Residents urge faster action on Park Street and Meadowbrook speeding near schools

Residents from neighborhoods around Meadowbrook and Park Street pressed the Snoqualmie Public Safety Committee during public comment for faster measures to slow traffic near three nearby schools and parks.

The complaints came from multiple residents who described collisions, near-misses involving children and pets, and frequent high-speed traffic at the committee’s public comment period. “If the person driving the car had been driving a little slower, they probably would have been able to stop in time,” said Timothy Fiedler, a Meadowbrook resident, recounting a recent crash that totaled a vehicle. Residents asked for a mix of short-term enforcement and longer-term street redesigns, including speed cameras, flashing crosswalk lights, pedestrian islands and completed sidewalks.

The requests matter because the area is bounded by an elementary school, a middle school and a high school and is heavily used for parks and after-school activities, speakers said. “We are not only between three schools but we also are surrounded by Centennial Park,” said Fitzpatrick Jordan, who described seeing cars “fly down our road” near family gathering places. Multiple speakers reported vehicles leaving the roadway and one resident said their dog was hit and suffered a broken leg.

Residents suggested immediate steps — speed cameras, more police patrols, flashing crosswalk lights — and longer-term engineering solutions such as raised pedestrian islands and sidewalks. “I emailed about the rumble strips. I know it’s temporary, but didn’t work,” Nick Postiglione said of an earlier test. William Cleary urged caution about unintended traffic diversion, saying restrictive measures on Park Street could push high-school traffic onto smaller residential streets.

City staff and committee members described several operational responses they will test. City Administrator Chambliss said public works tested temporary rumble strips and will include “inverse rumble strips” — grooves ground into pavement that are designed to be plow-friendly — as part of this summer’s paving project. Chambliss also said installing flashing crosswalk lights near some sites would require a power source and can be a larger project, but that staff would test available equipment and configurations.

Sergeant Weiss reviewed state posting methods for school zones and described an operational step he can take immediately: “There’s three ways you can post school zones. When kids are present, with flashing lights, or with times,” he told the committee. Weiss said he can reprogram flashing school-zone lights to run from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. to see whether that reduces speeding in areas with frequent daytime pedestrian activity.

Committee members indicated support for focusing enforcement in the school zones and parks. Council Member Christiansen said she looks forward to traffic-camera information coming to the committee. Chair Rob Walton summarized the takeaways: coordinate school-zone timing, pursue short-term enforcement tools where feasible and advance longer-term capital improvements when funding and design work allow.

Discussion versus formal action: the meeting recorded no formal motions or votes on traffic changes. Committee directions recorded in the meeting included staff testing extended flashing-light timing at elementary school crossings and Public Works incorporating inverse rumble-strip treatments into the upcoming paving schedule. Long-term changes such as sidewalks and curb work were described as capital projects subject to grant funding and the city’s capital improvement timetable.

Residents who spoke at the meeting were thanked and encouraged to follow up; several committee members said staffing and budget constraints mean some fixes will take longer than others.

Looking ahead, the committee expects to review a formal proposal on speed cameras when staff bring it forward and will track the outcomes of the pavement and light-timing tests as part of future public-safety briefings.