READER REPORT: Fauntleroy kids beg drivers to slow down

Speaking of protests … Jason sent photos and info about this street-side advocacy action that local kids in Fauntleroy did this afternoon:

Cool to see: a child-driven protest against to-fast drivers on 45th between Concord and Henderson. It’s been a problem here since the bridge closure made people use this route as a shortcut.

According to one of the kids (Lola, holding the sign):

“We hope to get drivers to drive slower and pay more attention to kids who cross back and forth. In the past we’ve seen teenagers driving way over the speed limit and not letting us cross first. We started yesterday at a block party while we were pretending to be police officers and saw cars driving too fast. We pulled the ‘20 is plenty’ signs from the ground and waved them in the air. It seemed to work — people were slowing down, waving, smiling and happily honking. So we thought we do it again today.

“When we yelled ‘20 is plenty’ some people rolled down their windows and yelled ten is plenty! We made paper signs saying ‘20 is plenty’ and had a petition sheet for people to sign if they agreed with us.

“I feel like some of the cars might have listened and acknowledged that there were kids who need to cross the street while others ignored us and kept driving like 30 mph over the speed bump. We hope that we can keep doing this until everyone slows down. Today we set up on the side of the road on a speed bump hoping that cars would see us and slow down. We also have some requests that the speed bumps could be a little bigger, and we need a painted crosswalk and another roundabout.”

The Fauntleroy Community Association has long agitated for more SDOT attention there and elsewhere. That section of 45th has a big project in the works to the north – the culvert replacement, which FCA and Seattle Public Utilities will update at 6 pm Tuesday at The Hall @ Fauntleroy (9131 California SW).

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