The Mercer Island City Council will soon be making a decision on the plan for improvement of Island Crest Way. I am writing to express my support for the conversion of Island Crest into a three-lane corridor instead of the current four-lane configuration. Such a conversion will be clearly less expensive than other options, such as the installation of a new traffic signal at the intersection with Merrimount. The traffic volume can easily be handled, as has been shown at numerous other similar locations around Seattle. I recognize that this will cost me a few seconds of additional commute time every day, but I consider this a small price to pay.
My primary interest in this conversion has to do with safety. Not my own safety, of course — none of us wants to believe we will ever be injured in an accident! However, I am a father of four boys, who only too soon will be driving in that characteristic manner of teenage boys, resulting in marked increases in my auto insurance premiums. These premiums rise for a simple reason — statistically demonstrated increased accident rates for teenage male drivers. As a physician, I have had to deal with these impersonal statistics and their consequences far too often and in a very personal way.
My boys will be driving frequently over this stretch of road in the near future. Back and forth to school, back and forth to sports, dances, parties, the library — the number of trips they will make down this road in the next few years is almost beyond imagination. Every time they make this trip on a three-lane road, they will be safer. The number of accidents and severity of accidents occuring on a three-lane corridor compared to our current design of Island Crest Way will clearly be reduced. I want my children to be safer drivers, and one way I can do that is to give them safer roads! For me, a few extra seconds each day is a very small price to pay.
For my children, and for all the other up-and-coming drivers of our community, I urge you to support the conversion of Island Crest Way into a three-lane corridor. You can learn more about this topic at www.mercerislandabc.org.
Marc Lacrampe, M.D.
