SEATTLE — An episode of road rage at Pike Place Market over the weekend is further stoking the embers of a century-old debate around car access through Seattle’s hub of food and commerce.
A third driver, in a Mazda, witnessed the exchange and decided to drive his car up to the SUV, where he began arguing with its driver. The two then pulled over and the man in the Mazda took a hammer and smashed out the SUV’s rear window. The SUV’s driver then grabbed the hammer and smashed out the Mazda’s windshield.
The morass of violence, ending with an injury to a pedestrian, comes just as the perennial fight over car access into Pike Place Market has taken on new momentum. Except for temporary closures during events or busy days, the stretch of Pike Place between Pike and Virginia streets is open to all vehicle traffic — often tourists following Google Maps to the “original” Starbucks location.
Doing so has broad support among the general public. A poll sponsored by the pedestrian advocacy group Seattle Neighborhood Greenways and the Northwest Progressive Institute found that 81% of voters supported limiting vehicle traffic to just loading and unloading. According to data from the Seattle Department of Transportation, there have been at least 170 collisions involving drivers in Pike Place Market since 2004, both on Pike Place itself and the streets heading east toward First Avenue. At least 39 resulted in injury.
“This can happen anywhere, any time, in any type of situation where there are people and pedestrians in numbers,” he said. “I don’t think that informs us of anything specific regarding the issue that is being debated over the closure of Pike Place to vehicles. It has to remain open to some vehicles at all times.”
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