The Seattle Department of Transportation has an online form that allows you to easily report issues that you may come across while walking in the city.
For example, you can report an uneven sidewalk and SDOT will examine the issue within days and then schedule the sidewalk for repair. This most likely means one sidewalk tile will be shaved so that it’s not a trip hazard or that a patch of asphalt will be installed to smooth the sidewalk.
Or, if there is a signal that isn’t timed right, submit a request and the traffic department will install equipment to monitor the intersection. This process takes a couple months for them to install the equipment, gather data on the usage patterns of the signal, and then analyze the data and determine what action to take. From there, it can take another month for any changes will be made to the intersection.
A fair warning, for a signal to be deserving of an automatic pedestrian crosswalk, SDOT’s standards may be higher than yours. Though some urban intersections have frequent pedestrian traffic during most hours, SDOT’s policy seems to require that push-button signals be used in most cases. Still, it may be worth submitting the request to have them study it.
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