downtown to a close-up and personal view of shipping and ferry harbor traffic, from original-growth fir stands to a main street featuring a 75-year old ice cream deli.
The physical realm the Peninsula offers is equally vast and goes from tree-lined level flat and smooth to extreme vertical climbs in native forest. It's an ideal walking neighborhood and one of the project goals is to enable this knowledge so that the residents can engage their peninsula on foot using the most accomodating routes.
This project has been underway for two years now, beginning in the Fall/Winter of 2005. The neighborhood associations of West Seattle from both the Southwest District Council and the Delridge Neighborhoods Council have participated in the process and most of the recommendations for routes were provided by residents in each specific neighborhood. The third document below (Description of WS Walking Trails development and planning process) outlines the many kinds of cooperative and collaborative events which have taken place in West Seattle over the past two years and earlier. It's worth reading for the guidance it might provide others engaged in similar projects.
The process continues with various neighborhood associations submitting neighborhood matching fund grant applications. There are still a large number of things to be done including:
- Identifying the locations on streets for trails signs
- Identifying the deficiencies in various roads, staircases and sidewalks
- Measuring and gauging trail levels for different users
- Measuring and providing timing information from and to wayfinding stations or landmarks
- Developing both a West Seattle and a potential city-wide sign and wayfinding scheme
- Prioritizing the development of the many trails and assigning neighborhood association leads
- Working with other areas of the city to bring this project to a Seattle-wide and region-wide status
For more information on the project, or to volunteer for some of the development and wayfinding work contact Charles Redmond (Chas) at credmond@mac.com
The files located here are all PDF files. They can be downloaded and printed or used online. Some of the files, such as the "Bands of Green" and the UW Urban Planning & Design reports, and the map, are large files - on the order of several megabytes. They should download fast on a broadband connection and within a minute or so with slower connections.
A note about the maps!! The first map is a full peninsula map. Clicking on the image of the map will enable an 8 by 11 inch document size useful for printing at home. Clicking on the text link below the full peninsula map will enable the full-sized 36 by 51 inches - map to be viewed or downloaded. The three sectional maps are scaled for printing on 8 by 11 inch paper and are large enough to read the small street labels. You can also zoom in on any of the maps with Adobe Reader and print appropriate, enlarged, sections.
|
