Residents urge action after pedestrian killed at Cole and Stevenson intersection

Residents urged the Enumclaw City Council on June 22 to move faster on pedestrian safety at the Cole and Stevenson intersection after a January crash that a speaker said led to a death.

At the meeting, a resident asked for an update on "how we're moving forward on the Stevenson Coal area" and requested pedestrian funding and interim safety measures. Another resident, identified in the transcript as John, described repeated near-misses and called for lights, signage and speed enforcement, saying, "Before we have more deaths, we don't need that." Nora Tackenboge, a city resident, said she hoped "Eileen's death wasn't in vain," and asked the council to consider low-cost flags or other visibility measures.

Longtime resident Cindy Proctor outlined broader neighborhood concerns at Rilla Lane and Melody Lane, citing frequent drivers running stop signs, out-of-date ADA ramps that push pedestrians into roadways, increased cut-through traffic after Cole Street closures, and safety risks near a bus stop and trailhead. "It's only a matter of time before there's another liability there," Proctor said, and she urged the council to reconsider lower-cost traffic-calming options and drop-off solutions near the library.

Council members did not vote on any new traffic-calming measures during the meeting; public comments were recorded during the audience comment period and referred to staff and committee review. Speakers asked for both short-term interventions (hand-held pedestrian flags and temporary signage) and longer-term engineering changes and enforcement data collection.

The council's public safety report earlier in the meeting noted plans for an enforcement and education push related to e-bikes and said block-camera operation was expected by mid-July; no explicit timeline for the intersection improvements was provided at the June 22 meeting.