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Ballard Ave Café Street refinements coming soon to support community gathering, business access, and comfortable travel 

by on September 4, 2024
People enjoy games of chess at an outdoor street café on Ballard Ave NW. Photo: SDOT

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At-a-glance: 

  • We are preparing to install the final phase of interim refinements on Ballard Ave NW. 
  • We will adjust the Ballard Ave Café Street striping to better distinguish between pedestrian space, parking and loading areas, and the travel lane. 
  • Crews will install these refinements on Saturday, September 7. 
  • The work is planned to be completed in one day and has been scheduled to minimize impacts to businesses and residents. Businesses will remain open during installation. 
  • You can visit our website to learn more about this work.  

Over the past few months, we’ve worked with local businesses and project partners to refine designs along Ballard Ave NW. This input helped us develop the design for the final phase of interim refinements of the street design, which includes: 

  • Maintaining pedestrian visibility and safety at intersections.  
  • Providing more support for freight/delivery and business access with adjustments to curbside spaces. 
  • Maintaining one northbound travel lane to help people get around the area. 
Horizontal map of a street in gray and white with orange and blue highlights running through the middle and transparent green dots along the map indicating trees. The orange areas signify where parking and loading zones will be located along Ballard Ave NW, and the blue areas show sidewalk cafes. Trees are shown along the two block section of the street in light green.
Map showing the locations of updated striping, curb bulbs, parking and loading areas (orange), and sidewalk cafes (blue) along Ballard Ave NW. Click to enlarge. Graphic: SDOT  

What you can expect during installation 

Work will take place on Saturday, September 7 and we expect to complete the striping in one day. During this time, we will temporarily restrict parking on these two blocks of Ballard Ave. We’ve scheduled this work to avoid disruptions to the Ballard Farmers Market and minimize travel impacts to the community. Please note: this work is weather-dependent and subject to change.  

One way street with gray pavement and white diagonal stripes contained in white parallel lines on the left of the street to indicate no car zone. A wooden fence and outdoor patio with people having drinks under it. The patio is in front of a dark maroon-red building. Trees line both sides of the street making a slight tree canopy.
People socializing at an outdoor café space along Ballard Ave NW. Photo: SDOT 

Next steps after installation 

After the striping work occurs, we’ll make a few more adjustments to the curbspace parking and loading areas. This includes converting some of the loading on the south side of the street back into parking spaces. We’ll also shift the placement of some planters and bollards near curb blurbs to ensure pedestrians remain protected in those spaces near intersections. 

Women in a black jacket with a black colored with a white polka dot shirt and black jeans and boots with a cross body purse holding a small stack of papers folded in half. It is late afternoon or early evening with an orange hue being casted on the street. A black Jeep waits at the stop line next to the crosswalk. In the background are four buildings in descending height order, with outdoor dining or cafe spaces in front. The building on the left is tallest. On the right side of the street are gray cement cylinder pots with plants inside. The pots have to reflective strips around them.
A person crosses the street on Ballard Ave NW near several outdoor cafés and planters. Photo: SDOT 

These interim changes are the final step in our iterative process for improving mobility and access on Ballard Ave NW. We will continue observing conditions and meeting with community members and businesses this fall to discuss the future permanent vision for Ballard Ave. 

This project is the result of our partnership with Councilmember Dan Strauss, the Ballard Alliance, and local businesses to continue to improve mobility and access for people walking, rolling, and biking, and support businesses on Ballard Ave NW between 20th Ave NW and 22nd Ave NW, also known as the Ballard Ave Café Street. 

Learn more 

To learn more, please visit our project website or contact us via email at BallardAve@seattle.gov. Thanks for your interest! 

Filed Under: Accessibility, Parking, Pedestrians, SDOT, Traffic and Construction, Travel Advisory Tagged With: , , , , , , ,